Bulb Plants and Algae Questions

[vcorey04]

They are not long lived and a lot of the stock is pumped full of hormones for faster growth and better color. They like warm soft water. It happens. If you want to try again, I love my rams, buy stock from a local breeder or on aquabid.com.

do you think it's safe to add fish once i clear the ammonia?

 

[rich311k]

Once the cycle is done yes I do. I would hold off on rams until the tank has been running and stable for at least 6 months.

 

[vcorey04]

sooooooooooooo many new q's

ok... so.. with the algae... my tank is in front of a window with horizontal blinds.

i'm putting tin foil up on monday. done. finito. unfortunately thats the best i can do to block the natural light..

nitrate issues... i had an in-tank filter that primarily removes debri.

soooooooo

today, bought a biological filter. it's a Marineland Penguin 150. it has a bio wheel. i also have a bubble wand in my tank. with my 2 10,000k T5 lights do i need CO2??

i read your article on planted tanks purrbox, and if so, it would be unfortunate to have purchased a filter i thought would help that indeed is not appropriate for my needs....

i have an amazon sword, ret tiger lotus, jungle valve, and anubias growing. o, and also i'm trying to make a christmas moss wall, but it doesn't seem to be taking off like i thought it would...

at the moment, i have both the old filter and the new one running simultaneously so the bacteria will establish in the new filter. .

i have flourite as my substrate, do i need to add MORE iron on top of what the substrate provides ??

after reading your article on planted tanks, i am unclear as to if i need dry ferts for my tank or the alternative ... is the alternative in a drop form? *flourish exel...etc...

 

[SpeedEuphoria]

I wouldnt worry about iron for now anyway.

You can either do dry ferts, like the combo pack.

Or you can do liquid seachem ferts or similar. You need nitrogen/potassium/phosphate and a trace w/o iron


Excel is not a fert, it is a carbon source. It the only option instead of CO2 but its not nearly as effective as CO2. If you have ~2wpg and no CO2, then excel may be an option that you can get by using that much light w/o CO2.

You have the 2x24w on a 29G correct? You should be OK w/o CO2 and could prob benefit from Excel because your prob ~2wpg compared to oldschool lighting. You will deff need ferts, all of them except for iron at the moment.

 

[vcorey04]

i actually have a 20 gallon tank with (2) 24inch 10,000k T5 96 Watts + (2) 460nm Actinic Blue lights that i run at night when i am home 3 days a week.

how do i measure the dry amounts to put in?

Are there tests for those chems? or can you just observe aquarium conditions?

as for CO2, i understand the specifications, but remain unclear as to what is the most cost effective and beneficial set up... how much could a proper CO2 system cost for my 20 gal?

 

[Purrbox]

Okay, with a total of 192 watts over your aquarium without the Actinic Bulbs calculated in, it's no wonder you're having algae issues. That's way too much light, even with pressurized CO2 that would be extremely difficult to manage. I'd recommend cutting back to only 40 watts or less if you aren't going to use CO2. If you want to use CO2 then you could go as high as 60-80 watts.

Bio Wheels and Bubble Wands don't mix with CO2 injection. If you do decide to go for CO2 injection, you'll want to remove both the BioWheel and the Bubblewand or you'll be wasting your efforts. The filter will function just fine without the biowheel as its mostly gimmick and very little function.

A basic pressurized CO2 system will probably start around $150. You can build DIY CO2 for quite a bit less, but it's a pain to manage.

You can use Chuck's Calculator to calculate the dosages for dry ferts. For Flourish Fertilizers you can use Fert Friend to calculate the dosages. You can test for Nitrate and Phosphate. Potassium is almost impossible to overdose so start at 20ppm per week and increase when you see potassium deficiencies. There isn't an accurate hobby grade kit for iron levels, so just aim for 0.1-0.2ppm iron per week and increase if you see iron or other trace deficiencies.

