hc cuba / cladophora problems

[fourmations]

hi all

after a fairly stable tank for a couple of months
i have a lot of cladophora setting in

the real problem is that it is in my cuba
and its uprooting big patches of cuba
when i try and pull the clado away

any thoughts on how to approch this?

obviously the cuba looks terrible
as i cant put the big patches back down
so i end up splitting and replanting in bits
leaving a half ragged half lush look!

I have a lot of mulm under my cuba
so i may seriously trim the cuba
and get in there with the gravel vac
(but i have lots of cherry shrimplets!)

any advice welcome

regards

4

 

[Myka]

From my very recent battle with Cladophora, I was told the problem is low KNO3 and low CO2. You need to provide more details about your tank for people to help you. Like, what is your lighting? How do you supplement CO2? What is your fertilizer schedule?

 

[Philosophos]

HC is a complete pain in the ass when it comes to getting it enough CO2; it's the lowest growing plant with some of the highest CO2 demands. It was discovered living in emersed cycles on the edge of a stream, but we put it in a foot or more of water constantly. HC is one of the reasons I love the needle wheel mod; you can angle the flow off a via aqua's fan head adapter (much like the loc line fan heads) to blow over the ground cover. Combine this with a vertically mounted rain bar in another direction, and the oscillation helps to keep detritus from building up too much.

Anyhow, CO2 aside, what's the dosing look like?

-Philosophos

 

[fourmations]

thanks guys

tank rundown...

36" x 12" x 15" (26 us gal approx) set up 8 months

filter: converted eheim wet/dry 277gph

substrate: gravel on flourite sand

plants: hc cuba, limphophila aquatic

fish/ inverts: 22 rasbora hengeli, 30 cherry shrimp

presurized co2 - i have a v. small internal filter with
a pollen diffusser in the media area, so it chops
up the bubbles and shoots them across the cuba

fertz: ei dosed - but only at half quantity on the macros
as the nitrates are not used up at full dose
and keep rising and rising

i used maracyn a couple of months ago
for an uncontrollable bga problem

since then the tank has looked very well
until a stag and clado outbreak a few weeks ago

its probably worth mentioning that i have a lot of mulm under my cuba
i used to vac it well when doing w/c but since getting cherry shrimp
i have stopped doing this

Regards

4

 

[Philosophos]

If your NO3 is going above 40ppm with standard EI dose, you likely have too few plants. Half dose may also short potassium and phosphorous; the potassium would be hard to test for. Unless you're pushing over 40ppm of NO3, keep dosing full EI.

Also, what're your CO2 levels like? Has the fauna been pushed to stress by it yet? Do you use a drop cheacker at all? CO2 is the sort of thing that has to be presumed as a very likely problem until it's been ruled out.

I didn't catch the mulm bit; I've had this problem, it's death to HC. Your HC probably isn't rooting, but biological waste that could contain ammonia is building up underneath. This is going to help algae right along, and it'll pop up on the HC first. Get your HC clean, re-plant if necessary.

-Philosophos

 

[fourmations]

If your NO3 is going above 40ppm with standard EI dose, you likely have too few plants. Half dose may also short potassium and phosphorous; the potassium would be hard to test for. Unless you're pushing over 40ppm of NO3, keep dosing full EI.

Also, what're your CO2 levels like? Has the fauna been pushed to stress by it yet? Do you use a drop cheacker at all? CO2 is the sort of thing that has to be presumed as a very likely problem until it's been ruled out.

I didn't catch the mulm bit; I've had this problem, it's death to HC. Your HC probably isn't rooting, but biological waste that could contain ammonia is building up underneath. This is going to help algae right along, and it'll pop up on the HC first. Get your HC clean, re-plant if necessary.

-Philosophos

hi

thanks for the response...

i use a d/c but probably need to up the co2 a bit
its green all right, but could do with being bright lime colour, right?

the hc looks perfectly healthy and grows really well,
its just coming up a lot due to getting too bushy
and me trying to remove the clado
the roots look strong

i will get in there and clean the mulm out though

regarding the ei...
if I full dosed macro tonight, by the next due dose
it will still be 25ppm, is that okay?

thanks

4

 

[Philosophos]

I try to keep my drop checker about lime green by 2 hours after lights on. This is with a 4kh solution and low-range pH indicator reagent (bromothymol blue) mind you, not just DI H2O. With pure deionized water, you could keep it yellow all day and still not have enough CO2.

It'll be fine if you crank it the NO3 all the way up to 50ppm, which is heading into the "waste of money" range of fertilization. The fish will not keel over, even discus can be kept in this water.

-Philosophos