Diatoms (Brown algae for months)

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Jah410

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May 12, 2019
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Okay great, I'll follow all that advice. So what is your suggestion for photoperiod at this point. Literature is saying in a new tank (and I think mine is considered new as nothing is really established). You should start at 6 hours and after some establishment, increase to 8-10 depending on your lighting intensity. So what photoperiod would you suggest?

And also, should you suggest no thrive at all in the meantime? Also, should I have phosguard in my filter or only use that for filter my hose water first.
 

the loach

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Aug 6, 2018
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No fertilizers... you are just feeding the algae. With the nitrate level in your water it is reasonable to assume it also has phosphates... it would be good to test for that as well so you know what you are dealing with exactly. Until then it can't hurt to use Phosguard on your hose water.
Sure build the photo period up from 6 hours until you have less algae and the pH is lower.
Also be prepared that you have to get rid of most if not all of the water lettuce when the plants take off. It is hard to have aquatic plants thrive when you have floating plants like that as well.
 

Jah410

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May 12, 2019
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No fertilizers... you are just feeding the algae. With the nitrate level in your water it is reasonable to assume it also has phosphates... it would be good to test for that as well so you know what you are dealing with exactly. Until then it can't hurt to use Phosguard on your hose water.
Sure build the photo period up from 6 hours until you have less algae and the pH is lower.
Also be prepared that you have to get rid of most if not all of the water lettuce when the plants take off. It is hard to have aquatic plants thrive when you have floating plants like that as well.
Yeah my intention was always to remove the water lettuce it was just there because it could compete without getting alage on it. Wouldn't phosguard also take all the phosphate out as well?
 

fishorama

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Not to cast shade, but how do you do water changes & how often? Do you vacuum or hover the siphon over the gravel? How often do you clean your filter media & how is that done?

I've had "crap" from a clogged filter blow back into & around a tank. It was a mess!
 

Jah410

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May 12, 2019
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Not to cast shade, but how do you do water changes & how often? Do you vacuum or hover the siphon over the gravel? How often do you clean your filter media & how is that done?

I've had "crap" from a clogged filter blow back into & around a tank. It was a mess!
Water change once a week. Usually every other week I'll go down into the gravel and around the SR to try to stir up any dead leaf matter / detritus. I have filter floss in my filter so I usually take that out and squeeze it a few times in the siphoned water to remove excess detritus. If there is a lot in it, then I'll sometimes decide to siphon some water out of the HOB to avoid it throwing crap back into the tank.

Other than that, if I see any dead leaves / roots, I'll get that out with some tweezers. I don't find that I have excessive nitrates, nitrites or ammonia in my tank so I don't feel that cleaning has really been a problem. Granted you may be thinking excess phosphates and stuff from dead leaves and fish crap. I had up until recently been running phosguard through the filter though so phosphates should've been low. I've stopped that now though as I stopped seeing any plant growth so maybe I was having a deficiency.
 

ustabefast

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I'm concerned about the "ph balancer" you mentioned. What is this, exactly?

The water out of the hose sounds like a logical choice. The low PH normally suggest low tds as well.
 

Jah410

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May 12, 2019
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The balancer I believe is just running the water through calcium carbonate/ sodium carbonate container. Our pH is naturally lower so by increasing the kH, it'll also increase the pH.

I do think our pH is only low due to a high level of dissolved CO2 as it increased from 6.6 to 8.2 after degassing. That is for both our hose water and tap water (which have a KH of 3 and 8 respectively).
 
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