Si's Low Tech Tank Journal

[JoshuaA]

My Easycarbo killed most the algae in my tank however it also melted my crypt , I have one lone crypt that was put in this tank because I didn't have room for it in my smaller tank. I haven't seen anything of it for the past few months because it's behind my amazon swords and the other day all of a sudden it had grown like 4 18" leaves in a space of a week and then it's gone and melted . I guess that's down to the easycarbo as its the only thing that has changed.

Surprisingly I have vallis which is spreading like wildfire but won't grow any more than 3/4 cm of the substrate but it doesnt seem to be melting from Easycarbo OD'ing.

 

[PDSimon]

Vallis never grew in my tank... and my crypts look permanenly melted they always look sad.

 

[PDSimon]

The algae invasion seems to have some what leveled out but it is still a problem as its not decreasing.

Heres a pic

This shows the algae problem off a bit more

 

[PDSimon]

Why do biofilms appear in my tank 2 days after a waterchange. Even if I turn the surface into a rapid like river it still stays!!

 

[Carlovel1]

Why not add an air pump to the tank. It stopped that oily thing you are describing from forming.

 

[ian]

there are various schools of thought about this Si, some of the plant experts think it's due to the over release of sugars, which in turn release into this bio film. It happens a lot in C02 injected tanks. Have you scooped it off with a bucket?

BTW the scape looks really good.

 

[PDSimon]

Well as long as its not uncommon... It must restrict the drop checker somewhat too... It comes off when I do my weekly waterchange it just comes on a bit too quickly for me to scoop it off every other day!

Thanks Ian

Why not add an air pump to the tank. It stopped that oily thing you are describing from forming.

Air pump and co2 would counteract each other unfortunately!

 

[PDSimon]

I can't seem to get this algae under control

 

[JoshuaA]

I can't seem to get this algae under control

What dosage of EasyCarbo are you doing? I went to the maximum and then slowly went over that to around 1.5. If I were you the best way to do it is to do a massive water change but don't top the water back up so soon, drop the level of the water to the average plant height or at least where most of the algae is bad and then use a mister or sprayer to spray the plant leaves/algae directly with Easycarbo, give it a few minutes and then fill back up as usual. You've applied your dose of Easycarbo but directly to where it is needed. I found all of my Staghorn was pink by the end of the night and I found I actually had some BBA to my amazement but that pretty much all died from Easycarbo too!

Edit: Corrected some horrific spelling mistakes and I know Aldi are selling misters for around 87p or something.

 

[PDSimon]

5.25ml i think

Hmmmmm... Might be worth a try. I never notice spelling mistakes lol. People could write lkie tihs and I wludon't ntocie!

 

[JoshuaA]

5.25ml i think

Hmmmmm... Might be worth a try. I never notice spelling mistakes lol. People could write lkie tihs and I wludon't ntocie!

Yeh as long as the first and last letter are in the right place weirdly our brains automatically decipher it without even me consciously thinking about it.... interesting.

I would bump it up a little I dose 5ml on my 125ml every day and I dosed around 6/7 when there was an algae break out but that dosing was done with a sprayer then refilled. Just beware my crypts melted within a day or two, they had just grown absolutely massive as well and then I had melted them with over dosing easy carbo. It was weird...

 

[PDSimon]

I stopped dosing easlife range and started dosing TPN+... and now the biofilm isn't appearing, or atleast no where near as much! Could it have been from under/over dosing phosphates?

 

[JoshuaA]

I stopped dosing easlife range and started dosing TPN+... and now the biofilm isn't appearing, or atleast no where near as much! Could it have been from under/over dosing phosphates?

What Biofilm are you referring to, a thick green sludge layer or a thin shimmering silvery layer? I've suffered from both but both were easily solved, I only just found out the thin silvery layer is apparently bacteria and I always thought it was protein/oils.

Not sure why it would of suddenly stopped from changing dosage though.

 

[PDSimon]

Well it looks more like the silver shimmering layer, but if you put a powerhead to it, it only leaves a small circle where the powerhead really breaks up the surface. So its like the green layer but with less green. Maybe not developed enough cos of weekly waterchanges?

I don't know but it seems to have gone!

I thought it was a protein layer to, and i've read that a few times?

 

[PDSimon]

This is how my tank looks currently - sorry about the quality of the pictures... this camera is meant to be better but it blurs so so easily!

Grass is still got a bit of algae, but the grass itself is doing fairly well and is spreading more so.

new crypts

ech. ozelot plantlet has started growing nicely

rubin died of when I moved it but has started to grow new leaves

anubias looks awful and the java fern is growing a lot of new leaves now. Still a bit infected though...

Any tips to help finally rid of this algae problem will be appreciated as well as anything else! Looks to me although the java fern needs a trim. I imagine I should cut off every leave with the slightest bit of algae really now...? The anubias has new leaves but the old ones look pretty terrible. not a fan of the foreground, looks to broken up with crypts one side and grass on the other...? what do you guys think?

Also wondering what sized group is suitable for dwarf oto's? Was thinking about getting some more amano shrimp but they seem to produce so much waste, thats why the moss and substrate looks so dirty even though its cleaned every week.