How Can I Improve

[chrisjd]

Hi

I’m looking for advice on how to improve plant growth/reduce algae in my 95 litre tank. I‘ve recently upgraded my lighting from a single 20watt T8 bulb to a single grobeam. Overall I’m happy with the amount of light the grobeam gives out (definitely brighter) and most of the plants are doing better, but some aren’t and I have growing amounts what I think is BBA and GSA. I also have the following problems with my plants:
- My crypt wendetti’s larger leavers are going yellow to brown to dead. They always were but I was hoping increasing the light would improve it
- My Limnophila sessiliflora are growing well at top but dying at the bottom (they don’t get much light at the bottom). One plant was growing fine at the top and then the stem rotted away half way down. It’s now growing again from where the stem rotted, but isn’t looking to healthy.
- My large Anubias is covered in algae. The newest leaf is very small and has black edges and a black stem.

I also have Java Moss, Java Fern, Pogostemon Helferi, an Anubias nana and lots of various kinds of crypts which are all fine but growing slowly.

Also I’m constantly struggling to keep my Nitrate Levels down, doing 20% water changes every 3 days, and special blend (which is supposed to contain nitrate eating bacteria). I only have 5 tetra and 5 pygmy cory in the tank so I don’t see how they could be producing so much nitrate and why the plants aren't using it. My water is also quite cloudy.

I’m currently dosing with JBL Ferrepol, Ferrepol 24 and Easy Carbo. I was dosing double Ferropol but I tested the Iron and It was off the scale (only went up to 1.5) so now I’m dosing a half dose. I’m dosing the recommended amount of Ferropol 24 (2 drops) and Easy Carbo (2ml/day). I’m also using Phosex Ultra in my filter to reduce the phosphate levels, as recommended by my LFS.

My current water parameters are:
Nitrate 40ppm
Ammonia and Nitrite 0ppm
Phosphate 0pmm
Iron >1.5ppm

My Tap water has around 20ppm Nitrate and 1.4pmm Phosphate.

Is there anything I can do to combat algae, increase plant growth? Is there maybe something that JBL ferropol is missing, I think maybe it doesn’t contain much Potassium and I should add this separately. Would increasing the dose of easy carbo help, or do I need more light? Or is algae and unhealthy plants just a fact of life with a low tech tank?

 

[SO19Firearms]

Only had a quick read - But the best strategy IMO is identify your algae - Here and start to build up a battle plan.
The stand out points are your Phosphate is too low and I'd wager the available Nitrate is a problem for the plants while you're trying to rob them off it.

Good flow, Not too much light, plenty of Nitrate, Plenty of Phosphate and keep up with the carbon.

IMO

 

[chrisjd]

Thanks for your reply

Looking at your link has confirmed that I have BBA and GSA I think, as well as GDA and Hair algae.

Based on your post, I’m guessing I should definitely remove my Phosphate remover? It’s something I’ve been considering but I’ve had contradictory advice from my LFS and also read online that Phosphate should be the limiting factor if you want to reduce algae.

Regarding the nitrates I admit it seems stupid to be trying to remove nitrates when the plants need them, but they hit 80ppm at one point and I was worried it would be harming the fish. They’ve never got lower than 20ppm as far as I know, so I don’t think the plants were starved.

I will stick with the Liquid Carbon, probably increase it slightly.

Regarding flow – what should I be aiming for? My filter supposedly has a rate of 480 litres/hour but I don’t really believe it, it seems to get very slow when I go even a few days without cleaning it. Should I think about adding an extra pump, if so can you recommend any that are small/not too ugly and would suck up small fish or anything? I also have an airstone, does that help at all with regards to flow?

 

[SO19Firearms]

Thanks for your reply

Looking at your link has confirmed that I have BBA and GSA I think, as well as GDA and Hair algae.

Based on your post, I’m guessing I should definitely remove my Phosphate remover? It’s something I’ve been considering but I’ve had contradictory advice from my LFS and also read online that Phosphate should be the limiting factor if you want to reduce algae.

