yme;18474 said:
hi all,
A month further and still the battle continues.
I added amano shrimps, oto's and black mollies. Most of them died. I think it could be due to high CO2 levels. It is the only thing I can think of. therefore I set my pH 0.2 higher, at 6.2. So far, noting has died since. Could mean I am right.
Tried an excel treatment at half the dose --> only effect was the melting of some plants: potamogeton species. However, I also observed that my tonina was melting. After stopping the excel treatment, the melting stopped as well. Unforunately, I also played with my Mg levels at that time. At the sme time as I started the excel treatment I highered my Mg from 2 to 5 mg/l. After I saw the tonina melting I stopped the Mg increase as well as the excel treatment. So now I have the problem that I don't know what triggered the melting: excel or more Mg?? any idea?
However, since I lowered my CO2, I also see more BBA. I think there is plenty of surface agitation, with 3 powerheads in 90 liters, so I am affraid of increasing my CO2 again. Don't want to kill more organisms. Far too many already have
.
Anyway, not really any news from my side, but I would love to know what triggered the melting of my tonina.
greets,
yme
Namely CO2 I'd say.
You should be able to do some larger water changes, pruning, you have mostly stem plants anyway, and add some SAE;s they should maul the BBA also.
I'd just be very agressive about it.
Nutrients are hardly any related issue for BBA, it's almost all CO2 related.
One thing you might want to re- evaluate: the time it takes for the CO2 to get up to high enough levels, especially in the first few hours of the day cycle.
It's likely okay if you stop adding CO2 the last 45 min of the light cycle, but the first few hour are the most critical.
Even though I was adding plenty of CO2 into several tanks, I still had BBA.
I could gas the fish if I added more.
Yet why was I not able to get rid of it in thiese tanks vs the others I had using this same method?
The key was I used the glass diffusers, which took about 30-60 minutes to pressurize and get started adding the CO2, by then, 1-2 hours had elapsed under high light.
When I re set he CO2 to add it at 1 hour before, the BBA started going away.
In another case, the filter started degassing more and more when evaporation water was not added, this reduced the CO2 and induced both hair and BBA algae.
CO2 mist also showed to be effectiev at getting rid of the algae.
I think a combo of tweaking the CO2 well over the light peroid, good pruning and cleaning, some SAE's, some Amano shrimps etc ought to work for you.
Afterwards, you should not need so much labor/work.
Regards,
Tom Barr