75 BIG BAD GALLONS OF PLANTED GREEN & FISH (work in progress)[many pix i prmomis]

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Nitrates are used by plants, thats why in higher light+CO2 injected tanks you have to add nitrate. Try keeping it between 10-20ppm. If they bottom out then it will stunt the plants and give algae an advantage to take off.

If a brand new aquarium some algae is expected. There are many different thoughts and options that different people do to get around this.

One method is not to stock any fish, add enough ferts, then crank the CO2 way up.

Others use a very short photo period for 1 month or so and after that they add 1/2hr of lighting per week till they get where they want to be or till they have issues.

hard to say whats the best way, as everyone does things slightly different

If you have fish its not good to make large changes to CO2 levels, they should be done gradually.
 
A recent theory that I've heard which seems to make sense and falls in line with my own experiences, is that bga often results from an excess of N2 gas. This can happen if a substrate becomes anaerobic (which will happen more especially if it's fine grained, and doesn't have snails/others burrowing through it regularly, as detritus settles into it). What happens is that nitrate is actually converted to nitrogen gas by bacteria that only live in the presence of little to no oxygen, and it's a known fact that bga can and does use nitrogen gas to grow although plants cannot do this. So you may want to look at getting a big bunch of Malaysian Trumpet Snails, who burrow in sand and prevent it from becoming anaerobic. In the meantime, stirring up the sand and gravel vacing it really good, even just stirring it regularly, can perhaps stem the tide of bga. The fact that your nitrates are down, would fall in line with this, as the anaerobic bacteria consume it and convert it to N2.

Another thing to note, algae eating fish do not generally eat bga.

Just personal experience, I have had co2 levels go from 0 to 30ppm overnight, and in reverse, and everywhere in between, with no apparent effect on my fish. But I don't keep particularly sensitive fish either.
 
SpeedEuphoria said:
Nitrates are used by plants, thats why in higher light+CO2 injected tanks you have to add nitrate. Try keeping it between 10-20ppm. If they bottom out then it will stunt the plants and give algae an advantage to take off.

If a brand new aquarium some algae is expected. There are many different thoughts and options that different people do to get around this.

One method is not to stock any fish, add enough ferts, then crank the CO2 way up.

Others use a very short photo period for 1 month or so and after that they add 1/2hr of lighting per week till they get where they want to be or till they have issues.

hard to say whats the best way, as everyone does things slightly different

If you have fish its not good to make large changes to CO2 levels, they should be done gradually.
Click to expand...

Well It is a new tank, and Its my first ever real big tank/ with real plants and lots of fish.. so I dont have much experience with algae of any form. Im waiting to get my drop checker to see what my co2 levels really are.. according to the calculator with a dkh of 4* and ph of 6.6 I should have 30ppm of co2.. but like people said that calc is not very accurate due to the other circumstances that could be altering my pH (altho I know the co2 is the major contributor in the changing of my pH). Since I can watch it drop on my pH controller when the co2 gets higher than my set level and the solenoid is swicthed on.

Carissa said:
A recent theory that I've heard which seems to make sense and falls in line with my own experiences, is that bga often results from an excess of N2 gas. This can happen if a substrate becomes anaerobic (which will happen more especially if it's fine grained, and doesn't have snails/others burrowing through it regularly, as detritus settles into it). What happens is that nitrate is actually converted to nitrogen gas by bacteria that only live in the presence of little to no oxygen, and it's a known fact that bga can and does use nitrogen gas to grow although plants cannot do this. So you may want to look at getting a big bunch of Malaysian Trumpet Snails, who burrow in sand and prevent it from becoming anaerobic. In the meantime, stirring up the sand and gravel vacing it really good, even just stirring it regularly, can perhaps stem the tide of bga. The fact that your nitrates are down, would fall in line with this, as the anaerobic bacteria consume it and convert it to N2.

Another thing to note, algae eating fish do not generally eat bga.

Just personal experience, I have had co2 levels go from 0 to 30ppm overnight, and in reverse, and everywhere in between, with no apparent effect on my fish. But I don't keep particularly sensitive fish either.
Click to expand...

Yes that theory does seem to have some logical explanations. As I do have a fine sand substrate.. which has turned brown in part, When I stir it up its nice and bright white underneath. The only thing is, I do not have bba thank goodness.. the algae I am experiencing is your regular green algae (not long like hair algae more like powder green growing on my rocks and driftwood) aswell I have a very stubborn spot of greenish blue algae growing on the sand. and as far as the bba .. I might have some on the edges around my anubias as they seem a bit black and tattered. stiring up the sand?.. I do it .. but not that often. I have snails but not trumpets.. would they mess around with the roots of the plants burrowing all the time? and do they breed like crazy? I have a feeling your on the right track tho.. as it all started with my sand turning brownish. Anyways I think im off to go buy myself a phython gravel vac.. maybe a few more plants if they got any good ones in yet. As far as the algae goes.. growing on my rock cave/ dW not that big of a deal.. yet! I do however need a scrubber for the back glass.. thats just annoying.

thanks again all,

davE
 
The algae that could be caused by the anaerobic conditions would be the bga (blue green algae).
 
