Forgive me if I am replicating an already covered topic, but I have been searching through forums all afternoon and need advice specific to my exact setup. I've broken my post up into three sections. If you want to skip some of this ramblings, or just have a life, my questions are posted at the bottom.
______________________MY TANK______________________
55 gal
4x40w fluorescent Lumichrome 1XX 6500K full spectrum 98 CRI with reflective tape on shoplights. sitting 3/4 inch above top lip of tank. On a timer for 10-11 hour photoperiod.
Eheim 2026 with the blue pad, noodles, sintered glass dogfood stuff and fine white filter pad
Hydoor ETH 300w inline heater attached to return line, about 5 inches below the top of the tank and hanging vertically, set to 77 degrees.
3 bags, 45 lbs, 2 inches of flourite substrate.
Spectrapure RO water - reconstituted with 1tsp of Kent R/O Right per 10 gallons (soft water dosage) and 1/2tsp of sodium bicarbonate per 10 gallons.
Wardley's chlorOut at slightly less than recommended dosage, I dose 10 gallons with about 7-8 gallons worth of chlorOut...the activated carbon filter in the RO unit is supposed to filter out chlorine at a rate of 1ppm for 9,000 gallons. I dose just in case there are chloramines in the water.
I run yeast powered CO2 into a homemade in-tank reactor and my levels range from 16-25ppm, depending on lots of things...I've been doing a lot of water changes and so forth lately...you'll find out why.
It should be noted I plan to switch to compressed CO2 and an external reactor as soon as I get rid of my current dillema.
My PH is usually between 6.6-6.9, depending on the above CO2 specs. My alkalinity is around 3.8-3.9. I am not sure what my hardness is, I think my test kit is broken because at my dosages of R/O right, it immediately turns the final color after only one drop, and I am dosing the R/O right at twice the recommended dosage for discuss (I don't have discuss, just using that as a point of comparison) Straight out of the RO unit, the ph is in the mid to high 5's and the alkalinity and hardness are at 0.
Ammonia, Nitrates both at zero. I know the nitrates should be higher, but once again, all these water changes.
The tank, once grown out, will be moderately planted. Glossostigma, and other plants that were part of a low-light setup.
14 Rummynose tetra, 10-11 Otocinclus, and a recent swarm of about 55-58 Amano shrimp.
I feed New Life Spectrum Small Fish Formula twice daily. I feed all that the school of tetra can eat in a 10 second period. There is never any uneaten food. I occasionally drop in a few New Life Spectrum H2O Stable Wafers if I'm feeling anxious about how well the algae eaters are eating. I've only had these shrimp for about 4 days so I'm not sure how my algae is supporting them. It's hard to see. You'll understand why in a few seconds.
I was doing 10-15 gallon water changes weekly, but for the last 2 weeks have probably been doing close to 45-50% water changes weekly. I sometimes siphon, sometimes dip water out.
I was doing Kent MicroNutrients only, at a rate of a little less than 50% the recommended dosage. I know...I was still doing research on fertilizing and figured it was better to do nothing than to ignorantly do everything in execess.
The plants look great, especially considering I took them all out and bleached them. All the leaves died, but the regrowth is much nicer than the original growth. That was all due to a problem with my tapwater than the RO unit and Amanos have eliminated.
_______________________MY PROBLEM______________________
I have green water. It looks like a tank full of thick poisonous gas. It starts to get better and then gets worse. I was doing 10 gallon changes a day and it started to clear, but would never get completely clear. If I relaxed thinking it was over, bam the green was back.
Here's how it all began. I had hair algae, super duper bad. I also had a lot of green algae on my back glass. Here's where I messed up...all with the period of a couple days I:
1. Scraped all the algae off into the water
2. Started doing water changes to slowly introduce the RO water
3. Bleached my plants
Dumb..I know...now.
Immediately I got green water and haven't been able to get rid of it for the last 2-3 weeks.
____________________MY QUESTIONS_______________________
I want a UV sterilizer. I will be placing an order for PMDD and hopefully getting them in sometime next week.
Consensus seems to be that the Turbo-Twist won't be a dissappointment. Based on what I have provided, I need answers to these questions:
1. Should I run the UV inline from my Eheim 2026 or should I run it inside the tank with a dedicated powerhead? I would prefer to run it 24/7 IF it will perform well with my Eheim's flow.
