Some Plant and light algae issues. Need suggestions.

[I Love Aqautic Weeds!]

If I could get some help, I would really appreciate it.

Info,

-46 Bowfront
-Co2 is GLA pressure with bubble counter (4bps) into large inline reactor (2 1/2in by 16in long)
-Drop checker reads lime green
-Digital 300 watt heater set to 76.5 and my regular thermometer reads the same.
-filters, 2217 and a 2215 with no carbon and I just cleaned them both 3 weeks apart from one another
-Full EI dosing
-Lighting, T-5 NO 1.8 watts, I cut the light down to .91 for a week and it made only a small difference for the better.

Plants,

Ludwigia Glandulosa
Ludwigia Repens
Crypts, green and brown
Java Moss
Java Fern

The plants are all growing, however the Glandulosa’s leaves have recently started twisting at the tips, the Java Moss has a strange looking very short white hair algae growing on it and I’m getting some (what looks like) brown algae on all the lower leaves of everything and on the glass. Every time I do a water change the water gets slightly cloudy for about 4 hours or so and then clears. I have surface scum that comes back after I clear it in just a few hours, otherwise the water is pretty clean and clear.

Picture of surface scum in bottle that I siphoned it off the surface with; I clear it every day when I dose. If you look at the water in the tank you can see it’s quite clear.

Tank,

 

[dutchy]

Hi,

Maybe you should use a surface skimmer, that will prevent the surface scum to build up and keep the water oxygenated better. Do you have enough surface ripple?

If less light made a difference, even a small one, it tells me where to look at. Less light = less demand for CO2. I'd try to get some improvements here. Nice that you dropchecker is lime green, but it doesn't say that much about the actual level, is it 20? 30? or even more important, is it enough for your plants?

You could try to tweak CO2 bit by bit and see what happens. Do it slowly, wait a week after each adjustment and watch your plants closely. Difference in leaf size is a good indicator here.

Good luck,
regards,
dutchy

 

[Tug]

Hi all,
Another possibility, insufficient magnesium restricts RuDP carboxylase and CO2 assimilation. Deficiency symptoms often result in leaf distortion for this reason. Maybe, GH booster is not providing enough Mg in this case. I would look at GH (Mg in particular) and rule out as many things as you can. Otherwise, what dutchy said makes a great deal of sense.

:gw A general rule of thumb, is to check the following and adjust accordingly;

• lighting
• Supply and demand (macro & micro nutrients)
• water circulation and surface agitation (O2, nutrient & CO2 dispersion)
• aquarium hygiene and organic (mulm) build-up.

In this case, low Oxygen levels might be causing surface film. A little increase to the surface ripple should improve your situation. Water circulation additions (powerheads) or betterment (direction of water currents) can improve CO2, O2 and nutrient availability. Rather then open up your regulator to add more CO2, try changing the direction of water flow to improve or "tweak" nutrient availability.

For great descriptions of surface scum and algae,
Dusko Bojic's article is a very comprehensive resource.
http://www.aquariumalgae.blogspot.com/


I hope this is helpful.

 

[I Love Aqautic Weeds!]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. I have dropped the photoperiod to 8 hours and turned up the Co2 up higher. I have good surface movement and the filters are very clean.

I do not use the GH booster as my tap water is in the 8-9 range. and KH is in the 6-7 range.

One thing I do think may be causing part of the issue is the fact that when I did the rescape I left a lot of roots from Anubias Nana and the Crypts in the substrate.

Could it be that they are rotting in the substrate and releasing a lot of organic compounds into the water column?

The old scape, and there were LOTS of roots that I left in the substrate,

 

[Gerryd]

Hi,

You should remove them if there are not resprouting from the root clump. Crypts are notorious for showing up 'years' after you thought they were gone

Give the substrate a nice gentle vacumming and see what you get. It won't hurt I think....

 

[Gerryd]

Hi,

Your plant mass is greatly reduced between the two pictures... I would add some more plants even if they are only temporary....looks barren in comparison...at least to me

your tank!

 

[I Love Aqautic Weeds!]

Hi,

Your plant mass is greatly reduced between the two pictures... I would add some more plants even if they are only temporary....looks barren in comparison...at least to me

your tank!

I was hoping with the new GLA Co2 that things would grow in quikly. I'm going to give the changes I've made so far a week and see what happens. I also just bought a new lighting system,

It is almost identical wattage but sits a bit higher and only uses 2 bulbs. 2 bulbs 6000K and 6,700K 78 watts puting me the tank at 1.7 wpg T-5 HO