Am I going the right direction ?

I have quite the algae farm right now. The tank (see below for specs) has been setup for about 8 months - I was following Sears-Colin and recently (mid January) started using Tom's EI process because I couldn't get rid of all of the algae. Three weeks ago I left on a trip for work and apparently right after I left the filter stalled and shutdown. When I got home six days later I had major green water and the beginnings of an algae outbreak. I did a 50% water change pruned some plants and hooked up a UV unit. The UV quickly dispatched the green water and I did another 50% water change to help remove the dead algae. I was injecting C02 into the filter but slowly over time the ph has creeped up so a built a reactor last Friday and I still can't get below 7.4-7.5. The reactor increased perling tremendously but the algae growth has exploded as well. Despite nightly algae pickings, it's moving faster than I can. Am I going in the right direction ? Do I just need to ride it out ?


Tank 150 Gallon
Filter XP3 and a very small hob that I use to disolve ferts into the tank turning it off makes no measurable difference in C02 levels
Flourite (3 inches)
Plants (Luwidga, Mayca, Anacharias, Annubia, Forest of Vals, some Hornwort)
Fish ( Roughly 20 small tetras, 2 cory cats, 2 yoyo's, 6-8 oto's, many snails)
Light Compact Flourescent 400W (10 hours a day)
C02 Injection (cylinder) Reactor with a Rio 600 (2 inch diameter 12 long)
Ph - 7.4-7.5 (7.2 out of tap - 8.5 after 48 hrs)
KH - 17-18 (Well water from KH kit)
GH - 10
Nitrates - 40 ppm (after water changed (around 20))
Phos - 3 pmm (out of faucet - need to dose by third day)
Nitrite - 0
NH4 - 0
Micros - Greg Watson - 8 ml every other day


Thanks for your advice

Scott

 

Re: Am I going the right direction ?

Craig this CO2 is injected from a Cylinder ( I would need a truckload of DIY bottles). I don't think I can run the bubble rate any higher without adding a second reactor as I am forming a large bubble in the reactor already. I saw the reactor that Tom had put up so I modified my reactor last night to pull the venturi off the side, Ill see if that lets me up the bubble rate (right now around 1 bubble/sec counted at the end of the hose in the tank). Greg I'll try upping the micro's. I had been adding micro's everyday as it seemed to keep the Nitrates more on an even level, probably because I didn't have an excess.

I tweaked the reactor a bit last night, I added the venturi feature and I increase the length of the tube to 14 inches and I moved the CO2 injection point down two inches. I have the timer set to bring the reactor on about an hour before the lights and this morning PH was 7.3 so it made a difference. I'll be curious to see this evening if I hold to 7.3-7.4 or go back up to 7.5.

FWIW in the last week I have pulled half of a standard kitchen bucket of algae out of the tank. This is algae not plant trimmings, however last night I saw two of my older oto's and they are definitely fat and happy.

Scott

 

Re: Am I going the right direction ?

I didn't say but I have mostly hair algae, with a little bit of BBA. The BBA seems to have stopped spreading and was only on two leaves of a small sword. The hair algae is growing on almost all of the plants and the glass. I have very little if any algae on the substrate. Every week during the water changes I vacuum up in lose detrius on the top of the gravel around the tank.

Scott