I'm am newbie on this aquascape style aquarium but have keep aquariums almost ten years (mainly fish and few plants etc). I have read this forum quite much and tried to learn things to get my tank get going. I hope this post vent to correct forum.
I started to remodel our family 150 us gallon (160cm x 60 cm 60 cm) aquarium to planted tank (this process started late november 2011). The tank was running during the time and no substrate was changed. Substrate is 3-4 years old layered (tetra plant substrate, tetra initial sticks, some red clay and peat) covered with 1-2mm "sand and gravel". I also used few packets of JBL balls to substrate during the planting and add homemade clay/peat balls in the substrate. So this is not any kind of commercial substrate. Plants grow quite well in this kind of substrate (I have not tried AS since it is very expensive and hard to get here in Finland).
Setup:
- Aquastabil Effect line aquarium and the hood.
- T5 x 4 80w HO lightning. 3x 14000K (arcadia marine white) and 1x 6500K (jbl plant) tubes (I like the white color versus more red/yellow ones)
- Eheim Professional 2 filter (model 2028, 1050 litres / hour 270gal or similar)
- CO2 from pressurized tank through internal venturi misting device (Tunze CO2 reactor with modified venturi loop) (about 4 bubbles per second in venturi loop). Drop checker is not "lime green" is somewhere blue/green color.
- Eheim aqua ball inside the aquarium make some current (500 litres / 130 gallons per hour)
No heater at the moment in aquarium. The temperature travels between 24,5c to 27c (76f-80f) during the day and night in winter time. Summer time it tops 30celsius. Is this changing temperature bad for plants?
I dose EI style (not sure is this correct) three times a week:
KNO3: 10ppm (from dry KNO3)
Phosphorus: (1,0 ppm) (from liquid Easy phosphorus, the dry powder is not arrived yet).
Excel 40 ml (water change, and 20ml daily)
Fe 25ml (from seachem FE supplement, 1ppm)
PMDD: 55 ml (as trace elements)
MY Pmdd includes:
K 0,85 %
Mg 0,41 %
S 0,90 %
B 0,0044 %
Cu 0,0007 %
Fe 0,07 %
Mn 0,04 %
Mo 0,0003 %
Zn 0,0040 %
Ph is around 6.9-7.1 (measured with different devices and tests)
KH is 5 and KG 6-7
Lights are on 9 hours a day ( two tubes whole time and all tubes only 5 hours). PAR levels at bottom with two tubes around 55-65 and 120 with all four tubes if the seneye device shows PAR values correctly. I have also lux meter but haven't tested it yet (sekonic light meter used in photography area which includes lux/lumen meter).
Plants are some stemming plants, cryptocurnes and HC. Tank is not full of the plants yet. The HC is covering about 50% of the tanks bottom at the moment. Around 25 tetras and few corydoras. No shrimps or algae eating fish since local shop did not have any at the moment.
Thats about my tank. But the now to the problem. First I go green water (I think that was because I move the plants and something come up from substrate. I fixed this with UV-sterilizator. There is green spot algae also but mainly in glass. But the problem is hair algae type which is dark green, about 1 inch wide "ball" (similar to this image: http://naturalaquariums.com/plantedtank/051002.JPG ) which grows inside HC carpet. It is not slimy or longer than 1 inch and it is easy to remove but it is taking over the HC carpet and I it grows faster and faster (I have to remove it everyday manually to keep it in somewhat not to overtake whole aquarium). The algae does not attach in other plants and it seems it also grows on some "dark spots like rocks edges etc).
Any suggestion what to do? I think there is several problems like get enough CO2 to aquarium with that reactor and after reading this forum maybe lightning is too strong and the water movement is too slow. But I'm not sure these things so I hope you can help me to get correct direction. Please let me know if I forgot something or something is totally wrong...
Best Regards: Mikko
I started to remodel our family 150 us gallon (160cm x 60 cm 60 cm) aquarium to planted tank (this process started late november 2011). The tank was running during the time and no substrate was changed. Substrate is 3-4 years old layered (tetra plant substrate, tetra initial sticks, some red clay and peat) covered with 1-2mm "sand and gravel". I also used few packets of JBL balls to substrate during the planting and add homemade clay/peat balls in the substrate. So this is not any kind of commercial substrate. Plants grow quite well in this kind of substrate (I have not tried AS since it is very expensive and hard to get here in Finland).
Setup:
- Aquastabil Effect line aquarium and the hood.
- T5 x 4 80w HO lightning. 3x 14000K (arcadia marine white) and 1x 6500K (jbl plant) tubes (I like the white color versus more red/yellow ones)
- Eheim Professional 2 filter (model 2028, 1050 litres / hour 270gal or similar)
- CO2 from pressurized tank through internal venturi misting device (Tunze CO2 reactor with modified venturi loop) (about 4 bubbles per second in venturi loop). Drop checker is not "lime green" is somewhere blue/green color.
- Eheim aqua ball inside the aquarium make some current (500 litres / 130 gallons per hour)
No heater at the moment in aquarium. The temperature travels between 24,5c to 27c (76f-80f) during the day and night in winter time. Summer time it tops 30celsius. Is this changing temperature bad for plants?
I dose EI style (not sure is this correct) three times a week:
KNO3: 10ppm (from dry KNO3)
Phosphorus: (1,0 ppm) (from liquid Easy phosphorus, the dry powder is not arrived yet).
Excel 40 ml (water change, and 20ml daily)
Fe 25ml (from seachem FE supplement, 1ppm)
PMDD: 55 ml (as trace elements)
MY Pmdd includes:
K 0,85 %
Mg 0,41 %
S 0,90 %
B 0,0044 %
Cu 0,0007 %
Fe 0,07 %
Mn 0,04 %
Mo 0,0003 %
Zn 0,0040 %
Ph is around 6.9-7.1 (measured with different devices and tests)
KH is 5 and KG 6-7
Lights are on 9 hours a day ( two tubes whole time and all tubes only 5 hours). PAR levels at bottom with two tubes around 55-65 and 120 with all four tubes if the seneye device shows PAR values correctly. I have also lux meter but haven't tested it yet (sekonic light meter used in photography area which includes lux/lumen meter).
Plants are some stemming plants, cryptocurnes and HC. Tank is not full of the plants yet. The HC is covering about 50% of the tanks bottom at the moment. Around 25 tetras and few corydoras. No shrimps or algae eating fish since local shop did not have any at the moment.
Thats about my tank. But the now to the problem. First I go green water (I think that was because I move the plants and something come up from substrate. I fixed this with UV-sterilizator. There is green spot algae also but mainly in glass. But the problem is hair algae type which is dark green, about 1 inch wide "ball" (similar to this image: http://naturalaquariums.com/plantedtank/051002.JPG ) which grows inside HC carpet. It is not slimy or longer than 1 inch and it is easy to remove but it is taking over the HC carpet and I it grows faster and faster (I have to remove it everyday manually to keep it in somewhat not to overtake whole aquarium). The algae does not attach in other plants and it seems it also grows on some "dark spots like rocks edges etc).
Any suggestion what to do? I think there is several problems like get enough CO2 to aquarium with that reactor and after reading this forum maybe lightning is too strong and the water movement is too slow. But I'm not sure these things so I hope you can help me to get correct direction. Please let me know if I forgot something or something is totally wrong...
Best Regards: Mikko
.