New and seeking advice.

[kyrton]

what i have-
55g tank that is well populated with fish.
Moderately planted as i am just getting into the plants
2- 55w 6700k lights (the AHS kits) so just above 2w/g
Light schedule on for 8 hours
Fluval canister rated for 70g tank running at 100% flow rate
Smaller HOB filter rated for 50g to increase flow and CO2
Flourite substrate
No CO2 injection (i might give the diy method a second try)

Current Dosing routine-
Excel 5ml / day
Seacham Nitrogen- 2ml twice a week
Seacham Potassium- 10ml 3x week
Seacham Flourish (micro, trace and other nutrients) 5ml twice week.
API Leaf Zone 30ml twice a week.
50% water change per week.

I had fish pre-plants and have algae. Never got rid of it all and now it grows on everything. When i scrub off glass makes what appears to be white cloud. Algae on plants is brownish and hairy looking. Green algae on glass, drift wood is hairy too, both about 1-2ml in length.

I want to make sure my fert dosing is ok first of all. Second how to get rid of the algae growth. Third is my tank under planted?


Here is pic of overall tank

Next are my Algae.. its nasty, view discretion advised !

There are more pics of my tank if you want to look at some other close ups and my fish.

http://s203.photobucket.com/albums/aa30/kyrton/Fish/55g/

 

[guy tillmans]

To little bio mass, ad more fastgrowing plants. 2 wpg light ?! thats critical without co2 injection. You might use excel as alternative source of carbon.

 

[guy tillmans]

Sorry i didn't saw you're dosing excel already, may be time to think about co2 injection.

 

[kyrton]

I do not currently have the money for CO2 injection. I made a DIY using 2x 1gal bottles but i think the yeast was bad on my first attempt. I might have to give that another try until i can buy a pressurized system.

 

[Carissa]

You don't need to inject co2. I wouldn't recommend attempting diy on a tank bigger than 30 gallons, it's very difficult to keep stable.

It looks like much of what you have is brown algae, a few oto's will make short work of that. Do you have any fish to eat algae? In a non-co2 tank you really need some. In that sized tank, about 8 oto's would do nicely.

I don't know how to convert what you are adding to ppm's, but at a starting point you could increase your fertilizing and just see what happens. Follow the directions for dosing Excel.

2 wpg isn't high light, definitely doable with Excel and no co2. But you do need some algae eating fish.

With a high fish load, make sure that you are doing a good gravel vac every week with your water change, this will help cut back on algae too. Also keep your filters clean and especially make sure that they aren't clogged with dead plant mass, this causes algae problems too.

Every week, prune any badly affected leaves and do a full scrape a couple of hours before the water change. Also, driftwood can sometimes be a bad thing, it will often grow algae no matter what you do. Take it out and put it into a bucket with water and some bleach for an hour or so, then rinse thoroughly in heavily dechlorinated water. This will kill whatever is on there now, at least.

 

[Mooner]

what i have-
55g tank that is well populated with fish.
Moderately planted as i am just getting into the plants

Yes, add more plants. You can't have enough in a non CO2 tank.

2- 55w 6700k lights (the AHS kits) so just above 2w/g
Light schedule on for 8 hours

This is to much light. Your current set up lends itself better to CO2 as suggested. If you can't do pressurized CO2 then cut your lighting back. Many still use the WPG rule to loosely. There is a big difference between the following: T12,T8,PC's,T5 and MH. 2 WPG of T8 would work great for your set up. But 2 WPG of PC's with refectors is too much for an Excel tank IME. Been there and done that.

Fluval canister rated for 70g tank running at 100% flow rate
Smaller HOB filter rated for 50g to increase flow and CO2
Flourite substrate
No CO2 injection (i might give the diy method a second try)

Current Dosing routine-
Excel 5ml / day
Seacham Nitrogen- 2ml twice a week
Seacham Potassium- 10ml 3x week
Seacham Flourish (micro, trace and other nutrients) 5ml twice week.
API Leaf Zone 30ml twice a week.
50% water change per week.

I had fish pre-plants and have algae. Never got rid of it all and now it grows on everything. When i scrub off glass makes what appears to be white cloud. Algae on plants is brownish and hairy looking. Green algae on glass, drift wood is hairy too, both about 1-2ml in length.

I want to make sure my fert dosing is ok first of all. Second how to get rid of the algae growth. Third is my tank under planted?

Look here for a good calc on SeaCHem product to get a starting point.
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/attachment.php?attachmentid=5525&d=1192589007

IMO I would save for a pressurized CO2 system and buy your ferts in bulk quantity running about 1/3 EI. For now, though you can have a good tank using Excel with less light and moderate growth. Do weekly WC's and take Excel to 1.5x daily recomendations. Do not raise weekly/WC recomendations though.

 

[Carissa]

^ Sorry, I didn't realize they were PC's.

 

[kyrton]

Thanks guys for the info.

I brought my Oto count up to 5 as of today. Only had 2 before. Bought some ghost shrimp also, but i think they might become fish food to the rainbows.

I am saving up for a pressurized system. Think i might order Rex's regulator, if i don't build one myself. And i plan on buying bulk ferts this week.

Question, CO2 compresses to a liquid at 700-750 psi correct? I ask cause a family member might be able to get me an oxygen tank that fire fighters use that is old and being replaced or just can not hold the 3500psi of oxygen any longer.

 

[jeremy v]

Oxygen tanks and CO2 tanks use different regulators and have different thread patterns on the tanks themselves and at the regulator refill connections. That is done so that you couldn't for example accidentally try to refill a CO2 tank, which is designed to hold 800-900psi of CO2 with oxygen that can easily get into the 3000+psi range and have an explosion. The regulators are often designed differently to optimize their usefulness in each application as well and they aren't interchangeable. Even if you could get it to work, it would be illegal for any gas company to refill a tank with any gas other than the one than the tank was designed for.

Have a good one, Jeremy

 

[kyrton]

Ok thank you.