New To Aquascaping - My 30cm Cube, And Algae Prevention Questions.

[Halfmoonleather]

Hello, Im new to aquascaping and i just finished my second attempt at an aquascape. I want to know what are some of the best practices to keep in mind during the cycle of the aquarium to make sure algae doesnt run rampant and cause major headache down the road. How long should i run my lights in the beginning? Should I do daily water changes for a week or so? I only have very slow growing plants (purposefully), will this hurt in the beginning with nothing to harshly compete with the algae?

This is a 30cm cube aquarium that I am running with the following:

-Pressurized co2
- onf flat nano
- oase thermosmart 100 filled with seachem matrix, purigen, and floss. I also added seachem stability today.

Plants are parva, dwarf baby tears, mini dwarf hair grass, weeping moss, peacock moss, taiwan moss and waiting on some buce and anubias to come in. All plants are tissue culture.

I made the scape from driftwood roots. It was a pita and took me 5 days but im a novice. Made me respect the pros even more that do it on a larger scale.

Thank you so much for any help provided to this newb.

 

[Allwissend]

That is a very nice tank, well scaped with a strong forced perspective on it. Once the moss fills in you can work on it even more.

As you are using some type of aquasoil in there, daily water changes for the first week, every other day for the second week and so on. Since it's a small tank you can even do daily water changes for all the first 2-3 weeks. The issue is the ammonia from the aquasoil. So change the water then add fertilizer. Good tissue culture plants come with plenty of nutrient storage but a bit of extra iron and K helps them. With your species selection light at the start can be between 4 to 6h per day at the start (around first month). Then increase the light duration gradually. ONF Flat is a decent light so better keep a close eye on the light levels and raise the light/dim/ reduce light period if you see green algae growing.

 

[Halfmoonleather]

That is a very nice tank, well scaped with a strong forced perspective on it. Once the moss fills in you can work on it even more.

As you are using some type of aquasoil in there, daily water changes for the first week, every other day for the second week and so on. Since it's a small tank you can even do daily water changes for all the first 2-3 weeks. The issue is the ammonia from the aquasoil. So change the water then add fertilizer. Good tissue culture plants come with plenty of nutrient storage but a bit of extra iron and K helps them. With your species selection light at the start can be between 4 to 6h per day at the start (around first month). Then increase the light duration gradually. ONF Flat is a decent light so better keep a close eye on the light levels and raise the light/dim/ reduce light period if you see green algae growing.

Thank you so much for the kind words and response! So, am i to be adding fertilizer at this point? Daily? Or did I read your post wrong. For fets i have Thrive from nilocg. I do also have seachem iron in a separate bottle. Thanks again!

 

[Allwissend]

Pleasure. That would be my suggestion. After the daily water change add a normal dose of Thrive. For one the water change next day will likely take out a good part of it and fresh aquasoil is a sponge for phosphate. Around week 3, as you reduce the water changes you can start adjusting the frequency of dosing.