Hi everyone.
I've got a corner tank which is about 145-150L (after substrate displacement)
The substrate is 1" of Dennerle Deponit topped with 1" of gravel.
Lighting is a 150W 5500K metal halide. (recently upgraded from 4 x 18w tubes) Water depth is about 17"
I've got a moderate fish load: 4 shrimps, 6 pepper corydoras, 10 Neons, an Elephant Nose & 1 (juvenile) Discus.
Temperature is around 27 - 28 degrees C
I have a good cover of Cabomba, Hygrophila (Polysperma & Corymbosa), Eustralis Stellata, Hydrocotyle Leucocephela.
An Echinodorus 'Red Flame', a Crinum Thaianum, Anubias Barteri & Microsorum Pteropus 'Windelov' on bogwood, some Crypts and some Eleocharis Acicularis and Echinodorus Tennelus in the front
A few weeks ago I had a really nasty slime algae attack. After a good prune and clean of the plants, a water change and three days covered up I cured it and soon after upgraded the lights. With the lights improved, the plants really seemed to take off, pearling like crazy and putting on some good growth.
Last week I took out some of the fast growers and replaced them with medium growth and carpet plants;
Cryptocoryne (v Balansae, Becketii, Wendtii),
Pogestemon Helferi,
Marsilia Hirsuta.
I also took out the Tennelus because it was an algae trap!!
In the last few days I seem to be having a dose of hair algae. It's a dusting on the glass and is covering the Echinodorus & Crypt leaves, the Lileaopsis Brasiliensis, Crinum and Vallis in particular. The Echiodorus was going quite well having nice clean rubbery looking leaves.
I'm changing 50% weekly and dry dosing ferts thrice weekly (by weight) calculated by Chuck's dosing calculator.
KNO3; 2.75g which I make to be 11.5ppm NO3 & 7.25ppm K.
K2SO4; 1.0g to boost K by an extra 3ppm.
KH2PO4; .5g to boost P by 2.4ppm (does the mono potassium boost K?)
I dose traces by Aqua Essentials (a UK company) using their supplied dosing schedule.
However, I found FE was a little low; some leaves were yellowing and a few holes appeared in plants. Testing using a Hagen FE test showed about 0.1 chelated iron so I now also dose .35g FeSO4 which should add an extra 0.5ppm.
Water is RO, reconstituted to bring kH back up to 4. I also add a teaspoon of MgSO4 & two teaspoon of Calcium Sulphate to bolster gH.
Just prior to dosing today I tested (using Hagen test kits) and got the following:
0.0 ppm Unchelated FE
0.6 ppm Chelated FE
70 mg/L kH (about 4 degrees dH)
100 mg/L gH (about 5½ degrees dH)
6.6 pH
Around 29 ppm CO2 (I use a pH controller and solenoid to control CO2 levels and a Dennerle long term CO2 test to confirm it)
2.5 mg/L PO4
8.0 mg/L NO3
Ammonia & NO2 not detectable on my kits.
Am I right in thinking that mg/L equates roughly to ppm?
From what I've read the algae on the glass can either be wiped off or, if I leave it, should go away after a while on it's own. Is that right? What of the algae on the plants? It's very short, light green and doesn't wipe off easily.
When I toss in the dry ferts the neons in particular dive on it. Can I assume it will do them no harm? I assume they spit out / pass through their gills what they don't like.
CO2 & bio load seem OK, everything else seems OK. The plants are still pearling well. Am I missing anything? I put a few Hygrophila stems back in today in case I have taken out too many.
Brian
I've got a corner tank which is about 145-150L (after substrate displacement)
The substrate is 1" of Dennerle Deponit topped with 1" of gravel.
Lighting is a 150W 5500K metal halide. (recently upgraded from 4 x 18w tubes) Water depth is about 17"
I've got a moderate fish load: 4 shrimps, 6 pepper corydoras, 10 Neons, an Elephant Nose & 1 (juvenile) Discus.
Temperature is around 27 - 28 degrees C
I have a good cover of Cabomba, Hygrophila (Polysperma & Corymbosa), Eustralis Stellata, Hydrocotyle Leucocephela.
An Echinodorus 'Red Flame', a Crinum Thaianum, Anubias Barteri & Microsorum Pteropus 'Windelov' on bogwood, some Crypts and some Eleocharis Acicularis and Echinodorus Tennelus in the front
A few weeks ago I had a really nasty slime algae attack. After a good prune and clean of the plants, a water change and three days covered up I cured it and soon after upgraded the lights. With the lights improved, the plants really seemed to take off, pearling like crazy and putting on some good growth.
Last week I took out some of the fast growers and replaced them with medium growth and carpet plants;
Cryptocoryne (v Balansae, Becketii, Wendtii),
Pogestemon Helferi,
Marsilia Hirsuta.
I also took out the Tennelus because it was an algae trap!!
In the last few days I seem to be having a dose of hair algae. It's a dusting on the glass and is covering the Echinodorus & Crypt leaves, the Lileaopsis Brasiliensis, Crinum and Vallis in particular. The Echiodorus was going quite well having nice clean rubbery looking leaves.
I'm changing 50% weekly and dry dosing ferts thrice weekly (by weight) calculated by Chuck's dosing calculator.
KNO3; 2.75g which I make to be 11.5ppm NO3 & 7.25ppm K.
K2SO4; 1.0g to boost K by an extra 3ppm.
KH2PO4; .5g to boost P by 2.4ppm (does the mono potassium boost K?)
I dose traces by Aqua Essentials (a UK company) using their supplied dosing schedule.
However, I found FE was a little low; some leaves were yellowing and a few holes appeared in plants. Testing using a Hagen FE test showed about 0.1 chelated iron so I now also dose .35g FeSO4 which should add an extra 0.5ppm.
Water is RO, reconstituted to bring kH back up to 4. I also add a teaspoon of MgSO4 & two teaspoon of Calcium Sulphate to bolster gH.
Just prior to dosing today I tested (using Hagen test kits) and got the following:
0.0 ppm Unchelated FE
0.6 ppm Chelated FE
70 mg/L kH (about 4 degrees dH)
100 mg/L gH (about 5½ degrees dH)
6.6 pH
Around 29 ppm CO2 (I use a pH controller and solenoid to control CO2 levels and a Dennerle long term CO2 test to confirm it)
2.5 mg/L PO4
8.0 mg/L NO3
Ammonia & NO2 not detectable on my kits.
Am I right in thinking that mg/L equates roughly to ppm?
From what I've read the algae on the glass can either be wiped off or, if I leave it, should go away after a while on it's own. Is that right? What of the algae on the plants? It's very short, light green and doesn't wipe off easily.
When I toss in the dry ferts the neons in particular dive on it. Can I assume it will do them no harm? I assume they spit out / pass through their gills what they don't like.
CO2 & bio load seem OK, everything else seems OK. The plants are still pearling well. Am I missing anything? I put a few Hygrophila stems back in today in case I have taken out too many.
Brian