5 Gallon Planted Tank

[maxwellag]

Well, this ebay transaction turned out OK after all. The seller decided to give me a full refund and not even have me send them back. I am still debating whether or not to use these ones, or order some Cal Aqua Fluxus pipes and use these as a spare set.

 

[maxwellag]

I am having some diatom and green (on the glass) algae. So far I have just been scraping it off, but it is getting pretty annoying.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

Do you have a phosphate deficiency? What's you PO4 level?

 

[maxwellag]

Do you have a phosphate deficiency? What's you PO4 level?

I don't know because I don't have a phosphate test kit. I don't think it would be a phosphate deficiency causing, but rather an overabundance of them.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

That depends on which algae it is. Green Dust Algae, like diatoms, usually goes away on it's own within about a month and nerite snails will eat both diatoms and GDA.

Green Spot algae is almost always caused by low phosphates. I dose extra phosphate when I see it and that gets rid of it pretty quickly. Nerite snails sometimes eat GSA, too.

Planted tanks will always have algae issues if phosphate and nitrates are to low. It's the one type of tank where zero nitrates and phosphates are a bad thing. It took me years to understand that. lol

 

[maxwellag]

That depends on which algae it is. Green Dust Algae, like diatoms, usually goes away on it's own within about a month and nerite snails will eat both diatoms and GDA.

Green Spot algae is almost always caused by low phosphates. I dose extra phosphate when I see it and that gets rid of it pretty quickly. Nerite snails sometimes eat GSA, too.

Planted tanks will always have algae issues if phosphate and nitrates are to low. It's the one type of tank where zero nitrates and phosphates are a bad thing. It took me years to understand that. lol

Yeah, I was actually planning on ordering some nerite snails pretty soon. I am pretty sure that the green algae I have is green dust algae. The diatoms aren't as big of an issue as the GDA is.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

Yeah, I was actually planning on ordering some nerite snails pretty soon. I am pretty sure that the green algae I have is green dust algae. The diatoms aren't as big of an issue as the GDA is.

Green dust is so easy to get rid of. Just do normal weekly water changes and scrape it off the glass once or twice a week and after about three weeks it won't come back. It's got a short "shelf life". lol

Nerites are so great to have. Most shops have them in stock. I keep three types: olive green, tiger and zebra. Olives are the kings of algae eating but the others are so pretty. Wish horned nerites were easier to find. I've never seen em in a shop.

 

[maxwellag]

Green dust is so easy to get rid of. Just do normal weekly water changes and scrape it off the glass once or twice a week and after about three weeks it won't come back. It's got a short "shelf life". lol

Nerites are so great to have. Most shops have them in stock. I keep three types: olive green, tiger and zebra. Olives are the kings of algae eating but the others are so pretty. Wish horned nerites were easier to find. I've never seen em in a shop.

Yeah, my LFS has them but they are expensive there. I would rather get them with a large order of fish, inverts and plants online and save some money. I have had them before and they did great. I have been scraping the GDA off and doing water changes.

 

[maxwellag]

I think I may have found my issue with lack of growth of the HC: Lack of plant matter. Haha! I Ordered a 3x5 inch mat, so I should have plenty now.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

I don't know man. HC can be hard to grow. I've found that CO2 and strong light is pretty much a must and root tabs also seem to help it. You may be able to grow it with a fresh batch. Once it gets going it slowly starts to spread. It doesn't mind being directly sprayed with Excell which is something I do often to keep it free from algae as well as give it a carbon boost (even though I use pressurized co2). Let us know how it goes.

 

[maxwellag]

I don't know man. HC can be hard to grow. I've found that CO2 and strong light is pretty much a must and root tabs also seem to help it. You may be able to grow it with a fresh batch. Once it gets going it slowly starts to spread. It doesn't mind being directly sprayed with Excell which is something I do often to keep it free from algae as well as give it a carbon boost (even though I use pressurized co2). Let us know how it goes.

I have co2, strong light and daily pps pro fert dosing. I am pretty sure my issue was that the tiny stems I had were either dead or not growing because they were buried in the substrate too deep. I think I just needed a larger amount, because it grows exponentially. Starting with a larger amount means growing faster, given the right conditions.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

Sounds like a good plan. I started with three healthy pots of HC and that made establishing it way easier than starting out with only a little.

 

[maxwellag]

I decided to go ahead and use the ebay lily pipes. Sorry for the bad cell phone pics!

Inflow:

Outflow:

I switched back to the inline co2 diffuser.

 

[d_flo_yo]

I hope the seller isn't on the forums. He's probably banging his head on his desk haha. It looks good. I can't wait to upgrade to a canister so I can get the heat and co2 out of the tank. Looking forward to the next update.

 

[maxwellag]

I am getting CRS and a few chili rasboras from Fort so I decided I better get a heater for this tank. I got the hydor 200w online heater. Right now the tank is sitting dry with hc. I got new aquasoil since the old stuff I had turned to mud. I'll have to quarantine the new critters for a while until the new aquasoil stops leaching ammonia.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

That's the same heater that's on my tank. Talk about rocks. You're never going to go back to in tank heaters. Nothing keeps a tank's temp nearly as stable as the inline Hydors. Awesome grab man! This tank is gonna be so sweet.

 

[Billbug68]

That's the same heater that's on my tank. Talk about rocks. You're never going to go back to in tank heaters. Nothing keep a tank's temp nearly as stable as the inline Hydors. Awesome grab man! This tank is gonna be so sweet.

Good to know, coralline. I've got one coming for my new build as well.

 

[maxwellag]

I'm excited to set this tank up again! The heater is really big, but it won't be a problem. It's taller than the tank!

 

[fort384]

LOL it is way oversized for the tank, but it will work well enough. I ran the same heater on that tank for a few years.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

LOL it is way oversized for the tank, but it will work well enough. I ran the same heater on that tank for a few years.

Definitely! It's oversized on my 20 but I'd NEVER go back to a normal heater. I'm glad you gave your endorsement. It certainly carries more weight then mine, especially since you used it on this exact tank.