Hi everyone.

I've got a corner tank which is about 145-150L (after substrate displacement)
The substrate is 1" of Dennerle Deponit topped with 1" of gravel.
Lighting is a 150W 5500K metal halide. (recently upgraded from 4 x 18w tubes) Water depth is about 17"
I've got a moderate fish load: 4 shrimps, 6 pepper corydoras, 10 Neons, an Elephant Nose & 1 (juvenile) Discus.
Temperature is around 27 - 28 degrees C

I have a good cover of Cabomba, Hygrophila (Polysperma & Corymbosa), Eustralis Stellata, Hydrocotyle Leucocephela.
An Echinodorus 'Red Flame', a Crinum Thaianum, Anubias Barteri & Microsorum Pteropus 'Windelov' on bogwood, some Crypts and some Eleocharis Acicularis and Echinodorus Tennelus in the front
A few weeks ago I had a really nasty slime algae attack. After a good prune and clean of the plants, a water change and three days covered up I cured it and soon after upgraded the lights. With the lights improved, the plants really seemed to take off, pearling like crazy and putting on some good growth.

Last week I took out some of the fast growers and replaced them with medium growth and carpet plants;
Cryptocoryne (v Balansae, Becketii, Wendtii),
Pogestemon Helferi,
Marsilia Hirsuta.
I also took out the Tennelus because it was an algae trap!!

In the last few days I seem to be having a dose of hair algae. It's a dusting on the glass and is covering the Echinodorus & Crypt leaves, the Lileaopsis Brasiliensis, Crinum and Vallis in particular. The Echiodorus was going quite well having nice clean rubbery looking leaves.

I'm changing 50% weekly and dry dosing ferts thrice weekly (by weight) calculated by Chuck's dosing calculator.
KNO3; 2.75g which I make to be 11.5ppm NO3 & 7.25ppm K.
K2SO4; 1.0g to boost K by an extra 3ppm.
KH2PO4; .5g to boost P by 2.4ppm (does the mono potassium boost K?)
I dose traces by Aqua Essentials (a UK company) using their supplied dosing schedule.
However, I found FE was a little low; some leaves were yellowing and a few holes appeared in plants. Testing using a Hagen FE test showed about 0.1 chelated iron so I now also dose .35g FeSO4 which should add an extra 0.5ppm.
Water is RO, reconstituted to bring kH back up to 4. I also add a teaspoon of MgSO4 & two teaspoon of Calcium Sulphate to bolster gH.

Just prior to dosing today I tested (using Hagen test kits) and got the following:
0.0 ppm Unchelated FE
0.6 ppm Chelated FE
70 mg/L kH (about 4 degrees dH)
100 mg/L gH (about 5½ degrees dH)
6.6 pH
Around 29 ppm CO2 (I use a pH controller and solenoid to control CO2 levels and a Dennerle long term CO2 test to confirm it)
2.5 mg/L PO4
8.0 mg/L NO3
Ammonia & NO2 not detectable on my kits.

Am I right in thinking that mg/L equates roughly to ppm?

From what I've read the algae on the glass can either be wiped off or, if I leave it, should go away after a while on it's own. Is that right? What of the algae on the plants? It's very short, light green and doesn't wipe off easily.

When I toss in the dry ferts the neons in particular dive on it. Can I assume it will do them no harm? I assume they spit out / pass through their gills what they don't like.

CO2 & bio load seem OK, everything else seems OK. The plants are still pearling well. Am I missing anything? I put a few Hygrophila stems back in today in case I have taken out too many.

Brian

A few things: I'd add more CO2, I'm suggesting to watch the plants/fish and slowly add more.

pH controllers present a serious issue: night.

They still add lots of CO2 at night, which is not good for fish and plants do not use it at all at night either. Plants are not producing O2 at night either, so you have lower O2 and high CO2.

You can set the controller to dose only during the day(simply tie the solenoid into the light timer).

Then you can add more CO2 during the day when it's needed with much less CO2/O2 stress to fish.

Make sure there's some surface water moevement, not a lot though.
Whenever you clean, uproot, clean filters etc, follow it up with a 50% water change.

Never clean etc and not follow with a water change.
That's how we induce algae in many systems!!

