Hahah!! Thanks so much for the informative post Jen, as always.Mike!!! Your tank is coming along quite nicely!!! The picture never loaded on my phone earlier.
I have to admit I was a little bummed when you said you were going to be keeping the Aquatek after the company had offered to take it back. I'm relieved to see you woke to find it not working...again, this time, a totally different problem!!! Glad to hear you're getting rid of it
When my needle valve failed, it failed in a way it was no longer letting the co2 through. The only way I could get it to produce any bubbles it was shooting out more bubbles than the naked eye could even register, PLUS, the scariest hissing sound occured as well as co2 coming out around the needle valves dial. Needless to say, I have now had my co2 unplugged for just over a month now. I kept my lighting duration the same because I did have quite the plant load already however I did dial back on the amount of ferts I was dosing since the growth had slowed down with the lack of co2. I had decided that if I were to get an algae outbreak, I would lower the time my lights were on too, but so far so good.
Did you treat your driftwood before adding it to the tank? I usually boil mine for 6 hours to kill anything living. The algae might just be due to the tank still being new, plant load and size is still minimal too. Once the plants start taking over, they will take in any nutrients they can get leaving little or none for the algae. Manually remove what you can when doing water changes and try to suck it up while syphoning.
I also ended up with unwanted hitch hikers and decided I was going to turn the tank into a pea puffer tank. Funny enough, when I made the switch to RO, I had to remineralize the water's GH, which ended up being much higher than when I was using tap and the side effect was it killed every single snail and all the eggs!!! I was shocked! In the famous words of Bob Ross, "there are no mistakes, just happy accidents!"
And please, no worries -- life comes first. I'm happy to have any help with this CO2 stuff at all.
So yes, good riddance to the Aquatek. I'd figured I'd just make the most of it, but waking up to a motionless bubble counter was the last straw. I've got a lot invested and I wish I hadn't skimped on the regulator initially. However, I am so exited to receive my GLA reg, you have no idea. Finally get some piece of mind with this.
As far as algae, I did a bit of researching too and you are right in your advice. Another possible cause I found for the hair algae is fluctuating CO2 lol. I'm not sure if the flux I currently have is responsible, but it's another reason to lose the Aquatek lol. Will make sure to do extra water changes if need be, and keep the ferts up. It's prominently on the driftwood (which I only soaked for 2 days). You're right, I've read around it can be common in new establishments. May also have to do with the status of my cycle which is now in full swing. Changed the water last night and tested after work today. Ammonia is dropping but still present, nitrites are through the roof and I'm starting to see nitrates in the 5-10ppm range. Lot of life blooming about. The algae hasn't taken anything over by any means. I will take what I can physically during my water changes.
The snails seem to be munching on the algae. The majority of them are congregated on the driftwood feasting. I guess they are welcome... for now.
Thanks, as always.
Will be back with updates.