Scoobie's multiple tank log

[scoobiemandan]

Another two weeks on and the difference is certainly showing!

Previously;



Today;



However, I'm still having issues with algae that I can't seem to get on top of!  I'm cutting out quite a bit of foilage every week just to get rid of the worst of it but without stripping out every single plant I'm thinking it's just going to keep growing and growing.  I was hoping that healthier plants would out compete the algae but it appears that balance hasn't been acheived yet!?

[TropicalFishForums]

[plankton]

There won't be room for fish at this rate!

[scoobiemandan]

Plenty of room although if the algae keeps growing the way it does it might well be that that takes over

[JAX3000]

If the algae persists, you could try dosing with liquid carbon. Seems silly, as you're injecting actual Co2 but I had a persistent hair algae problem, I manually removed as much as poss, cleaned the tank as best I could, cleaned out the filter (sensibly) and started dosing with liquid carbon, a little at first and built it up slowly. I now double dose. Everybody in the tank is happy and NO hair algae. Some say Vallis don't like it, but mine doesn't appear to care.

May be worth a try.

Don't bother with the expensive stuff. Neutro Co2 is nice and cheap, especially if you buy a big bottle. I've ended up buying a load of concentrated gluteralderhyde (the active ingredient in liquid carbon) to dilute myself and save even more money. To be honest, I'm not sure if I stopped using it at all that it would even come back, as it's long gone now, but it's cheap enough that I don't want to bother risking it. I HATE hair algae!

(And I inject Co2 as well... you can use liquid carbon and gas injection at the same time, as they work in different ways...)

Good luck

Tank's looking good by the way!

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[scoobiemandan]

Thanks Jax but I'd not be happy dosing LC on top of the CO2.  I do occassionally spray with hydrogen peroxide which kills off that above the water line and does a little damage to that below but it invariably grows back again!  Problem is, it's everywhere in the tank, on every plant to some degree or another so the only sure way of getting rid of it all would be to rip out every plant and start again but I fear that would set me back a great many weeks/months

The tank does get some direct light which is in no way going to help the issue, and may actually be the issue but moving the tank at present is just not an option!  However, we are having anew sofa delivered come February which will mean moving the living room around so it's feasible that I could move the tank but logistically I'm not looking favourably at that idea!  Last time I reset the tank, I lost a shed load of livestock with no explanation!

[JAX3000]

I don't know of any problems arising from using both methods. Ultimately they're completely different things and I'm not aware of any issues with combining them. I agree you can't remove it all, there'll always be spores. Even so, this method should kill it all stone dead after a couple of weeks.

Most would say this is only a cure, when prevention is always better than cure and it sounds like that may be to move the tank out of the sunlight in your case, but I'd 100% try this unless there's a very good reason not to...

I've also read some say more Co2, more Co2 and that'll help stop hair algae, but there's a limit before you gas all your fish to death, so I don't like to over do it. Also bigger and / or more frequent water changes....? Sorry if I missed this and it's already been covered, but what are you doing for ferts and what's your water change regime?

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[ajm83]

Newer growth doesn't look to be affected, personally I'd lop all the algae ridden leaves off.

[scoobiemandan]

Sorry if I missed this and it's already been covered, but what are you doing for ferts and what's your water change regime?

Ei dosing and weekly 50% changes!

Newer growth doesn't look to be affected, personally I'd lop all the algae ridden leaves off.

That's what I'm doing weekly but it doesn't take long to appear again on the leaves!

EDIT:  Just done a phosphate test and the levels are off the scale (10ppm+).  Could this be a reason for the algae?  If so, is it a case of using a phosphate absorber which I did have in before but figured it would work against the ferts dosing.  After all, what would be the point of dosing phosphates only to remove them again??

[ajm83]

You're right, dosing & running a remover would be a waste of time!

Have you tried moving the drop checker to different places around the tank and seeing what colour it is at lights on? Maybe the flow isn't as good as you think.

Trying to break the problem down...

Lights - plants aren't melting (I presume) so probably roughly the right amount
CO2/flow - growth looks okay, so the level is probably okay. Have you tried moving the drop checker around and seeing what it is at lights on (try low and high, front and back of tank etc).
Ferts/water changes - EI dosing so you won't have any deficiencies. 

How long has the setup been like this (unchanged amounts of light, dosing, co2 etc) now? There are a few other things to try but I don't want to send you down the wrong path if you haven't checked the simple stuff first.

[scoobiemandan]

Flow wise I have the main filter and internal filter and a powerhead.  I'm considering another powerhead but the only place that lacks slightly is the front left corner!

I've been running the set up like this for between a month and two!  Always seemed to suffer from algae issues no matter what I do!  I went from low tech to high tech in the hope it would help combat the issue!

[trumpington]

Flow wise I have the main filter and internal filter and a powerhead.  I'm considering another powerhead but the only place that lacks slightly is the front left corner!

I've been running the set up like this for between a month and two!  Always seemed to suffer from algae issues no matter what I do!  I went from low tech to high tech in the hope it would help combat the issue!

Are they all pointing in the same direction? If not you'll set up dead spots...

[plankton]

Can you alter the phosphate in the EI so you don't add any more?

[ajm83]

Can you alter the phosphate in the EI so you don't add any more?

Well you can but it's not EI then. The idea is to dose to excess so the plants never meet a shortfall. Rather than trying to tweak EI, it would be easier to switch to PPS Pro or similar if going down that route.

BBA is a difficult one to solve because nobody really knows why one tank gets it and another doesn't. Often (but not always) fixing co2, aeration and flow fixes it. There is a great thread on a US forum about reducing micros fixing some peoples problem. Some people say more water changes have helped. Some people say more light, some less. Etc etc.

What I think is that if the plants are 'ill' in any way, then the dying leaves leak something that the BBA feeds on. That's why it's difficult to solve, so many different problems end up with this algae down the line.

[piker]

I have struggled with bba for a while now,I recently read that it was down to a bacterial imbalance,all the theories are confusing so I just let it get on with it now.

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[fr499y]

when i had issues with BBA, i added a true SAE