I wouldn't keep it in, but there's an argument that if you're adding Phosphate via inorganic means (ie Fertiliser) it won't do any harm. Your LFS is wrong, what you read was wrong - Well again it's slightly more complicated than that, but you have a planted tank - So they're wrong.

Regarding the nitrates I admit it seems stupid to be trying to remove nitrates when the plants need them, but they hit 80ppm at one point and I was worried it would be harming the fish. They’ve never got lower than 20ppm as far as I know, so I don’t think the plants were starved.

Don't be. Do your water changes to keep everything happy, but don't blame the Nitrate.

I will stick with the Liquid Carbon, probably increase it slightly.

Regarding flow – what should I be aiming for? My filter supposedly has a rate of 480 litres/hour but I don’t really believe it, it seems to get very slow when I go even a few days without cleaning it. Should I think about adding an extra pump, if so can you recommend any that are small/not too ugly and would suck up small fish or anything? I also have an airstone, does that help at all with regards to flow?

x10 turnover of the tank per hour is a figure to aim for. Power heads and Wavemaker jobs can make up that figure. Korelia(sp?) is a brand I see recommended.
I'd also say lose the airstone as it will get rid of any natural CO[sub]2[/sub] from your water changes - Just ripple the surface with your flow

Don't rely on test kits to give you figures, they'll be wrong - add what you need via ferts and then you know what amounts are really in the tank.

IMO

 

[chrisjd]

Thanks again. But I'm not sure about what you said here:

Don't rely on test kits to give you figures, they'll be wrong - add what you need via ferts and then you know what amounts are really in the tank.

What about the waste products from my fish, and what is in my tap water in the first place? Given I have a low light, no co2 set-up I am skeptical that I should be adding any Nitrates or Phosphates outside of feeding fish.

 

[SO19Firearms]

Given I have a low light, no co2 set-up I am skeptical that I should be adding any Nitrates or Phosphates outside of feeding fish.

You can try that route. You are adding carbon tho, so IMO that puts you high tech.
Have a good read around the articles on here about Nitrates and phosphates etc. Test kits (particularly Nitrate) are just a good way to make you spend cash and ultimately scare you in to doing water changes. This leaves us in the position that adding Nitrates is bad which isn't true. The path to the Nitrate reading is bad - The oxygen theft converting NO[sub]2[/sub] to NO[sub]3[/sub] is bad (You skip that if you add the Nitrate by the way...)

 

[daz4321]

going that you have ill plants and algae AND a phosphate test reading of zero(unreliable) that IMO is a good place to start, using the previous, obviously your water changes do not supply enough phosphate so you are going to need to add some. When you add a source of carbon you increase the need for the other plant 'foods' nitrate and phosphate which is why we have to supplement them. For a relatively algae free planted aquarium light should always be the limiting factor, in other words we should have more of everything else a plant needs in excess of the amount of light requires the plant to have.

 

[max1e]

for better flow i use one of these

 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3W-Aquarium-Marine-Mini-Waver-Wave-Maker-Vibration-Pump-2000lph-Fish-Tank-220V-/221043058947?_trksid=p3284.m263&_trkparms=algo%3DSIC%26its%3DI%26itu%3DUCI%252BIA%252BUA%252BFICS%252BUFI%26otn%3D21%26pmod%3D280583685442%26ps%3D54

i turn it off when the lights go off

 

[chrisjd]

Hi

I Thought I should update and let everyone no what's going on. I tested my water this morning and nitrates are down to zero. So yeah I agree my plants must be lacking in nutrients. The algae are still growing which is the opposite of what I was expecting/had been lead to belive would happen. I've found a Koralia pump which gives me the 10x flow I need and ordered so dry salts online to start dosing macro nutrients - I think I'm going to mix them all up worth water and dose daily rather than try and dose 3/16 of a teaspoon or whatever. Thanks for all the help, sorry if I came off as argumentative just there is a lot of contradictory advice out there so it's hard to know what the right thing to do is.

Edit: Anyone know of a good place to get the stuff I need cheaply? I was about to order it from here but the site's gone down.

Edit 2: Never mind, sites back up have ordered some.