HELP w/ New start-up !!

[mandoborg]

So around three months ago I had the wonderfully brilliant idea to tear down my beautiful 29 gallon planted to try a 20 gallon long. Not only did I toss out some beautiful plants, but I also tossed out 3 inches of well pickled eco complete substrate into the flower bed outside...again... Anyway, I started this tank from scratch about 6 weeks ago using blasting sand for the substrate. I'm running the old filter with the old media as well as a new A.C. 50 to get seeded. Problem is, this tank is fighting me every step of the way...algae, algae, algae. I'm doing 70% water changes every three days... These pics show the third day...I'm running a Finnex Ray 2 from 11-2, siesta, then from 5-10 along with pressurized CO2 and hour before lights go on and off. These are my latest water samples from tonight just before I did another 70% water change.... I haven't dosed any ferts yet either.... just some root tabs to try to ' kick' the substarte a little bit....Anyone have any sugestions ?? The 29 was set up for so long that that tank practically ran itself and was crystal clear..... this has been a humbling experience to say the least.... frustrated...waisted $40 on Monte Carlo.... I have plenty of Star . Repens, but I hate to be killing it..... thanks for any life line you might be able to throw...



Jim

 

[Fresh2o]

I would start by reducing the lighting period to maybe 5-6 total hours. Maybe skip the morning session. The Ray2 PAR levels on a 12” deep tank are going to be very high.
Are you using a drop checker for assessing the CO2 level or are you going by the pH drop during the day? With that much lighting you will need an ample amount of CO2. Can the fish be rehomed temporarily? If so, then you can really crank the CO2 without worrying about killing them.
You should start dosing water column fertilizers from the start. The high light, low fert, and questionable CO2 levels will result in poor plant growth and unhealthy plants often become algae magnets.
I ran a Planted 20 long for about 5 years and went from low tech to high tech, minimal to dutch-like to iwugami to something in between. Towards the end I really did not like having live stock under that much light. Plus, the pH would swing about 1.0-1.4 each day. The fish were fine but that seemed to be a bit extreme for them IMO.

 

[Funken_A]

Simple reminder, Just to help your trouble shooting processes

Algae is an imbalance of light CO2 and Nutrients.

For some reason I cannot see your pictures..


I do know too much CO2 will not cause Algae..
However too much/too little nutrients compared to light intensity will. CO2 is simply a catalyst that allows plants to use the available light and nutrients. Too little and plants will leave excess nutrients in the water. Too much is never a problem unless you are overly excessive which would then gas fish, but that is quite hard to do.

Too much light and the plants will use up all nutrients and then starve themselves. To little light and of course they will not use the excess nutrients.


I always recommend hanging lights in a way that allows you to raise or lower them to find the sweet spot for a given tank.. Or to have the ability to adjust intensity for your situation. To me this is the best and easiest way to solve many issues

 

[Funken_A]

Ok I can see those pictures on this PC.. Couldn't on my work PC.

your nitrites are high. Your Phosphates are also very high IMO, and you have some ammonia

I don't think your tank has completely cycled. Ammonia should be 0

TOO HIGH

If testing indicates high nitrite, we know that the biological filter is inadequate to convert all of the nitrite to nitrate. Here are some common causes:
The aquarium is new and bacteria need time to multiply
Too many or too large fish
Overfeeding
Destruction of bacterial colonies by sudden changes in water chemistry due to huge water change or extreme cleaning
Weak filtration

 

[mandoborg]

Thanks for the suggestions !! My ph dropped from 6.6 to 6.4 after running the CO2. I cut out the morning light/co2 cycle , and because there's no dimmer, I made some risers to raise my light 4 inches. i also started my EI dosing this morning with Iron twice a week. This worked well for me in the 29. One last question, should I continue to do the frequent, large water changes or should I just be doing 50% once a week ? Wondering if new water every three days isn't giving time enough for the tank to do what it should. That was mentioned in Funken A's ' TOO HIGH ' note .I also threw a bag of Purigen in one of the filters. Take it back out ?? Again, thank you so much, I guess I just had beginners luck with the 29 !!

Jim