Really frastrated and ready to quit

[sllo]

I have a 30G with 1 30W X Normal frourence and 1x39W T5.
I have presurised CO2 with an internal venturi reactor.
High fish load
I use the EI.
I add 1/4 tsp KNO3, 2 ppm of PO4 using KH2PO4 solution, 1/8 tsp K2SO4 3Xweek
5ml Flourish 3X week

I used to have a really bad case of GSA. I increased the CO2 to the point that my fish were gassping for air and then I turned the CO2 down a bit and the GSA is almost gone. I cant really calculate the CO2 from the Ph Kh chart because my water is messed up. Right now my Kh is 4 and Ph 5.8. At ph 5.7 the fish look stressed and at 5.6 the fish are gasping for air.

The problem I have right now is a green algae tha covers the leaves and the wood I have in the tank. It is soft and I can scrub it with my fingers.

Bellow I post some pics of this algae. How can I get rid of it. What am I missing or doing wrong?
I am really frastrated. every time I solve one problem then another one comes. I am really at the edge of quiting this hobby.

 

[Cornhusker]

Re: Really frastrated and ready to quit

Sllo,don't give up. stay tuned to the barr channel,help is on the way! regards,cornhusker

 

[PeterGwee]

Re: Really frastrated and ready to quit

You really need to clean up and trim off all the infected plants and then pack the tank with cheapo ones till things settles in. The new growth looks clean and good which could indicate you have corrected the tank conditions. Just keep up on the removal of algae and regular maintenance and the tank should pull through in 2-4 weeks time. Don't give up!

Regards
Peter Gwee

 

[Tom Barr]

Re: Really frastrated and ready to quit

Pretty much what Peter said.

Your plants are growing, but they covered pretty good there.
They seem a bit pale also.

What are you doing for GH?

For CO2, just eye ball it to a relative pH.
At 5.8, things grow well?
Do you have some surface movement?
You should have some, a piece of flake food should move around quickly, but there should not be waves/larger ripples etc.

I maintain slightly higher current than this and simply add a little bit more CO2.

This addresses the poor fish !
The combo of high CO2 and low O2 can cause them breathing problems.
I do not think it's just all low O2 alone.

GH, CO2, and a good cleaning and re set, remove all the algae you can and trim off the old leaves that are covered. Add some new cheapy plants till the other's grow back.

And do not give up.
I suffered a very long time with each main algae.


Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[Roman]

Re: Really frastrated and ready to quit

I will just repeat what Tom said a couple of times:

The issue at this point is that you have a nice established algae biomass.

The parameters can be good and both can co exist, till you go in and remove the algae that's there.

So spend the time to go through and uproot, clean, prune, harass the algae, then do a water change right away, wait 1-2 days, pick and clean again(no uprooting though), wipe glass good , clean equipment, clean filter and keep after the algae for a little while.

I will say this once again: The issue at this point is that you have a nice established algae biomass.

You have heavy case of green dust alge, same as I've had not so long ago. I was there, believe me and I know how you feel now. Let me tell you what I did and it worked.
I uprooted plants with bigger leaves and cleaned them under running water with soft sponge. I trimmed of what was beyond salvation. I almost drained water out and wiped glass clean with paper towels (toilet paper actually ). I cleaned filter and everything else. I have one 16L tank with small snails and I dumped plants with small leaves, ones I couldn't clean with sponge, in there and snails picked them clean in a couple of days. Then I returned them in tank. I dropt some snails into the tank as well to pick what's left of alge.
Next day there was some alge on the glass, so I drained water and wiped glass clean. I again cleaned a few plants, since some got some alge back, but in much lover extent. Then alge stop getting on my plants, but I still needed to clean my glass every second day for about 2 weeks. Not that there was a lot of alge, but once you start the fight, you must go all the way. I still clean glass once or twice a week, but the amount of alge is very small. It looks great now and plants grow like mad

 

[sllo]

Re: Really frastrated and ready to quit

Thank you guys for your help.
I will make one more attemped to fight this algae.
I will attack it so bad this time that if I dont kill it I will myself..... Just joking!!!!

I trimed some plants, I scrubed the algae from the anubias, I cleaned the driftwoods, I vacumed the gravel and cleaned the glass with paper towel.
I removed A LOT of algae, however there is still some in there. Cleaned the filter and finally I did a 75% water change.
The strange thing is that the algae is mainly on the old plant leaves. Almost none on the glass othing on new growth and nothing on the hair grass.
I will attack the algea again tommorow.

The new growth looks clean and good which could indicate you have corrected the tank conditions.

The algae covers the old leaves. Once the new growth becomes old it gets cover with algae. So I guess the conditions are not corrected.

What are you doing for GH?

The GH is 8. I just add 1/4 tsp epsom salt after every water change. Do I need to add more?

For CO2, just eye ball it to a relative pH.
At 5.8, things grow well?
Do you have some surface movement?
You should have some, a piece of flake food should move around quickly, but there should not be waves/larger ripples etc.

At 5.8 I would say that the plant growth is not as expected. I did not have any surface movement at all. I just added a small power head and created some as you described. I am going to start adding more CO2 and watch the fish.
What I dont understand is that I need a lot of CO2 bubbles to drop the Ph at 5.8. From posts I read, for a 30g tank most people use approx. 1bps, however I use almost 3bps.
As I mentioned before I am using a venturi rector, The tube is 2" wide and 6" long with a power head rating 500 liters/hour.


I have a 10 hour photoperiod. Will it help on fighting the algae if I reduce it to 8 hours?

 

[sllo]

Re: Really frastrated and ready to quit

I attacked the algae again today. There is not any sign of green dust anywhere.
I added more co2 and I almost kill the fish. Ph went down to 5.6, at 5.7 the look little stressed so I left it at 5.8.
I guess I have to wait and see the next few days if GD come back.

 

[Aquaman]

Re: Really frastrated and ready to quit

A picture is worth a thousand words but you should have also added a whole
tank shot. The tank is running rich. What are your DOP and NO3-N readings?
How long has the tank been set up? Are you dosing for nominal gallons or
actual gallons? Ease up on the dosing. Add some high users like H. difformis
or stem plants. Feed your echinodorus at their roots and not in the water column. Make sure there is enough current to prevent food particles settling/
breaking down on the slow growers leaves. Your N,P, and CO2 addition may be too high for the light level available given all the other considerations. Add
some algae eaters, esp. shrimp(but you will have to raise the pH to 6.6 or
better). For other husbandry reasons I would only recommend a pH as low
as 5.8 for temporary reasons such as inducing a spawning, fry sex ratio
manipulation, egg health, etc., but the species of fish where this matters usually require extremely soft water. Learn to drive well slowly before you try
race at high speed.