Jason King

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ALGAE!!

Came back after a few weeks away, leaving the tank on auto pilot to find this...yes its one weeks growth :)

20170820_080956.png


i lowered the lighting while i was away to what i thought would prevent this.

all other plants that are not in this location seem fine, its just this area of the tank.

20170820_110755.png


I've circled the problem area and the only area that algae has grown.

20170820_094204.png


ok now its time to sort the problem :( - flow? co2? currently at 1.2+ ph drop
 
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fablau

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Jason, how many weeks have you left your tank in auto-pilot? Was dosing automated as well?

Also, from your pic that looks like staghorn, am I right? If so I wouldn't worry about it that much, that's usually easy to get rid of. And DutchMuch could be right to say flow+some accumulation could have caused that on that specific spot.
 
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Jason King

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Yes flow is what I was thinking myself even if I already thought it was ok :/ that's now been upped with an extra powerhead.

I have removed most of it now plus I've spot dosed with excel.

Fab the setup is always on autopilot except for water changes but I did miss one weekly change so without me being there to observe it was just over a week.

The ferts are still zero Micros as its new soil but half e.i Macros.
 

fablau

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Yes flow is what I was thinking myself even if I already thought it was ok :/ that's now been upped with an extra powerhead.

I have removed most of it now plus I've spot dosed with excel.

Fab the setup is always on autopilot except for water changes but I did miss one weekly change so without me being there to observe it was just over a week.

The ferts are still zero Micros as its new soil but half e.i Macros.

Having missed just 1 water change without micros dosing shouldn't have caused anything bad. I am just wondering, even if "flow" could have been the cause, why that algae appeared and was grown so much right when you left... either you used to have that algae before and promptly you would remove it, or something changed during your absence, or... what else?! Strange thing indeed...
 

Jason King

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Agreed fab, it's strange, still if it was flow due to it only being in one area.. I will find out very soon now this has been fixed.
 

Dale Hazey

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Looks like an assassin snail in the bottom right corner? Did you add those amanos yet? I can't see any in the pics. Nothing could have died? Maybe that soil was kicking off a bit of NH4?

excited to see this tank progress.
 
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Jason King

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Yes those assassin snails I have in all tanks and one must of got in from my holding tank.

Atm it has 15x Amano shrimp and over ten black rose shrimp, i will hopefully be adding some other fauna soon.
 

burr740

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Thats some strange looking stuff.

If I understand correctly and you skipped a few water changes while being away, but dosing remained the same? There could be a substantial build up, especially with lower light. May or may not have anything to do with it.

My question about flow is why now? Did the filters become too dirty and slow down? That might explain it, otherwise I dont see why it just happened all of a sudden. Plant mass certainly didnt get out of control (unless you trimmed before that pic)

Just thinking out loud obviously....
 

Jason King

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@burr740 Just one water change was missed but no trace and only half macro dosing, low Lighting..

Filters were the first thing I thought about but I've since checked them and they are clean.

The tank was planted two weeks before I went away and no algae.. so the algae appeared at 2-3 weeks.

Also the filters have been running with already seeded media for over 2 months before I added the substrate.

Its Only been a few+ days since I removed the algae but no sign of regrowth yet.

At the end of the day I'm not upset about this what so ever, it's more about solving what caused it :) and learning more..
 

Jason King

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I've just realised what the problem could be, the area in question was planted last and all the plants in that area are from a different source than the other plants in the tank, was it introduced? Via a dodgy source..
 

fablau

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I've just realised what the problem could be, the area in question was planted last and all the plants in that area are from a different source than the other plants in the tank, was it introduced? Via a dodgy source..

Yes, I think those plants weren't growing much because they were still "adapting" to the new environment. That'd make sense :)
 
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Jason King

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After the cleanup i decided to remove the ludwigia palustris and Alternanthera reineckii 'Mini' as i have some more plants being delivered soon.

they are not the best photos but i use them for my own reference and thought i would share them, all plants in the photos except for the Rotala Butterfly, Syn Manus and Tonina (Tonina fluviatilis?) were tissue cultures a few weeks back.

deficiencies? you can be my judge ;) its still early days.

Rotala Butterfly
2017-08-23 14.17.50_resized.jpg


Rotala wallichii
2017-08-23 14.18.12_resized.jpg


2017-08-23 14.21.59_resized.jpg


Rotala sp. "H'Ra" ("Gia Lai")
2017-08-23 14.25.00_resized.jpg


Rotala sp. 'Bangladesh'
2017-08-23 14.18.59_resized.jpg


Didiplis diandra
2017-08-23 14.21.24_resized.jpg


Random shot..
2017-08-23 14.24.00_resized.jpg