Greetings from Montreal

[Erilo]

I wanted to say hi to everyone.

"Hi"

I'm Erilo and I currently live in Montreal. 2 years ago I got into aquariums. Started with a 37 gallon and now I have a 10g, 37g and a 75gallon.

6 months ago I got bad case of black beard algae; https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6568108/APE forum/photo 4.JPG

Did some research into the problem to fix it. The people from http://www.aquaticplantenthusiasts.com/ advised me to to turn my 2x 55w lights off and remove all the dying algae.
I now have the growth under control. Every week I manage to remove everything but it still returns. Luckily in very small portions.

This is what my tank 75g tank looks now;
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6568108/APE forum/photo 5.JPG
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6568108/APE forum/photo 6.JPG

I've added some anubias and some wooden decorations.

Anyway. When I researched into the algae problem I learned a lot more about planted aquariums, co2 systems and how to take care of plants.

However I eventually buy a co2 system and get more plants. And this is why I turn to this site.
Before I'm going to buy a system I want to learn which parts I should get. Which and how many plants I can get.
What substrate I need. Do I need it all over my tank or just in the places I have my plants and so on.


I have many more questions which I most likely find the answer to in this forum. So before I'm going to pick your brains I will do some reading first.
And please excuse my bad grammar and spelling. English isn't my first (nor second) language.

-Erilo

 

[mike]

Welcome from one Montrealer to another.

The first thing you have to determine is what your goals are and how much time you are willing to dedicate to the care of the tank.

To start you have lots of light for the size tank you have and type and amount of plants you have. It is really all about balance between co2, light and nutrients, with co2 being primary. What I have learned is the high light tanks give you very little room for error, when something is off balance with high light it will spread faster than if you had low light. In your case you have 2 x 55w T5ho lights on a 70g tank, I would call that high light ... Compound that with no co2 and probably no nutrients ... That spells trouble.

If you can you may want to use only one tube and if not You may want to raise your light about 25 to 30 cm above the water to start. Also, until you get a co2 system setup you can add excel, which is a liquid based carbon.

As for a Co2 regulator they are not easy to come by in Montreal, I ended up buying a regulator off eBay and adding a solenoid and a needle valve.

Mike

 

[Erilo]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your swift reply and advice!

At the moment I don't know exactly what I want to do with my 75gallon tank.

Like you said I had way to much light. This is why turned this light off and I'm only turning it on when I'm cleaning my tank. Currently there is a 8w light on it. Every 3 days I have to remove black beard algae from wood that is under this light. And the anubias and java fern are growing very slowly compared to when I used the 2x55w. Obviously because of the lack of light. But if I increase it the algae will take over.

The first thing I want to achieve with my 75g tank is equilibrium. Making sure the plants grow properly and that I don't have to worry about algae. I want to do it properly. I want to be able to use my 2 x 55w t5 Hagen Glo lamps because it looks beautiful. I bought the optional clamps for this lamp so it is now mounted about 15 centimeters above my tank. Currently I spent about an hour every three days on the tank and so far that hasn't become annoying.

I do add excel. 3 caps after a 50% water change. 2 caps after a 20% and 1 cap daily. The plants do benefit from it. They seem to be growing faster and are a lot greener since I start using it. However it doesn't stop the black beard algae from growing. I guess this is because I do not have enough plants. Or I do not add enough? I'm not sure. I do not want to add more then the instructions mention on the bottle.

The reason I thought adding a co2 system first before changing the substrate or increasing the light is because it is something I can control and check. Now I don't know if this is the right way of doing it. Maybe I should add more plants with fertilizer and increase the light all at the same time?

If you, or somebody else who is reading this, knows the best way of getting everything balanced in my tank then please let me know. I assumed that there would already be a thread about this on this forum which I will be looking for this weekend. Sadly I haven't had enough time to read the forums this week.

-Erilo

 

[mike]

I'm surprised you are getting Black Beard Algae (BBA) with just 8 watts of light. You should increase you plant mass, preferabley something that grows fast like water sprit or hygrophila polysperma. You didn't mention anything about filtration or flow. You want to make sure you're water flow is 10x the water volume per hour, so you're flow should be over 750gph. I have a 125g tank and between my Canister filter, my overflow and circulation pumps I have at least 2200gph of flow. You're flow does not have to come from filters, it can also come from curculation pumps postioned around the tank

Also, with even one 55w tube you should be able to grow just about anythng you can get at the LFS in the area. Rememebr, the more light you have the less margin of error you have. I would suggest you learn to dial in your CO2 with less light, say one 55w tube and once you have that worked out you can increase. Also, make sure you add micro's and macro's.