You can do the Excel and every other day water changes(50-80%) etc and dosing thereafter to reset the tank. This will knock most algae back.
This may be combined with a black out as well for 2-4 days. But often it's not needed if you up the CO2 and Excel and water changes.


Regards,
Tom Barr

Thanks Tom,

I didn't know that uprooting and messing around would cause algae. Does it cause the spores to come up into the water column?

Although I didn't know that, I usually do anything like that either the evening or morning before a water change. More often than not now I drain half the tank, do any pruning, then top up again.

What is Excel? Is it a traces mix? I don't use it myself.

As to the CO2 controller, I had assumed that at night CO2 use would cease and more wouldn't be added. I'll look at cutting the solenoid into the timer.

I've got the filter outlet pointing under the surface, toward the CO2 ladder. Surface disturbance is minimal; just a gentle rippling.

Just to confirm, more regular water changes and possibly covering the tank should beat back the algae?

Brian

What is "a Dennerle long term CO2 test"? Try checking out the CO2 measurement method in: http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/f...p-checker.html. Note that the key to successful use of this is not the device used, but the use of 4 or 5 dKH distilled water in it.

Try to do the pruning before the water change. That way when you do the water change you can get out any little bits that get loose.

It's all the organic matter that gets pulled up, you have about 30 hours before the spores go to town, but I am not quite sure about the spores being pulled up, that might happen also, but hard to say without testing, seems more related to the up rooting or the organic material to me.

There's always a lot spores and they are around most of the time, more should not matter, what does is when they germinate and that would mean environmental changes, not number of spores.

You may consider replacing the ladder with a better means of adding CO2, they are okay, but for good CO2 levels I think you need either a disc or a reactor.

Check out the other suggestions here in the other post also

Regards,
Tom Barr

VaughnH; The Dennerle device is a small 'bell chamber' with a reactive fluid inside. It changes colour according to the amount of CO2 in the water. It's not accurate but gives a good indicator that things are in the ball park.


As to the pruning, etc, I normally do it just before a water change (which is 50% weekly) It's just this once I did it midweek: I took out a sword that was getting too big and replaced with a Crypt Balansae. I wasn't aware of the problem (though I am now, dammit ) However, I prune and mess about in my low tech tanks without any issue and I don't change water that often.


Tom, what's Excel? I don't use it and I'm not familiar with it. What does it do?
Does a black out work for this type of algae? I cured a cyano-algae attack with a three day black-out.
Also, I'm in the UK and I'm on a water meter and utility costs are rising at a frightening rate so I'm reluctant to start using that amount of RO water every other day. In fact it's getting so bad I'm thinking of converting to full tap water anyway; (tap is kH is 110 mg/L & gH is 240 mg/L; NO3 is 10 mg/L; PO4 is 1½-2 mg/L)

Is my current dosing adequate?

SeaChem's Excel is available in the UK.
It adds Carbon for the plants and can kill algae selectively while doing no harm, actually improving plant growth.

Your tap sounds fine, the KH seems about right at 110ppm, about a KH of 6.

You skip the KNO3/PO4 dosing the first day after a water change and then add just traces, after 2 days, add ther KNO3/PO4 and then once more a day or two prior to the next water change.

Use the RO for your own drinking water

Regards,
Tom Barr

Ah, OK. I'll get some Excel in. Do you just dose for the algae attack or continuously?

I got the RO coz I woz trying to breed Discus but I seem to be getting more into planting (It's contagious isn't it!!!) It's got so bad I just bought a 6' x 2' x 2' tank which I intend to plant up as well !!

I'll tap off before the RO membrane and use the filters to clean up the water (it's fitted with a chlorine / chloramine cartridge.

Thanks for your help, it's been great.

Brian

"VaughnH; The Dennerle device is a small 'bell chamber' with a reactive fluid inside. It changes colour according to the amount of CO2 in the water. It's not accurate but gives a good indicator that things are in the ball park."

You can make that device very accurate by filling it with distilled water, having just enough bicarbonate of soda in it to raise its KH to 5, and a few drops of pH reagent. Then it will show green when you have 40 ppm of CO2 in the water, which is what I use now, with no fish problems. When it shows yellow or yellow green you will definitely have too much CO2, and if it shows blue or blue green you will not have enough. When you use it that way if is the best method we have for assuring us that we have enough CO2 in the water. See this thread for more discussion about this idea: An Old CO2 Idea is a Good New Idea