Hello,

I`m start my 85 Gal (60gal pure volume) 3 week ago. I`m started with 30 gal of water from previous tank design.
Everything was ok, tank is started good,

Light: I have pendant with 4 LL and 2 MH lamp its hanged 20 cm to water)
10 Hours - 144 watt of silvanya grolux+osram 765
+ 4 Hour of MH HQI (Sylvania Aquaark 10000K 150x2)

Temperature - now is too hot 27-28 celcius in tank

Fish - 30 mahseer 50 shrimps

pressurized CO - 2 from tank -through glass diffuser - 3 bps (through (medicine) dropper). Off for night turn on 2 ours before light

After 2 week Im start dosing NPK, Micro and Fe (all thing is DIY and solution)

NPK (1 week dose at one time)
K - 17 mg/week
N - 15
P-0.63
Mg 0.3

Micro dayly
Mn-0.029
Zn- 0.006
Mo- 0.0007
B - 0.018
Fe- 0.1
Cu - 0.0014

Everything seems ok, but 3 days ago I was attacked by BBA (IMHO)
It attack by gigrophyla polisperma, R.macrandra, eleoharis and glosso.
The plant is pearling but in BBA

So I now I trying to get the reason. Have some assumption: and I need your advices:

1. Due to long tank 120cm and simple glass diffuser I need to apply I huge water flow from "lilly pipe outlet" to rich the co2 mist on the opposite side of the tank and to get it not simply floating up but moving through tank perimeter .
This flow exactly move thought above mentioned plants (except glosso)

2. Even with this water flow th Co2 mist circulation is not good. Moreover 2 days ago my Co2 regulator begin work unstable, so I have unstable CO2 feed. (but only this 2 days)

So I think due to this and on the background of dosing big amount of ferts. BBA became very happy.

May be its another reason , but I need solution....
Any suggestion are extremely welcome
Thanks

Larry

Do you have a CO2 drop checker w/ 4KH reference in the tank?

Do all the plants have a little sway to them?

Most people say BBA is a CO2 problem / circulation problem. If you don't have a DC I would get one.

Have you tried Excel to help get rid of the BBA? Excel isn't going to fix the root of the problem but help you get rid of some of the BBA you currently have.

Hi Larry,
Unless I'm mis-reading, for the amount of lighting your nutrient dosing seems very weak. Am I correct in assuming that for 4 hours per day you have both the 300 watts of MH and the 144 watts of T5 illuminated at the same time? If so then that is a lot of light only 8 inches from the surface.

That would be OK if you were dosing accordingly but you are asking for trouble by only dosing 15 mg of nitrate per week. Have I misread that? Did you mean 15 mg/liter instead?

A highly lit 85G should receive a weekly KNO3 dosage of at least 16 grams KNO3 and at least 5 grams of KH2PO4, otherwise you may soon have a lot more types of algae than BBA.

I would stop using the MH for now until solving the problem. That would also help with the temperature issue. BBA is always a CO2 issue. It can be due to low CO2, in which case increasing the bubble rate will help, or it can be due to unstable CO2 which may be your case. With large tanks it often helps to have two diffusers, one at each end. This is more complicated but is much more effective.

You did not mention what kind of filtration or circulation you have but this is also a critical item with that much light. I would suggest 10X the tank volume per hour of filtration and circulation rating. So you should have pumps/filters "rated" at a total of 850 gallons per hour. The pumps and powerheads won't actually deliver that much but the total rating should be as close to that as you can get.

So if you want to use those extra 300 watts MH you should look at increasing NPK nutrient dosing, changing bubble rate and getting better circulation/flow.

Cheers,

Yes, agreed, CO2 CO2 and CO2.
Also, the aquarium is a mere 3 weeks old.

I would suggest doing 2-3 x a week 50-70% water changes and increasing the CO2(slowly!!!). Adding another pump/powerhead to move the CO2 mist from the diffuser around the tank will help also, some good water movement on the surface also can help.

These are lessons learned through experience.

You want good water movement on the surface, but not enough to break the surface of the water. You will lose a little CO2 (it is easy to add a little more CO2 gas to make up for this), but you gain more stability and the tank is cleaner and fish are happier with more current in general.

