Getting Back In? - Hair Algae Barrier

[dskidmore]

For reference, here is the Desktop in it's heyday:

I then lost my job and had to take the tank home, where it languished. Here it is after a revival after I got hired again:

Then _that_ job moved location, and my new desk was unsuitable for an aquarium, so the tank came home and became neglected again.

I may bring it back to work again at my new place after I finish my experiments at home.

 

[dskidmore]

Desktop water tests:
Ammonia: just over 0.
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0

Tap:
Ammonia: just over 0

Overall as expected for a mature tank that just had several large water changes. I will continue to use Prime with water changes and not worry about the trace ammonia reading.

Four shrimp sighted several times during water change and maintenance.

I hope this weekend I will have time to clear the stand where the tanks are going and start on the ten gallons.

 

[dskidmore]

The rock is starting to develop green fuzzies. Too early to tell the type of algae. The rock had only moss on it before maintenance. Maintenance as done with tap.

 

[dskidmore]

Started on the 10 gallon today. It has lots of hair algae in it. Oddly, it tested at .05 ammonia. Something must have died recently, as there's absolutely no reason for this to be the normal condition in an old tank.

I've decided to completely break down the 10 gallon. I've topped up the water, but will be taking everything out and moving to the other 10 gallon in pieces. The second 10 gallon is in place doing a leak test since I don't remember how long it's been empty, and the silicone doesn't look perfect any more.

 

[dskidmore]

Ammonia mystery solved.

I reprogrammed the controller when adding some plant lights on a neighboring stand, and somehow removed the instruction that turns the aquarium light on. In a plant filtered system, lights are essential to stable water conditions. Controller fixed, ammonia should be righted soon.

 

[dskidmore]

"New" 10 gallon is cycling. 1.0 ppm ammonia, 0 nitrite. Added a bunch of plants to speed things along.

 

[dskidmore]

10 gallon 2.0 ppm ammonia, .025 nitrite

 

[dskidmore]

10 gallon test results:
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 5+, off scale bright purple

will start adding fish food regularly.

 

[dskidmore]

10 gallon, almost there, nitrite declining:
ammonia: 0
nitrite: 1 ppm
nitrate 20 ppm

Nitrate lower than it might have been without all the plants. Water sprite is growing like crazy.

 

[dskidmore]

10 gallon cycled, and plant filter kicking in:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5 (Yep, nitrates are going down without water changes. Go water sprite and duck weed!)
Will quit testing now until I see other issues. Hopefully I can find some amano shrimp in the aquashoppe soon. Other occupants undecided, I've got RCS in the 2.5 gallon upstairs, but I might want to go back to something simple like cardinals.

 

[dskidmore]

This thread is a bit stale, update:

Studied neglect seems to be the way to go. I regularly trim out excess plants but avoid water changes as they always cause hair algae blooms. The fish food seems to supply the plants without oversupplying whatever the hair algae loves so much. This becomes impractical in summer however, as I use evaporation cooling to keep things reasonable, lid is open and a fan on a temp controller aids evaporation.

I'm considering doing distilled or RO water top-ups, but the bottle thing never works out well in the long run, the place I get the water is not the place I normally grocery shop.

 

[Peyton]

I've also had good results with the "studied neglect" process when it comes to eliminating bba in my 75g tank. Every time I did a water change it would result in a huge bba bloom. I stopped doing weekly 50% water changes and cut way back on nitrate dosing. I still dose P, K, and mircos though. For what ever reason it works. I don't know why. I had to do the same thing a year ago with another tank.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

I have the same crazy issue with my tank. Maybe it's some kind of tap water nutrient. Anytime I decide to go weekly or even by-weekly I get an outbreak. Ended up going with the PPS-Pro dosing method so I could reduce the necessary water changes. Somehow it works.

 

[dskidmore]

Ended up going with the PPS-Pro dosing method so I could reduce the necessary water changes.

I've been out of things. Found a quick walkthrough... How does PPS-Pro differ significantly from PMDD? EI is defiantly out if I can't do large water changes.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

I've been out of things. Found a quick walkthrough... How does PPS-Pro differ significantly from PMDD? EI is defiantly out if I can't do large water changes.

Most people never added PO4 to PMDD plus the ratio is a little different. I don't see a lot of difference. They both do similar jobs. I still do large water changes but I mix half RO with tap and it does the trick okay for my town water which is bad. The DEQ just took over care of the water in my town because the they didn't address issues with water quality. *sigh*

 

[dskidmore]

Our water quality isn't horrible, it just has a really high mineral content.