Mike

 

[Erilo]

Hi Mike,

10x the water volume? Yikes! At the moment I only have one filter attached to it and a bubble wall.
It is the filter I used on my 37g tank. A Rena XP3 filter which is rated at 350 U.S. gal/hr.
And I assume it will do less with filter media in the filter. And the bubble wall doesn't really count, I guess.

I've been looking to replace my filter but I thought I could put it off for a little while.
I guess that will be my first priority now. And I've heard you; I can improve the flow rate with pumps.
But my girlfriend wants to set up the 37g tank. So I guess I will get a new filter this week and some plants!

And what do you mean with micro and macros?

ps. I really appreciate your feed back and find it very helpful.

 

[mike]

And what do you mean with micro and macros?

Those are the fertilizers.

Macros are Phosphates and Nitrates. You can get those from a pre mixed solution at a store (gets expensive) or you can make your own with Potassium Nitrate (KNO3) and Mono Potassium Phosphate (KH2PO4).

Micros are the trace nutrients such as Magnesium (Mg), Boron (B), Iron (Fe) etc... you can also get all this in a pre mixed solution at the store but it gets expensive. Most people use Plantex CSM + B.

These all come in powder/salt form but you can make solutions using this calulator http://calc.petalphile.com/

You should read as much as you can, there is lots of good information in the forums. You can start in "Are you new to aquatic plants", "Estimative Index" and "CO2 Enrichment"

With this hobby you have to be very patent, read as much as you can and learn from people who have done it and been there.

Mike

 

[Erilo]

Hi Mike,

I will most definitely read those threads this weekend.

Yesterday I bought a new filter and a power head to increase the flow rate at Aquatica.
They are currently moving to another location they placed all their plants in their fish tanks and because of this I didn't want to buy the plants.
So this weekend I will buy more plants at another location.

And thanks for the explanation on the macro's and micro's. I will probably start using the pre mixed stuff first and switch later once I completely understand how to do it properly.
Fertilizers will also have to wait for the same reason.

I took a picture of my tank yesterday. This is 4 days after I cleaned my tank and I only use the 8w lamp. On the right side above the vase there is some wood sticking out and there you can see the algae growing back. There are other spots that have it as and it grows insanely fast.

This is why I want to fix this and do it properly. Once again; Thanks! I really appreciate your advice.

[attachment=1538:name]

 

[mike]

We must be in the same area, I also get my supplies at that aquatica.

How is the flow with the added equipment? You want to see the plants sway gently in the current.

What kind of 8w light is that? It seems like a high concentration in one area, you probably have 80mmols of light at the substraight under the light. If you could difuse the light somehow it would help. If you can't then move it over a bit to lower the intensity right over the plant, that plant doesn't require much light to do well.

I'm happy to help, we were all where you are and it can sometimes be frustrating.

Mike

 

[Erilo]

Hi Mike,

I live near the Monk metro station. There aren't that many good aquarium stores near me and because of this I travel to Aquatica.

The power head is placed in such a way that there is a flow at the front of the aquarium going from the right to the left.
My big anubias are in the back and they don't seem to be effected by the power head. However they do move a bit because of the bubble wall behind it and because of the filters spray bar above it. I might buy another power head later but I think it is sufficient for now. I don't want to stress my tetras to much. They don't like the power head at all.

I had question.

I bought fertilizer. Could I put my plants into net pots with the fertilizer and then place the pot under my substrate?

Because I'm not looking forward to replace my current substrate with plant/fertilizer substrate. Those pots in the picture don't that big but I've seen them sell bigger ones.

I move the lamp to the middle like you said. It is a Deep Blue SolarMax T5 SE-42120 - 20inch 8watt lamp with 10k daylight bulb.
Hope this helps.

