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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

Question regarding algae and carbon

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19 Feb 2008 23:17 #1 by sceilg (Craig Higgins)
Hey there. When I started a planted tank, I didn't add the carbon for fear of stripping the plant nutrients. Now I am fighting the algae war. I am just wondering, does carbon inhibit algae growth and is there a way of using it and still getting the nutrients to the plants.
Thanks

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20 Feb 2008 00:17 #2 by KenS (Ken Simpson)
Hi,

No, carbon will not help your algae problem. Can you please let us know the size of your tank, the wattage of your lights and how many hours you have them on per day.

Regards,

Ken.

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20 Feb 2008 20:35 #3 by sceilg (Craig Higgins)
The tank is 4ft by 1ft by 15inches I think and is about 30 gal.
There are two 40w bulbs- one an aqua-glo and one a power-glo.

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20 Feb 2008 21:13 #4 by KenS (Ken Simpson)
How long do you have the lights on each day?

Regards,

Ken.

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20 Feb 2008 21:51 #5 by sceilg (Craig Higgins)

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20 Feb 2008 23:04 #6 by KenS (Ken Simpson)
10 hours is a bit much and may be the cause of your algae problem. I would cut it back to 8. Try and do at least 30% water changes weekly and make sure you're not over feeding.

Are you adding any fertiliser?

Regards,

Ken.

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20 Feb 2008 23:39 #7 by sceilg (Craig Higgins)
Tetra plant complete substrte under gravel. Have started using liquids since bloom.

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21 Feb 2008 11:24 #8 by KenS (Ken Simpson)
I presume you are adding the ferts weekly as instructed. Adding a lot of ferts in one go can cause an algae bloom. It's best to add a very small amount every day or every couple of days.

Play around with amount of ferts and the time you have your lights on and you should see an improvement. It's all about getting the balance right.

Regards,

Ken.

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21 Feb 2008 12:59 #9 by Cardnim (Andrew Hanley)
SceilG, are you adding CO2 to your tank?

If so, you need to make sure it is at a constant level, as fluctuating CO2 levels is a massive trigger for algae.

If not, then I question why you need to be dosing ferts. Your plants wont be growing that quick (limited by the low CO2 levels) so they wont need additional ferts. All you are doing is feeding the algae.

My advice would be to elimiate phosphate completely (use RowaPhos or RowaSponge or similar) and then eliminate nirtate (I found a great product called \"Algone\" for this. Eliminated by nitrates within 1 week - although I suppose they werent that high at 10ppm to begin with)

From experience, Ive found its a bit dangerous to \"half\" do a planted tank. By that I mean, going some way to doing it but not the whole way. i.e. using substrate and ferts but not adding enough CO2 or lights.
Its completely possible to do it, as many people have beautiful tanks with plants and without injecting CO2, but what I found happened was the algae grew and outstripped the plants.

KenS hit the nail on the head - balance.

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21 Feb 2008 13:52 #10 by LimerickBandit (Donal Doran)
Tetra plant complete its all in the name why would you need additional ferts?

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21 Feb 2008 14:04 - 25 Feb 2008 09:36 #11 by Cardnim (Andrew Hanley)
Well for one major thing - its a substrate - so how do the ferts get into the water column?
Not all aquatic plants take in nutrients through their roots!!
And of those that do, not all are planted into the substrate (eg. microsorum pteropus, horwort, elodea sp., any mosses or ferns, anubias, etc, etc, etc)

Dont get duped by marketing slang - the term \"complete\" could mean anything, and in this case probably just means it contains all the essential trace elements for the plants without any additional phosphate etc.

If you are doing a low tech setup without alot of light, no CO2 etc etc, then the substrate is probably going to be fine (infact, I question why you would need it at all) but in a hi-tech planted setup you most definately need to add ferts on a daily basis for optimal growth. (and to prevent algae)
Last edit: 25 Feb 2008 09:36 by Cardnim (Andrew Hanley).

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24 Feb 2008 19:44 - 24 Feb 2008 19:45 #12 by sceilg (Craig Higgins)
Hi, I am dosing hagen nutrafin yeast based CO2 and a small fraction of a sera CO2 tablet in diffuser every 2 days or so.
Last edit: 24 Feb 2008 19:45 by sceilg (Craig Higgins).

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