Bonkler's algae farm

Hi all,

I'm not sure which subforum this thread fit in, so my first guess will be this one. I'd like to give some information about my tank and why it's not doing so well right ever since I started. Sure there were some time that I had to throw away pounds of plants because they were growing too fast. But that won't last long and to tell you the truth, they weren't allways healthy looking plants.

Last week was when I started with EI, also I changed my lighting (more watt). The tank itself has been up running for about 2 years or so. BTW i'm assuming mg/L is the same as ppm when the water is 25 deg C right?

80 gallon (50' 20' 20', L*W*H in inches)
pressurized CO2
2.3 Watts/gallon (2*T8-36Watt and 2*T5-54Watt all with reflectors)
substrate heating
2 external filters (Eheim 2228 and 2229, each has ~1000 litres/hour pump cap.)

The lighting is on fullpower for 10 hours and only 2*36 Watt is on for the remaining 2 hours, one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening (total of 12 hours lightperiod).

Tapwater
KH 7
NO3 5 ppm
PO4 0 ppm

First day of IE (after dosing the macro for the first time)
KH 7
NO3 5 ppm
PO4 0.5 ppm
Fe 0 ppm
CO2 ~25 ppm (PH 7)

A week later
KH 7
NO3 ~30 ppm
PO4 1 ppm
Fe 0 ppm
CO2 ~40 ppm (PH 6.6)

What am I dosing?
80/20 times IE dosing

1tsp KNO3 every other day
4/16tsp KH2PO4 every other day
20 ml trace on off days

The trace I'm using might be a bit suspicious because I'm not using Plantex CSM's but Tenso cocktail.

A quick comparison:
CSM Regular |CSM+B Mix |Tenso cocktail
Fe 7.00% 6.53% 3.84% EDTA/DTPA
Mn 2.00% 1.87% 2.57% EDTA
Mg 1.50% 1.40% 0%
Zn 0.40% 0.37% 0.53% EDTA
Cu 0.10% 0.09% 0.53% EDTA
Mo 0.05% 0.05% 0.13%
Bo 0.00% 1.18% 0.52% EDTA
Co 0.00% 0.00% 0%
Ca 0.00% 0.00% 2.57% EDTA
*if it looks a bit messy, you can find a better table at APD

And the trace I mixed it up like in the krib's site:
2tbs KSO4
1tbs MgSO4
1tbs trace mix of Tenso cocktail

in 500 ml water.

Also I give my fish clamps in that are suppose to be human food so it has all kind of conservation chemicals including naturalvinegar and some other stuff I can't translate in English (sour-regulators or sth). I'm telling this also because I've read about NH4 as algae promoter (?) so there might be something in here also.
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Since I started with EI, I see fast response that I've never seen before. The stem plants make those roots which are above the substrate within a week (never seen them before). Also the top of the plants looks like it wants to grow. I'm using "looks like" because it's not growing very well, but it's algae free=growing, and that occured after a week or three when I didnt use EI. So all I can think of is that I still miss some element. I doubt it's the CO2/NO3/PO4 when I compare the parameters at the first day and a week later. So my guess is the trace elements. I don't trust the stability/completeness of it when I think about how complex the stuff is with all different kinds of chelate forms. My plan is to start with a commercial trace fertilizer which I used before that has never give me white tops on my stem plants (Dupla 24) and see how it's going.

Pictures tell a thousand words:
www.picturetrail.com/bonklers
The seriousness of the thread algae is what I always get, EI or not.

 

Re: Bonkler's algae farm

This is what I've done until now:

-Removed the big algae driftwood
-Removed all the plants that can't be saved anymore
-Dipped the little driftwood in boiling water
-Cleaned the filter (a week seperation between them)
-Planted some cheap fastgrowers
-Vacuumed gravel (almost 80%)
-continued dosin and 50%+ WC

I'm not too sure about the CO2 level, it seems that the riccia fluitans doesnt bubble within an hour. But withing the first hour, I only have 2*36 watt on (~.9watt/gallon). Last week I checked, PH was ~6.5 KH stayed at 6-7 deg (also after 7hours lighting period). GH is 12 deg, remains quite stable. I couldnt find TMG either, so I'm sticking to Dupla untill I can buy them.

I do need some advise on pruning the plants. When I do it with my fingers, the algae wont go away. When I do it with a toohtbrush, the leaves gets damaged (if I do it gently the algae won't go away). And these damaged leaves, gets algae pretty fast. I tried H2O2 dipping, no luck. So all I'm left with is buying new plants or cut lots of leaves (I did both). If anyone has a good method pruning these thread algae, I'd appreciate it.

I've read the article about "getting rid of thread algae", you said something about the algae shouldn't grow back after pruning (atleast not fast) if the conditions are allright.
So I still see the algae growing (quite fast, see my pictures), which indicates I'm doing something wrong here. I can double check the CO2, with riccia and PH test. If the CO2 is also good, I'm thinking of cutting back my lighting. Will this do any harm ? Because the plants are rather new, and they might need some time to grow on full speed. I'm thinking of going with only 0.9 watt/gallon for a week with a few hours on full intensity (2 hours maybe?).

If this doesnt help either, will the 3 days blackout work for thread algae? I really dont want to use H2O2 *in* my tank.

BTW do I have enough plants to start things with? I'm not too sure about this, I'd happily fill my tank with plants if I knew they were going to stay okay. But it's likely they're going to get those hair algae and I'll be throwing them away after a few weeks like I did last week. Waste of money ofcourse .

www.picturetrail.com/bonklers for the pictures.
Greetings and TIA,
Hendra

ps. you can mail me about translating the report in Dutch. Though I'm not a native speaker, and I'm not very good in biology, I'll see what I can do if you need some help .