Hey all its been awhile. Heres a few updated pix. Still waiting on my red lotus and flame moss.. from the same place I got the miramo ball from.. took forever but still was alive.. hopeing these ones are too because again its taking forever to ship.. ne who everything has grown quite a bit tank dosent look as big as it use to thats for sure.

new plant edition.. brazillian pennywort.. lutea crypt.. melon sword.. and another dwarf baby tear which i hoped was going to make a carpet but no such luck.. if it can its going to take a very long time...

18026-albums203-picture1617.jpg


18026-albums203-picture1618.jpg


18026-albums203-picture1619.jpg


18026-albums203-picture1620.jpg


18026-albums203-picture1621.jpg


hmm pix seem a little worse now than they were before.. quality wise.. ahwell you still get the idea.. makes me wonder what will happan if and when i change out my actinic lighting for more 6700k & 10000k.. start calling me gorge in charge of the jungle.. cant believe I almost ordered 7 amazon swords ... oh how my knoledge has expanded thanks AA

thanks for the look,

davE
 
If you want to make a carpet of the baby's tears, tear up those bunches and plant the individual stems with tweezers. Sometimes you can just tease the bundle apart and smush it in the sand, but tweezers gets a higher sucess rate. Even just dividing the clumps into 4 and spreading them out will help. The plants in the center of the bunch are overcrowded and won't contribute to the carpet spread.
 
dskidmore said:
If you want to make a carpet of the baby's tears, tear up those bunches and plant the individual stems with tweezers. Sometimes you can just tease the bundle apart and smush it in the sand, but tweezers gets a higher sucess rate. Even just dividing the clumps into 4 and spreading them out will help. The plants in the center of the bunch are overcrowded and won't contribute to the carpet spread.
Click to expand...

Yea I thought about that.. the tweezer idea, and planting them that way but would the actual individual pieces even stay grounded in the sand? I think if were to go that route I would have to do it in small clumps due to my corys poking around at everything.. they love to go a top it and root around. I think im going to have to try that.

On a different note, I recieved my red tiger lotus and my flame moss.. They both looked horrible. thankfully the tiger lotus still has white roots and actually a small tiny leaf.. the moss was kinda dried but still green. Ill give them a week or so, hopefully they start to show good signs and rebound.

thanks,

davE
 
black hills tj said:
Sorry to hear that. Where did you say you got them?
Click to expand...

Yea I just got them off ebay from the Aquatic store.. in malaysia. lol. I previously ordered a giant miramo ball from them and it arrived alive. Although it took almost 22 days to ship :S... I wasent expecting the moss or really even the tiger lotus to survive but they were cheap and I cant find either at any of my LFS. So hopefully like I said they rebound. but only time can tell.

-davE
 
So finally I have some bad news. I found one of my cardinals belly up. I checked water parameters. All ok.

ammonia - 0
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 15
pH - 6.6
temp - 83.5

No signs of external disease, eg fin rot, ich, bloating, cloudy eyes. Just loss of color which im assuming happans post mordum. So im not to sure what happaned there. Ill be keeping a close eye on the rest of them for awhile. Although non of the fish show any signs of stress or anything. I did however start double dosing excell over this past week to combat my BBA and other algae issues. Either way Ill continue to closely monitor them.

-davE
 
my bottle(2 liter) says 10ml per 100 gallons or 1ml per 10G, since you prob have only 70G of water volume your close to a triple dose
 
Jchillin said:
Yeah, that was a compliment. Why else would I ask you to ship the tank to me...drooling on monitors isn't healthy. :)
Click to expand...

Haha. True enough. Ny aint that far. couple hours away. I actually kind of want to get rid of it well maybe not get rid of it lol. I want Something bigger like a 150, but that aint going to happan until I move out. Dont want to have to move that thing more than once. Also its going to be a marine tank this time around when ever that is :cool: I saw the coolest porcupine puffer today at my LFS also a awesome blue dotted sting ray.. so many cool looking fish... but yea on another note I almost bought some "gold pigion blood" discus today but someone had already bought them all up..

SpeedEuphoria said:
my bottle(2 liter) says 10ml per 100 gallons or 1ml per 10G, since you prob have only 70G of water volume your close to a triple dose
Click to expand...

Oh really, hmm I must have misread the bottle. That could be a real possibility of why my cardinal went belly up.. but I would think that more than one would have died. Or i guess that guy was just not as hardy as the rest.

-davE
 
On a side note, Today while at my LFS and looking at tanks. I think im going to have to get a new one for my goldies. The one guy is getting way to big for a 29g. Im thinking of getting a 46 bowfront for the three goldies I have. Possibly maybe MAYBE try to do that tank planted aswell. But although fancys arent as notorious for eating plants as your standard goldfish.. im still pretty sure they will..

davE
 
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