Regards,
Tom Barr

I am not sure if you have any fish in the tank but you can gas the fish (which can lead to fish death) if too much CO2 is in the water; so as Tom says add it slowly and watch the fish for any signs of distress.

Thanks a lot for the answers.

2 Shane

Yes I have DC with DKH4 (once again DIY solution hope I was sober when made it )
Its now yellow-green

Actually as my outflow positioned as you see on the picture - all plants of the rear plan is under flow influense - esp Eleoharis. on the left side.

I know that most say BBA from the circulation - but in my case its because of excessive flow (circulation) cause Eleiharis on the right side is not such infected with BBA

Unfortunately its impossible to buy it in Ukraine.

2ceg4048
Yes 4 Hours of 300 MH and 144 but not t5 only t8 with really bad reflectors (DIY). And actually I do not know how much I lose from this 144 wt due to this and 20 cm height
Sorry my writing fault - Of course 17 mg/l per week
All dosing in mg/l per week (NPK+MG) I made it with Redfild ration N-P 1-25, cause I have approx 30 small viviparous fishes which I feed etc..
According to this its equal for my tank N-6.2mg/l/day and P-2.2mg/l/day
Of course IMHO but I think that NO3-43 mg/l/week and 15.4 mg/l/week PO4 is to high its 2.8 redfild ration

Actually with my T8 light I think that for 3week pearling plant tank it will be low -did it?
As you see on the picture, O made something like Tom`s DIY venture reactor/mister... Not aesthetic but additional flow+ CO2 mist. I regulate now CO2 to 3 bubbles/sec (off for night)
Actually today check my PH - 6,8

I have Atman CF1200 - its approx 1500 liters/hour. with haydite filling

2 Tom
I made it first week. and then 1 - 70%week.
Il made last in last Saturday - and add weekly dose of NPK.. So you recommend made 50% change now 3 times per week and after each as I understand I need to add 3 day dose of NPK solution ? Also today I cut all highly infected leaves from all plants Crazy work esp with eleoharis

You mean that during day outflow must be raised up to the surface to made surface ripple etc?

Also should I continue dosing Micro and Fe

Hi Larry,
Thanks for clarifying the dosing. I thought those numbers looked strange. In any case you should do yourself a favor and completely forget about the Redfield ratio. The ratio only tells us the relative content of these elements within the plant mass but is not related to what plants must uptake and use. The EI dosing principle is to provide at least the maximum uptake levels of nutrients without regard to ratios.

The concentrations are high, but in EI it does not matter if you are high, it only matters if you are too low.

In any case you have clarified your existing dosages and it seems they are not as low as I had imagined. When you do the water change you should dose the daily amount immediately after the change so that if you normally dose 2mg/l every day then dose that amount after the water change. You can easily divide the weekly amounts and dose the macros 3 times per week and the micros 2 times per week.

Regardless, if you have BBA then there is something wrong with the bubble rate or distribution so you should concentrate on reworking the flow patterns or the injection rate.

Cheers,

I think once you get a big growth of BBA you have to physically remove it or kill it with a bleach/water dip or with Excel or a hydrogen peroxide dip. Until you get it all killed it seems able to survive and thrive no matter how much CO2 you get into the water. And, getting rid of all of it in the tank or even 99% of it is really difficult at times. Once you do get rid of it, then keeping the CO2 level high, and fertillizing well, plus adding good water circulation and good routine cleaning should keep it from returning. I wish I could say I follow that advice, but I have trouble with it.

So yestarday trying to remove as much as possible - today once again can see new infected leaves - esp on Eleoharis.
About hydrogen peroxide - Which dose you can recommend -to nor affect on fishes and esp on shrimps. and not kill other plants (like glossostigma etc)

I know some people dose their aquarium with hydrogen peroxide, but I have only used it to dip removed plants in. The advantage is that there is no residue that is harmful to the life in the aquarium, but I never found it to be as effective at killing BBA as a bleach dip is. I suspect one reason is that unless you have a newly opened bottle of peroxide you don't know how strong the mix in the bottle is. I think it degrades pretty quickly after the bottle is opened.

I always have success with a 1 part bleach to 20 parts water mix as a dip for removed plants. And, I don't measure that mix very accurately, just estimate it. Most hardy plants can live through at least a 30 second dip in that mixture, but the BBA can not live through that. I dip hardscape and equipment in a much stronger bleach/water mixture.