Thread and Hair algae :)

Why might you have light green water?

Lots iof light, slightly poor CO2 and NH4.

ADA and folks that use it do large water changes, 50-60% even 2-3 days, some folks do them 2x a week on average for the first 1-2 months, then once a week thereafter.

They also tend to use activated carbon and or zeolite etc.

What does that do?
Removes NH4 namely.

We can add all the KNO3 in the world and never induce GW.
Same with PO4, maybe have done so and all have failed.

NH4? Very easy to induce, mess with the CO2 a little, add high light, which you have, and add some NH4 leeching, =GW.

If you remove the NH4, say with zeolite and water changes, it will not be an issue.

For now:
3 day blackout + daily water changes(50-60%), turn off CO2 while the lights are off, dose 20mls of Excel each day, clean off the algae as best you can each day.
Add more current to the water surface etc.

After the 3 days, dose, add CO2, watch the CO2 very carefully this time, and do 2x a week water changes until the algae settles.

ADA tanks are not easy to start if you fail to do the routines Amano and others do.
You will get algae if you add high light + sub optimal CO2 and do less frequent water changes.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

Both Aqua soil and Powersand have NH4.

That's what causes some of the brown slime algae folks sometimes get.
If you use activated carbon/zeolite and do 2-3x a week water changes for the first 1-2 months like Amano, then there's no issue.

The NH4 leeches out, then and nice colony of bacteria develops on the outside the grains and prevents further leeching at high rates. Plants are also grown it by then so they are also removing it.

Adding the zeolite etc sequesters it chemically and the water change removes it manually. Plants and bacteria sequester it biologically for incorporation into biomass.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

Well, you maybe able to alter the pH probe and use it with KH reference solution inside a DO like membrane. Gas exchanges but not liquids. But the drop checker is a nice less accurate color approximation as well.

NH4: fish, but.........bacteria, organic matter break down, dead plant leaves, fungi, and a lot of stuff you folks cannot see unless you use a scope.
But in this case, the Aqua soil and power sand is loaded with NH4.

Excess is defined as enough to measure I suppose but that is somewhat arbitrary and does not consider other factors, such as hiow much light, CO2, plant biomass etc, time in the set phase etc.

Compound that with troubles getting good low level measurements, I have troubles measuring it with good lab equipment as the NH4 gets used up pretty rapidly. So what is present in the water column is not very well correlated with what gets to the plant, oxidized by bacteria or gets to the algae spores.

There are ways around this but no one has done so yet that I am aware of.
Maybe next year I will who knows though.......

So folks measuring NH4 will have troubles integrating these issues.

Any slow down in plant growth from low NO3, especially low CO2, will reduce the amount of NH4 removed by plants.

Less is better.
If there is one thing that's very toxic, "bad", induces algae if in excess etc, it's NH4.

More light= more issues with NH4.
More CO2: also more issues in many cases with NH4(in non CO2 tanks, the filter bacteria are use to a more steady system, and they provide a fairly stable uptake rate along with the plants, which while having low CO2, also have a staedy uptake rate of NH4.

Note, the uptake rate for a non CO2 plant tank is much lower for NH4, but that, + low light and stable CO2= stable NH4 uptake by the plants/bacteria and the rest is rapidly cycled by the bacteria which also have a much more stable supply of NH4 than in a higher light CO2 enriched tank that has variation in the CO2(confuses the plants).

I takes some time for the plants and the bacteria to adapt to taking in a certain level of NH4. You do not want it occurring all at once, that drains O2 and can induce algae.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

No it should not help the algae either way running it 24/7, unless you are not adding enough, many cannot add a lot of CO2 without gassing their fish pre dawn.

Why?
Causes there is less O2 then.
If you only add CO2 during the day, then you have lots of O2 as well as CO2, = less risk to fish and easier to add higher amounts for plants.

Blackouts are done because you deprive the algae of light for growth, but plants can weather it easily. Both plants and algae use CO2 during the day only, it does not help fish to add CO2 at night.

Folks suggest virtues of simplicity of using CO2 24/7, heck.........is it that hard to use a 5$ timer?
Feed the CO2 into a powerhead if you use DIY or do not have a solenoid etc.

Very simple, easy, and while folks carry on about the 20-30ppm of NO3, they have no issues with adding chronic CO2. I've yet to meet a plant person that's killed their fish/shrimps with KNO3, except myself with a test for amano shrimp, I got to 160ppm. I've never even met one that did any negative observable issue with KNO3 dosing to fish/critters etc.

We all hear stories of dead fish due to adding too much CO2............

Funny how folks are about that

I know plenty of folks that add it 24/7, they do fine etc also.
But I know that it could be improved, but many just do not bother unless they have a visible reason to do so, many can say that about many things in life.
And that's fine, we all do it to some degree somewhere in life.

Regards,
Tom Barr