Help With My First Planted Tank

[Xperiment]

Hi All,

After plenty of reading I have setup a planted tank which has been running for 6 weeks now.
The equipment I have seems to me to be adequate (maybe more lighting needed) and the plants I have are very basic.
I have the following:

Equipment -----
125L Fluval Roma
Fruval 205 Filter - Foam/BioMax/Amonia Remover/BioMax/BioMax/Polishing Pad
Fruval 150W & 50W Heater
3D Background
Standard Lighting - 2x20W (Aquaglo & Powerglo)
Nutrafin CO2 - 2 x Canisters to 1 Ladder
TetraPlant Complete Substrate - 5.8kg
Dosing - API Leaf Zone
3mm Aquarium Gravel - 20mm Deep
Slate Rocks

Plants -----
Java Fern
Amazon Sword
Elodea Densa
Flame Moss (2"square - only added a couple of days ago)

PH - 7.6
Temp - 26'C
CO2 - Once I get a hardness test kit I can give the PPM, however 1 bubble enters the ladder once every second and almost fully dissolves by the time it gets to the top.

I have had great success with the Elodea Densa which is bright green and growing at approx 1 - 2 inches per day and spouting new growth up its entire length. Allowing me to take plenty of cuttings to spread the coverage.

However the Java fern and Amazon Sword are turning brown and green slime algae is taking over them and all the flat surfaces including the background.
The Java Fern also has roots growing along the length of every leaf and new leaves growing above them, I know this is normal but am not really sure what to do with them - They look a little messy.

My questions are:

- What could be causing the brown patches on the leaves and the excessive green slime algae
- Am I going wrong with any of the equipment I am using
- How would I go about up grading the lighting for the tank, I assume the powerpack for the lights would be rated at 2x20W which should not be exceeded.

Apologies for the long essay of a post but I am really keen to get this right so I can get some confidence to move onto some more impressive plants.
Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[SuperColey1]

Answering your points one by one:

Tank - Same as mine (mine is the old version Duo Deep 125ltr)
Filter - Underpowered. You could do with 1250lph (10x) for planted and yours is 680lph. 1 x powerhead could be the answer.
Heater - Why 2 heater? The 150 is enough
Nutrafin - You could struggle here but worth a go. Your tank is very much at the extreme high end of the capabilities of yeast setups. Make sure you use the recipe in the pinned article and not the sachets as they are useless. Change weekly one on wednesday one on saturday (or days you choose but overlap them)

Forget the hardness kit. It won't be accurate enough so will be a waste of money. Get a drop checker, 4dKH solution and some bromo blue (AP normal range Ph test kit) This will give you what is called a permanent CO2 test and an instant visual indicator of your CO2 levels. The Ph/KH charts are unusable as they do not take into account any other variables within the water that can alter Ph.

Green slime algae is actually Blue Green Algae which is actually not algae it is Cyanobacteria. This is likely to be caused by a few problems. Poor circulation (your underpowered filter) low nitrates (API leafzone) and/or dirty substrate / filter.

It is a theory believed by a few of us but Java Ferns often tend to grow plantlets when they are in trouble.

So to your questions:
1 - The brown patches on the leaves may be low CO2, poor ferts and low circulation. I would get a better fert like Tropica Plant Nutrition plus, add a powerhead and get the drop checker so you can see your CO2 levels.

2 - You're not going wrong with the equipment you are using. some (like the filter) could be upgraded at a later date but a powerhead is a quick cheap option in the meantime (£15ish)

3 - 40W is plenty for the plants you have and for many more. You have approx 1.3WPG which is more than a lot of us have used to grow full plants (The pic in the left of my signature is 0.6WPG)

If you do decide to go higher with the lights make sure you have sorted out your current problems before adding a further addition. More lighting means harder to keep up CO2, needs more ferts, needs great circulation and algae grows faster the more light you have if you aren't geting it right. Cure your present setup and then make the decision.

Final point - Add your location (county / state) so people know wher you are and what is available. I am having to assume you are in the UK and some items are unavailable in the US and vice versa for Europe!!!

Good Luck

AC

 

[Xperiment]

SuperColey1 - Thanks for the super quick reply.

I have the output of the filter pointing across the back of the tank to give maximum circulation, but looking at the tank now there is very little movement around the bottom so I will try a power-head. Also there is almost no Cyanobacteria in the area surrounding the intake for the filter.

I have 2 x heaters, at opposite ends as our house gets very chilly this time of year (sash windows being what they are) and having the two seems to keep the temp more constant.

The pinned CO2 recipe was very useful, as the sachets are indeed useless - I currently change the canisters alternately as you mentioned once a week. It will be interesting to get the drop checker and find out what the CO2 level actually is.

Its nice to know the lighting is sufficient - Would have been a tad pricey to up the wattage.
I have the lights on a timer each day, 0700-0800 / 1100-1400 / 1530-1030 - Total 9 hours

With regards to the ferts, which brands would you recommend as they all promise good results but is difficult to tell which ones will be any good. Also would I need to exceed the dose stated on the product or is this for more well stocked tanks.

Again many thanks for your reply - it has been a great help.

 

[SuperColey1]

Picture would give you better answers really but:

Cyno not under filter says to me that it is because that area is clean because of it's proximity to the intake. MEANS that you could have too much detritus on your substrate or that circulation is poor so not all the rubbish is getting as far as the intake or both.

You could do with getting a gang valve from pets at home for £1.25 which would replace the T piece you are using on the 2 bottles. This enables you to close the one you are taking off an keep the pressure up on the other one / keep air from getting into the other one. Then reopen after.

The lighting is sufficient but your photoperiod isn't. Try to do 2 runs of 4 or more. 1 of 4 1 of 5 is OK.

Tropica Plant Nutrition plus is the best available in the UK at either aquaessentials.co.uk or thegreenmachineaquatics.com

Make sure you get the plus and not the normal as the normal is for using as trace. When I ran with similar lights and setup as you I dosed 2ml daily not the lower weekly dose that is recommended on the bottle.

With off the shelf ferts ignore comments on the bottle or by other people who say that you should dose less if you have high fishload. The waste from fish/excess food is minimal so it needs supplementing plus it is the trigger for algae when things go wrong. It is better to get the circulation up to remove the organic waste and distribute the inorganic waste.

AC