Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)

Hi,

John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.

I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.

With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.

I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.

If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.

I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.

I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.

Thank you
Darragh Sherwin

Algae..... :(

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sceilg (Craig Higgins)
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Junior Member

09 Dec 2007 00:30 - 09 Dec 2007 14:03 #1 by sceilg (Craig Higgins)

Algae..... :( was created by sceilg (Craig Higgins)

I am having problems with algae. I have a 4ft x 1ft x 15inch tank with two 40watt bulbs( one aqua glo and one power glo).
The substrate is Tetra plant complete and I use Nutrafin yeast based CO2, which I occassionaly supplement with a fraction of a sera CO2 tab in diffuser.
I did not dose with liquid ferts from the start because I was afraid of algae. I did try a supplement of substrate tabs though.
Anyway, the lighting is on for 10 hours per day and I am removing the algae manually on a regular basis.
The plants are showing deficiencies, old leaves don't last long, but growth is steady, however short-lived.
Should I dose liquids? Would this help? I have Sera florena.
Help is appreciated.

Last edit: 09 Dec 2007 14:03 by sceilg (Craig Higgins).

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will (will)
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10 Dec 2007 12:18 #2 by will (will)

Replied by will (will) on topic Re:Algae..... :(

I would definitely advise adding some fertiliser to the water column, with quite a few stem plants like cabomba in there until your slow growers get really established. With very regular fertilisation, CO2 and enough light the stem plants should out compete the algae. Liquid ferts are a good way to do this, if a little expensive in the long run. Sera ferts are probably fine, although I only have experience of JBL and Seachem.

Another key thing I have found is to religiously do a 20% water change every week while syphoning off crud from the substrate. This basically means that you are controling the nutrient level, and with light and CO2 your plants should thrive. Watch out for the CO2 canister running out, that also tends to act as a trigger for algae growth. Just change it regularly or run two out of synch if the pH is not too low.

Mature leaf problems are probably down to a lack of iron or some trace element, again, adding an all round liquid fertiliser should alleviate this.

It sounds like you are on the right track! I know it sounds weird saying that adding fertiliser will reduce algae, but you have to add it to achieve a balance which means plant growth, not algae growth. And when you get to that balance you need to keep up your maintenance to stay there, unlike me when I went to Thailand for three weeks having left an autofeeder on and came back to algae hell

After that though I did discover JBL Algol which amazingly does actually work if you have let things slip a bit. Good luck!