Mordachai
Aquarium Advice Regular
I'm struggling with a 55g that used to be a low-tech planted, froze due to loss of power during winter two years ago, I recently emptied & replaced with new plants, waited 10 days, then began adding new fish a few at a time (monitoring ammonia / nitrites - all zero).
However, I noticed that the fish seemed to be getting sick - discovered that nitrates were ridiculously high (80-100ppm), and water changes wouldn't significantly dent that (I assume that the material that had accumulated in the substrate must be creating so much nitrate that 12hrs after 75% WC I was right back to the 80-100ppm).
So I emptied it again, and replaced the substrate with brand-new substrate, refilled, acclimated the fish & plants, and all seemed (water was incredibly clear).
However, now I have a massive algae bloom. My plants - which did really well for the first week after changing the substrate, are now doing very poorly. The main thing that changed is I replaced the 2x T5 normal output 6700k light with a buildmyled.com 5000K LED. I'm not sure if it qualifies as high - but it is way more light than the 2xT5NO light fixture I had before.
So, the plants have a lot of algae growing right on the leaves - some of it is just flat green patches, some of it is hair algae (which can look white, green, or even brown depending on the light & density). And some of what is affecting my plants seems to be a black patch which will grow into a hole in leaves.
I'll attach some pics in a moment - but I need to try to find a way to upload them at their native rez, otherwise they'll be too blurry for anyone to make much out of them.
So... I'm adding pressurized CO2 injection when it arrives (maybe in a week), and I've dropped back to my lower intensity 2xT5NO lights.
I need help with:
1. Why might my plants doing worse under the increased light of the LEDs?
2. What might the black growth be that "burns holes" through the leaves?
3. What can I do to get things into balance?
I am not overfeeding. I have a lot of algae / bottom eaters (4 amano shrimp, an adult golden mystery snail, 2 ottos, and 7 bee shrimp).
I did a 25% WC over the weekend to help with water clarity & to remove a skein of what looks like oil on the water surface (which came back within 24hrs).
The water has been pretty darn clear, but the algae yesterday suddenly became intense, with what I think must be the hair algae suddenly colonizing almost all surfaces (all glass surfaces for sure) in what seems like a single day!
For filtration I have a Fluval 306 maxed out with pre-filter material, ceramics, and fine particulate filter material, and a Whisper 60 HOB filter that I've had for many years (which was all I used to use for the prior 8 years without much issues).
However, I noticed that the fish seemed to be getting sick - discovered that nitrates were ridiculously high (80-100ppm), and water changes wouldn't significantly dent that (I assume that the material that had accumulated in the substrate must be creating so much nitrate that 12hrs after 75% WC I was right back to the 80-100ppm).
So I emptied it again, and replaced the substrate with brand-new substrate, refilled, acclimated the fish & plants, and all seemed (water was incredibly clear).
However, now I have a massive algae bloom. My plants - which did really well for the first week after changing the substrate, are now doing very poorly. The main thing that changed is I replaced the 2x T5 normal output 6700k light with a buildmyled.com 5000K LED. I'm not sure if it qualifies as high - but it is way more light than the 2xT5NO light fixture I had before.
So, the plants have a lot of algae growing right on the leaves - some of it is just flat green patches, some of it is hair algae (which can look white, green, or even brown depending on the light & density). And some of what is affecting my plants seems to be a black patch which will grow into a hole in leaves.
I'll attach some pics in a moment - but I need to try to find a way to upload them at their native rez, otherwise they'll be too blurry for anyone to make much out of them.
So... I'm adding pressurized CO2 injection when it arrives (maybe in a week), and I've dropped back to my lower intensity 2xT5NO lights.
I need help with:
1. Why might my plants doing worse under the increased light of the LEDs?
2. What might the black growth be that "burns holes" through the leaves?
3. What can I do to get things into balance?
I am not overfeeding. I have a lot of algae / bottom eaters (4 amano shrimp, an adult golden mystery snail, 2 ottos, and 7 bee shrimp).
I did a 25% WC over the weekend to help with water clarity & to remove a skein of what looks like oil on the water surface (which came back within 24hrs).
The water has been pretty darn clear, but the algae yesterday suddenly became intense, with what I think must be the hair algae suddenly colonizing almost all surfaces (all glass surfaces for sure) in what seems like a single day!
For filtration I have a Fluval 306 maxed out with pre-filter material, ceramics, and fine particulate filter material, and a Whisper 60 HOB filter that I've had for many years (which was all I used to use for the prior 8 years without much issues).