FingersofFish

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Hi all,
 
Have a few questions to ask regarding ferts etc. etc.
 
As people who have read my posts before will know, i'm in the middle of a plant-in cycle, 70L tank.. looking to create a fairly heavily planted community aquarium. Lights are LEDs equivalent to 6 w/L and are on 7/8 hours daily.
 
As of the past couple of days, quite a few problems have arisen within my tank, Aggh! and as I'm inexperienced I don't really know what to do.
 
My plants appear to be dying/going brown and i'm pretty sure this will be due to lack of carbon/ferts. Also, I'm starting to get hair algae growth on mopani wood and some plants, along with diatoms covering pretty much everything in the tank! to add to my pain, i got home yesterday to find snails all over the glass, 3 to start with, removed 3, found more this morning.
 
So need a little help, Firstly I understand once a tank has snails it's impossible or near impossible to eradicate them, so what is the best way to control the population. Lettuce a few nights a weak and remove? Assassin snails
 
Secondly, I'm planning to use estimative index for ferts, but figure this will just give me more algae unless i sort the carbon levels out. What would be the best way of doing this on a budget? I currently have JBL Bio80 yeast based system but I don't think it's supplying sufficient carbon given the algae growth and plant death. 
 
If anyone could give a me a list of things to look into, essential things to buy to ensure plant growth i'd be grateful. 
 
FingersofFish said:
Hi all,
 
Have a few questions to ask regarding ferts etc. etc.
 
As people who have read my posts before will know, i'm in the middle of a plant-in cycle, 70L tank.. looking to create a fairly heavily planted community aquarium. Lights are LEDs equivalent to 6 w/L and are on 7/8 hours daily.
 
As of the past couple of days, quite a few problems have arisen within my tank, Aggh! and as I'm inexperienced I don't really know what to do.
 
My plants appear to be dying/going brown and i'm pretty sure this will be due to lack of carbon/ferts. Also, I'm starting to get hair algae growth on mopani wood and some plants, along with diatoms covering pretty much everything in the tank! to add to my pain, i got home yesterday to find snails all over the glass, 3 to start with, removed 3, found more this morning.
 
So need a little help, Firstly I understand once a tank has snails it's impossible or near impossible to eradicate them, so what is the best way to control the population. Lettuce a few nights a weak and remove? Assassin snails
 
Secondly, I'm planning to use estimative index for ferts, but figure this will just give me more algae unless i sort the carbon levels out. What would be the best way of doing this on a budget? I currently have JBL Bio80 yeast based system but I don't think it's supplying sufficient carbon given the algae growth and plant death. 
 
If anyone could give a me a list of things to look into, essential things to buy to ensure plant growth i'd be grateful. 
I was in a similar situation to you a few weeks ago. I have a heavily planted 29Gal (109 liter) that just completed it's fishless cycle.
 
I lost 2 of my amazon swords (purchased from eBay, came sort of off colored to begin with) My other swords looked terrible and lost most of their leaves but have now begun to regrow new ones.
 
During this entire process my anubias were thriving. The other plants lost some of their color and some even melted but now are all recovering,
 
I also got bladder snails in my tank from some plants and they were consuming all the dead plant matter in my tank that I wasn't able to remove (yay) but have been breeding like crazy (boo!) I ordered some Assassin snails & removed about 10 (out of 25 or so i've counted so far) snails and it seems that the assassins are keeping their population in check. I'm okay with keeping some of the bladder snails because they do clean the tank up nicely and don't seem to be making any significant changes in my bioload. 
 
I've been using a Fluval Pressurized 88g-CO2 Kit in my tank for plant growth along with every other day small doses of Seachem Flourish Excel. I'm also using Eco-Complete Black Substrate. (Not cory cat friendly) 
 
The Fluval is a nice convenient system but can quickly become expensive due to the monthly cartridge replacements (One of the wholesellers where my company purchases computer parts from also sells some Aquarium supplies so I am able to get the cartridges at a fair discount). Before this I was using the DYI yeast/sugar system and it was working 'OK.'
 
I would wait until your cycle completes before adding the snails (they're a little on the sensitive side)
 
If your worried about a population bloom of bladder snails I would start removing them manually or using some of the tricks found here: http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/432170-snail-pest-control/
 
Hopefully some of my post was useful to you, I'm still pretty new at this too!
 
Thanks for the ideas, have read that article and found it very helpful.
 
Due to money have decided to go with Easy-Carbo (seems fairly cost effective for a 70L even dosing daily) compared with the gas system i currently am having little success with and although not as good as gas it should do the trick! have ordered a circulation pump to ensure circulation around all my rocks and wood and to the foreground/background plants aswell.
 
Am going to do Estimative Index with 50% water changes weekly Potassium Nitrate, Potasium Phosphate and Seachem Flourish Trace Mix dosed 3x weekly.
 
Once cycle is complete will be looking into assasin snails to manage the ever increasing snail population, until then its a piece of lettuce or cucumber!
 
Am hoping that this method will promote good plant growth, for the meantime i've reduced lighting to 5hours per day to try and eliminate the hair algae.
 
Ciddre, why are you changing your cartridges monthly, you will be getting rid of any good bacteria you have built up. Maybe wash the cartridge in old tank water and keep them to keep your tank cycled
 
LilyRose Tank said:
Ciddre, why are you changing your cartridges monthly, you will be getting rid of any good bacteria you have built up. Maybe wash the cartridge in old tank water and keep them to keep your tank cycled
Co2 cartridges ;)
 

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