How can I make my tank live again?

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A. Nonymous

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Feb 4, 2008
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A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away there was a tank that was lush and green and full of life. Then a dark time came upon the tank. A CO2 injection system fizzed out killing all fish life in the tank. In a panic the CO2 system was shut down and mothballed. Without CO2, there was no point (it was thought) in ferts so those were ceased as well. Toss in a light bulb burning out that took a week to find a replacement and things got out of control. Somehow duckweed was introduced which choked the tank.

I really, really, really want to make this tank live again, but I don't know where to start. If it's helpful, here's a link to some pics - http://www.flickr.com/photos/37509863@N03/sets/72157616957030810/

The tank is a 75G tank. Population is currently about a dozen neons and a rubberlip pl*co. It's cycled and has been for awhile. Current lighting is a 110w CF fixture. There's a guy locally who sells silver dollar sized Angels for $1. I'm thinking of getting 6-8 of them as centerpiece fish in this tank. I am working on selling some items which will give me about $100 that I can spend on this tank. I'm considering buying an identical fixture if more light and more plants will solve my problems. (Paired with starting up my CO2 and fertilizing routine of course.)

What do I need to do to make this tank live again?
 

A. Nonymous

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what do you need? Is this a trick question? You seem to know exactly what you need.
No, I don't know what I need. Do I need another light? Should I add more plants? What's the best way to get rid of all the duckweed? It keeps coming back. How do I get rid of the scum algae?
 

jmhart

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Sep 8, 2007
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Ok, so, this is what you have:

75g tank
110w light
CO2 system(in storage)


Well, for starters 110w of light over a 75g is nice low light. You can stick to that route, tossing in some Seachem Flourish once a week for traces, and grow many low light plants light anubias, crypts, java fern, java moss and more. With this route, you'll have good, consistent slow grow, with minimal algae issues.

With this route, you can certainly use that co2 system. CO2 is beneficial at all light levels. CO2 can be tricky, I think nearly everyone kills a few fish when they first setup pressurized CO2. It takes some time. The trick is to start slow. Start out at 1 bubble per second. Use a drop checker, and slowly increase co2. Every time you make an adjustment, let it sit for hours. Never make an adjustment when you won't be there to watch what happens. If and when you start to see trouble with your fish, back the co2 down, and let that be it.

Now, once(and if) you do that, you can add more light if you want and increase growth. I might look into maybe a 2x54w light, like this:

http://www.fishneedit.com/t5ho-4ft--2lamp-aquarium-light.html

That'll give you about 220w over that 75g, excellent high light. From there you'll need ferts.

I hope this helps, maybe gives you some ideas.

Getting rid of duckweed takes time and patient. Scoop it out using a fish net. Get rid of all if it in one day, and then come back the next day and get rid of the rest of it....and then on the third day, pull out the rest, and then the rest, and the rest.....eventually you'll get it all.
 

kyle3

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Mar 17, 2005
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Minneapolis, MN
first thing you do is get the Co2 up and running again. Do you have a drop checker? you can get them cheap on ebay - will be very helpful in keeping your CO2 saturation steady.

Next go buy a bunch of fast growing stem plants and stuff the tank with them, once you see the algae clearing a little an the stems are growing steadily start fertilizing again. If you aren't already dosing with the Estimative Index method do some research and start. It's the most successful and cheap way to keep your plants fed.

once you're getting good growth and only a small amount of healthy algae for a couple weeks you can start getting more plants besides stems. once these other plants have gotten established you can start phasing out any stem plants if you'd rather not have so many. and sell them in the classifieds on this site! The idea with doing only a ton of stems at first is so that you can avoid any algae smothering slower growing and/or broad leafed plants while you establish your equilibrium.

as for your light. . . what kind of fixture is it? PC, T-5, T-8? and how many watts do you have? what is the K rating on the bulbs?
A lot of people think the first thing you need for plants is a lot of light but in reality you'll have much healthier more manageable plants with lower or medium light and CO2.

The CO2 is more important than the light. Yep, it's true!

by the way any plants you have hanging on it the tank right now will pull through, if you follow this process- no need to throw them away. once you get some new growth on them you'll want to prune any overly damaged or algae infested leaves.

let me know about your light and I'll tell you what i think.

good luck! you can do it!
cheers-K
 

kyle3

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Mar 17, 2005
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Minneapolis, MN
yeah i totally missed the lighting in your post sorry for being oblivious lol!

keep in mind that WPG is relative to the intensity of the kind of bulb your using and the smaller tanks need higher WPG to show fast growth and larger tanks need fewer WPG to perform in the "high light" category.

what's the K rating on your bulb? 6700-10,000K is were you want to be.
 

jmhart

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Sep 8, 2007
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yeah i totally missed the lighting in your post sorry for being oblivious lol!

keep in mind that WPG is relative to the intensity of the kind of bulb your using and the smaller tanks need higher WPG to show fast growth and larger tanks need fewer WPG to perform in the "high light" category.

what's the K rating on your bulb? 6700-10,000K is were you want to be.
I agree with everything you said, but wanted to make two modifications:

1)75w is right in the perfect range to abide by the wpg "rule"

2)Plants will grow outside of that kelvin range, the 6700k-10,000k recommendations is just because that's the most popular for viewing, not growth
 

A. Nonymous

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Feb 4, 2008
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yeah i totally missed the lighting in your post sorry for being oblivious lol!

keep in mind that WPG is relative to the intensity of the kind of bulb your using and the smaller tanks need higher WPG to show fast growth and larger tanks need fewer WPG to perform in the "high light" category.

what's the K rating on your bulb? 6700-10,000K is were you want to be.
This statement confuses me a bit. So 20w on a 10g would be high light while 110w on a 55g (both 2 w/per g) would be low light? I don't follow that and would appreciate an explanation. Looking at this light at Big Al's- http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS/ctl3684/cp18369/si1383182/cl0/coralifefreshwateraqualight48powercompactlight2x65w
 

kyle3

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Mar 17, 2005
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Minneapolis, MN
so what i mean is 5 WPG is a reasonable set- up for a 5 gallon tank, but 2 WPG can be high light on a 125. if you have t-5 light you have a higher intensity light and you want a lower WPG than with PC's or T-8

like jmhart said what you have is a great light for his suggested set-up, and if you want to grow more medium to highlight plants add a little more light shoot for 2-3 WPG

sorry to have confused you. hope this clarifies! :D

by the way my K rating suggestion was meant to help you avoid the many confusing and detailed nuances of the different lighting options- you'll have success without the headache of sifting through 1000 threads with good and bad advice to contend with if you stick to my simple suggestion.
 
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