New aquascaping tank

beginning to look good love the rockwork, keep us posted

looking good!

Mickey

Looking great, seriously impressive !!! Great post, keep it coming
Pat

It seems quite a lot of light Darragh especially versus the relatively little plant mass you have there atm, I would keep the full blast, all lights on period short until some growth starts to kick in. Im not sure how your lights are configured but I would not use them all on for the full light period, maybe use all the lights for 4-5 hours max, and then maybe knock off two of them for the remaining light period duration and just run 3 lights, thats what I would do anyway until things settle in a bit.

Make sure the CO2 is good, and that the bubbles are being distributed around the tank evenly from the diffuser, if thats good it will solve most of the initial algae problems. Also if you are using a solenoid make sure to run the CO2 at least 2-3 hours before lights on to ensure enough CO2 is in the water column, if in doubt dose some Easy carbo daily to make up for lack of CO2.

Hi Darragh,

How is your planted tank getting on? Can you already see some growth on the plants or does it take a few weeks to be noticeable ?

Valerie

hi daragh,
how's the planted tank comming along? any updates on this thread?
regards
joe mc

Hi Daragh,
keep the chin up if you don't try you achieve nothing!
can i suggest a new route?
tell me to go away if you like!

scrap the plants
leave off the co2
for that size tank replace the plants with the following
12 A. siamensis
10-15 strands of green cabomba
6-7 large common amazon swords
10 pieces of Hygrophila difformis
3-4 giant vallis
a couple of dozen mixed crypts (make sure they were grown emersed)
a couple of specimen plants like
Aponogeton bolivinanus and tiger lotus lily
don't feed for the first month untill you see growth slowing down as the nutrients in the substrate start to dry up
and put your lights on for 5 hours in the morning a break of 4-5 hours and then another 5 hours in the evening
if your water is showing no2 or no3 throw a sachet of Nitra-Zorb into the filter
don't aerate the tank
put in a shoal of 1-2 inch tetras
and hey presto get your pruning sissors out!!!!

or you could try one or two bits of the above hopefully something above will help
Rock on old school planted tanks !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

regards
joe mc

Daragh you have invested to much time etc. to give up on this tank. I think everyone gets there visit from the algae monster at some stage.
Every thing you mention i have done at some stage or another. Even emptying Co2 cylinders into tanks. These things are little lessons, that's all.
If it was me i would do plenty of water changes and remove as much algae by hand as possible. Once the algae clears (and it will) you can reduce the water changes.

aye, sure no point in giving up Darragh even the old hands at this game can still have problems.

This is my 2008 ADA competition entry a couple of weeks ago.





all good now though;)

Darragh i can give you a bucket full of Hygrophila guianensis. This is verry fast growing and will suck up those excess nutrients.

Zig did you figure out what causes this powdery algae? I am having a small belt of it myself at the moment. Just a light film on the glass and i have no spare Otto's to suck it up.

Darren the powdery algae is green dust algae or GDA, its pretty common in new setups. I find I normally get it on mature tanks if I use too much light over a tank. Usually removing a light tube or reducing the light period cures it pretty easily, so if I see it showing up I sort of use it an an indicator of the max light threshold over a given tank FOR THE AMOUNT OF FERTS THAT I AM ADDING and just reduce the light period. Its all about the balance I believe, light, CO2, amount of ferts you are adding etc.

In this case though it was probably a small ammonia spike in this tank, nothing to do with the amount of light or ferts, I introduced 3 ottos into this tank (new tank)and 3 days later, full blown outbreak of GDA, this is probably the worst algae I have had in a couple of years, definitely the worst case of GDA I have ever had. Im running this tank (100 litres) with a new Eheim 2213 filter so before I introduced the fish I took 2 large sponges from a mature cycled Eheim 2215 filter and put them in the new filter and then introduced the fish to the tank, the fish were fine no problems there, so Im putting it down to that event basically, before that the tank had been running fine for about 3 weeks with no fish and no algae, so obviously not enough bacteria in the tank or filter to cope with the introduction of the fish.

Here's an excert from an algae guide which I think is pretty good.

Description (of the algae)

---

Forms on the glass creating a dusty appearance across the glass. Sometimes so bad you can't see into the tank.

Cause

---

Low CO2. Low nutrients. Quite common on new setups.

Removal

---

Easily removed with a magnetic glass scraper or similar (Personally I wouldnt do this just leave it because it comes back) Often reappears very quickly. Allow the algae to run its full cycle by leaving it well alone for 3 weeks. It may become unsightly but just bear with it. Then scrape it all off and do a large water change. Sometimes requires a second treatment to fully clear and leaving it for 4 weeks. Recommended to slightly reduce dosing during treatment.

Anyway alls well now, its probably one of the easiest algaes to deal with, just looks crap for weeks though.

When the green dust algae started i increased the Co2 for a couple of days to see if this was the problem. The growth seemed to be the same. Then i reduced the fert, again no obvious signs of more/less growth. Then reduced light. Same result.
It is nowhere near as bad as your smile photo so i will let it run it's course.