2. Depending on your answer to the above question, which TT model do I need, the 9w or the 18w?
I realize I have a greater responsibility than to simply zap the evidence of my problem, but I know I need to do this if I ever want to have a chance of getting my aquarium back into a natural balance. I can't very well do much observing of my fertilizer dosages if my water is already puke green before I even start.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
______________________MY TANK______________________
55 gal
4x40w fluorescent Lumichrome 1XX 6500K full spectrum 98 CRI with reflective tape on shoplights. sitting 3/4 inch above top lip of tank. On a timer for 10-11 hour photoperiod.
Eheim 2026 with the blue pad, noodles, sintered glass dogfood stuff and fine white filter pad
Hydoor ETH 300w inline heater attached to return line, about 5 inches below the top of the tank and hanging vertically, set to 77 degrees.
3 bags, 45 lbs, 2 inches of flourite substrate.
Spectrapure RO water - reconstituted with 1tsp of Kent R/O Right per 10 gallons (soft water dosage) and 1/2tsp of sodium bicarbonate per 10 gallons.
Wardley's chlorOut at slightly less than recommended dosage, I dose 10 gallons with about 7-8 gallons worth of chlorOut...the activated carbon filter in the RO unit is supposed to filter out chlorine at a rate of 1ppm for 9,000 gallons. I dose just in case there are chloramines in the water.
I run yeast powered CO2 into a homemade in-tank reactor and my levels range from 16-25ppm, depending on lots of things...I've been doing a lot of water changes and so forth lately...you'll find out why.
It should be noted I plan to switch to compressed CO2 and an external reactor as soon as I get rid of my current dillema.
My PH is usually between 6.6-6.9, depending on the above CO2 specs. My alkalinity is around 3.8-3.9. I am not sure what my hardness is, I think my test kit is broken because at my dosages of R/O right, it immediately turns the final color after only one drop, and I am dosing the R/O right at twice the recommended dosage for discuss (I don't have discuss, just using that as a point of comparison) Straight out of the RO unit, the ph is in the mid to high 5's and the alkalinity and hardness are at 0.
Ammonia, Nitrates both at zero. I know the nitrates should be higher, but once again, all these water changes.
The tank, once grown out, will be moderately planted. Glossostigma, and other plants that were part of a low-light setup.
14 Rummynose tetra, 10-11 Otocinclus, and a recent swarm of about 55-58 Amano shrimp.
I feed New Life Spectrum Small Fish Formula twice daily. I feed all that the school of tetra can eat in a 10 second period. There is never any uneaten food. I occasionally drop in a few New Life Spectrum H2O Stable Wafers if I'm feeling anxious about how well the algae eaters are eating. I've only had these shrimp for about 4 days so I'm not sure how my algae is supporting them. It's hard to see. You'll understand why in a few seconds.
I was doing 10-15 gallon water changes weekly, but for the last 2 weeks have probably been doing close to 45-50% water changes weekly. I sometimes siphon, sometimes dip water out.
I was doing Kent MicroNutrients only, at a rate of a little less than 50% the recommended dosage. I know...I was still doing research on fertilizing and figured it was better to do nothing than to ignorantly do everything in execess.
The plants look great, especially considering I took them all out and bleached them. All the leaves died, but the regrowth is much nicer than the original growth. That was all due to a problem with my tapwater than the RO unit and Amanos have eliminated.
_______________________MY PROBLEM______________________
I have green water. It looks like a tank full of thick poisonous gas. It starts to get better and then gets worse. I was doing 10 gallon changes a day and it started to clear, but would never get completely clear. If I relaxed thinking it was over, bam the green was back.
Here's how it all began. I had hair algae, super duper bad. I also had a lot of green algae on my back glass. Here's where I messed up...all with the period of a couple days I:
1. Scraped all the algae off into the water
2. Started doing water changes to slowly introduce the RO water
3. Bleached my plants
Dumb..I know...now.
Immediately I got green water and haven't been able to get rid of it for the last 2-3 weeks.
____________________MY QUESTIONS_______________________
I want a UV sterilizer. I will be placing an order for PMDD and hopefully getting them in sometime next week.
Consensus seems to be that the Turbo-Twist won't be a dissappointment. Based on what I have provided, I need answers to these questions:
1. Should I run the UV inline from my Eheim 2026 or should I run it inside the tank with a dedicated powerhead? I would prefer to run it 24/7 IF it will perform well with my Eheim's flow.
2. Depending on your answer to the above question, which TT model do I need, the 9w or the 18w?
I realize I have a greater responsibility than to simply zap the evidence of my problem, but I know I need to do this if I ever want to have a chance of getting my aquarium back into a natural balance. I can't very well do much observing of my fertilizer dosages if my water is already puke green before I even start.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.