 

[mike]

Hi,

I looked at your photo again and saw you have Java fern in addition to the anubias. Those plants should not have their root in the substraight, you should try and attach them to a rock or your wood. The roots can rot if they are in the substraight. It sounds like you also got fertilizer tablets, those can be pushed into the substraight near the vals and other rooted plants you have, however, the anubias and fern will require a liquid fertilizer added to the water. If you buy a premixed fertilizer you should get something that has about 4 times more Nitrate than Phosphate, The potassium for use is not that important, when I say us I mean in Montreal. Since I don’t buy the premixed fertilizer I can’t really say which to buy or which is available at Aquatica. I will be going there tomorrow to get some things, I’ll see what they have and let you know.
With these changes, wait a good 2 weeks before making any more changes, observer and then adjust if need be.

Mike

 

[Erilo]

Hi Mike

I've turned on the big light again. Sadly I wasn't able to turn the light on with just one tube. If I unscrew one and turn the light on the other one burns for 3 seconds and then turns itself off. I have no idea why it does this but I guess it is a safety thing. So I wrapped tinfoil around one bulb.

It looks a lot better now; https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6568108/Aquarium/1a.JPG


I have moved the java fern on top of the big piece of wood; https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6568108/Aquarium/fern.JPG


I also added 3 plants which I panted in a pot with Fluval Stratum Substrate. (Cardinal plant,Dwarf hair gress and Needle leaf ludwigia) I bought all three of these because I couldn't make up my mind which one I wanted for my big tank. I'm currently setting up my 37g tank and one of these plants will go in there. The other one will go into my 10g tank.

I also bought a big rectangular sized pot in which I will plant my anubias and of course add the Fluval Stratum Substrate.

I'm still reading through several posts as I'm not a 100% certain how to dose it properly for my tank. It would get very expensive if I keep buying a premixed solution for my micro and macros. I'm still looking what the best solution for me is.
But I will start with the Plantex CSM + B.

I also bought new glass for the top of my aquarium. It still needs to be cut so that I can install the clamps for my light. This will raise the light by 15 centimeters. The Co2 system will follow shortly. I'm currently in the process of buy a co2 for my 37g tank. My 10g will get one of those cheap fluval cartridge system which I might upgrade later on. I'm not a 100% sure if what kind of co2 system I want to buy for my 75g tank. At Aquatica they sell the Milwaukee regulator which I might buy or I'm going build one myself. I had to delay the purchase because of a high repair bill on my car.

And you were right. Increasing the light actually made the algae grow slow down. There are still a couple of spots were it keeps returning but most of it is gone!

 

[mike]

Hi Erilo,

Sounds like you're making progress.

I would advise against the fluval co2 cartridge system. I used one about 2 years ago and it was expensive, I went through lots of cartridges. The Milwaukee is very popular but it is a single stage regulator that is hard to adjust and get good steady co2. That said, it is well priced and better that what you have now.

The Anubias should not be planned in the substraight, it should be attached to a rock or wood. The roots tend to rot when placed in the substraight.

The premixed stuff is expensive. I order from aquariumfertilizer.com.

Mike

 

[Feidlimidsmith]

hi there welcome to the forum have a great time out here..

 

[Erilo]

Hi Mike,

Quick update.

I wasn't able to install my lamp with the clamps it came with because of the glass cover. A friend of mine cut a bit out of the glass and now I have the lamp installed with the bracket. Raising it by 15 centimeters.

I've ordered the following;

Mono Potassium Phosphate [KH2PO4]
Plantex CSM+B
Potassium Nitrate [KNO3]
GH Booster

And I ordered enough for half a year.

Still haven't bought a co2 regulator. Wasn't comfortable and couldn't made up my mind. Build my own? Buy one from ebay? etc.
I see that oldpunk is selling one. I might buy that one.
http://www.barrreport.com/showthread.php/12628-FS-Victor-SGT500-Regulator

What do you think? Will that do the trick or will it be overkill?

-Erilo

 

[mike]

I'm not the best person to recommend a regulator but I'm sure if it's coming from oldpunk It's a good one. Just keep in mind that a good regulator does not solve you algae issues, using it properly does.

Getting the dry ferts and dosing EI is another good step

Mike

 

[Moonfroz]

CO2 Regulator and refill bottle

Hello

I live in Laval. The best place to buy a 10 lbs (or 20 lbs not sure) CO2 bottle and regulator with selenoid, bubble counter and micro-adjustement is at:

A B P Enr
4525, av des Industries, Laval, QC H7C 1A1
450-664-3310

Just make a call and most the time, they have it in stock. Also, it's the cheapest place around to fill a CO2 bottle and they can do it while you are waiting.

I bought 2 full kits from them and I never had any problem.

Hope that may help!