 

[vcorey04]

yea, 96 watts... i'm not sure if it's per bulb. that what it says in the product description:

Nova Extreme HO Light Fixture - 4 x 24W & Lunar Lights - 24 in.

you tell me..

it makes sense, ever since i purchased this light i have had algae.

if its 96 watts total making each bulb responsible for 48 watts each, how do i cut back? just undo one of the bulbs and save it for when the other goes out??


what on earth would use the power of light it's capable of??

with the removal of the biowheel, can my new hanging filter still be used??


-just take the bio wheel out? even if the packaging says to absolutely NOT do that??

how do you "see" that potassium is at 20ppm? or iron at 0.1-0.2ppm??

i can buy a test for phosphate?

also, my LFS said they have a CO2 system for around $40.... no pun intended, but it sounds fishy.. like i would drop the 40 bones and get a lame result....

 

[SpeedEuphoria]

it says 96 watts total, 4 bulbs with 24w each

 

[vcorey04]

yea, it sounded too crazy... 96 divided by 4 = 24...

that includes my lunar lights?

i only run two for 6 hours during the day!

so, regular schedule : 48 watts, 6-7 hours a day...

then, when i AM home, i run my lunar lights for about 4 hours....

that's it since the algae bloom

o, and natural light... but foil is going up on monday.


please refer to my previous post with questions about potassium and phosphate... those questions still remain...

 

[Purrbox]

That's not nearly as bad as I first thought. With 48 watts of usuable light you've probably just pushed the limit to where CO2 is necessary to avoid algae, especially when factoring in the light from the window. Lunar Lights really shouldn't make a difference.

Unlike Nitrate and Phosphate where you target a specific level, for the Potassium and Iron you would dose that amount each week.

There are good test kits available for Phosphate. I believe that it's the Seachem one that is slightly more expensive than other hobby grade it's but the results are as good as a professional grade kit.

 

[vcorey04]

i understand that if i inject Co2, i have to reduce, if not, diminish the of surface breakage...

if i remove my bubble wand will that improve overall conditions?

i also put up foil today with the hopes of reducing the amount of natural light coming in...

finally, the three shrimp i added have helped. as soon as they went in and started cleaning my anubias.

i saw green leaf that had been covered for weeks in black/green gunk!

how large of a colony can i have of shrimp in a 20gal without overdoing it?


o... and the diatoms are still covering the glass. going tomorrow to get ottos... unless you have any other suggestions..

 

[Purrbox]

While you're not injecting CO2 the bubble wand is helping to restore CO2 to ambient levels, which means that it's helping to keep it up at 3ppm. Once you start injecting CO2 you'd need to at least turn it off during the day so that you aren't gassing off the amounts above 3ppm.

With Cherry Red Shrimp you can easily have 100-200 (babies, juvies, and adults) in a 10 gallon species aquarium. Cherry Red Shrimp max out at about 1". How many you can have in your 20 gallon will depend on the species of shrimp that you are keeping, what it's max size is, and if there are any fish in the aquarium.

 

[vcorey04]

i def have fish.. 3 clown loach's, 1 pearl platty, 1 black phantom tetra, 1 galaxy rasbora, and 1 african dwarf frog..

unfortunately, one of my frogs was found upsidown this morning on the bottom of the tank. not floating. no signs yesterday of fatigue or discomfort...

but yea. i read that it's hard to overpopulate with shrimp and they do better in small herds... does this mean 6-10 in a 20 gal?

 

[SpeedEuphoria]

Clown loaches get way too big for a 20G, although they grow slow. Just for refference. Also they will prob eat most any shrimp(maybe not larger shrimp species?).

If you want to press your luck, 2 dozen is a good number for a 20G.

You may want to try some cheap ghost shrimp 1st, like 6-8 of them, to see if the loaches leave them alone or eat them.

 

[vcorey04]

my loach's could care less about the amano shrimp i have in there now...

can i mix species?


also, do african dwarf frogs need to have friends???

 

[Purrbox]

Your Clown Loaches may not be interested in the shrimp now, but don't be surprised to wake up one day and find them all suddenly eaten. Snails and shrimp are prime food sources for loaches.