So for the past few months, I've been taking care of a planted tank for a yoga studio. I've been doing weekly maintenance on it, water changes, trimming, etc.
Anyways about a month ago, I had to pull up my glosso bed because it was going downhill and getting infested with algae. I also trimmed a bunch of the plants to about half thier height because they has algae on them too. I then planted a bunch of random plants for 2 reasons, to combat the algae and to see what took to the tanks. I also knocked the photoperiod from 10 hours to 9 hours. I then went away for 10 days on vacation. When i got back the algae was completely gone. However, the tank was cloudy white. Also pretty much every plant in the tank has some sort of damage, holes in the leaves, yellowing leaves, small leaves. I also noticed that the plants were doing weird things. First off, every plant was bright red, the rotala, hygros, ludwiga. Nothing had an ounce of green in it. My dwarf hairgrass was yellow. I was happy to be rid of the algae, but the plants themselves didn't seem happy. BTW all the fish were fine.
The tank is 10G, has 3.6 WPG, CO2 injection and Flourish Excel and an Ecocomplete substrate.
I did a little research and figured that the plants had nutrient deficiencies and that there was some sort of bacterial bloom that was causing the cloudiness.
So I started to dose various nutrients, but nothing seemed to be working. I then noticed that none of my plants were growing up, they were all growing horizontally. Even my ludwiga was creaping along the ground. I was completely baffled, the tank was getting less light than usual (9 hrs.) and there was no algae. But the plants were growing horizontally, even the stem plants. The only plant doing well was the dwarf hairgrass which was growing everywhere, very rapidly.
I was at a loss until yesterday (over one month since the problems first arose arose). One of the employees at the studio who's there from 645am to 11pm noticed that everytime he came in the tank light was on and every night he left, the tank light was on. He'd wondered if the tank was supposed to be on for that many hours a day. I felt stupid, all this time the timer for the light had been turned to on instead of "timer." The tank was getting 24hrs of light for over one month.
I was so happy though to find out what was probably causing the cloudy water. It was definitely causing the horizontal growth. I feel so bad for the fish, who all survived luckily. They'd been suck in a bright room for over a month.
So I think this in an interesting experiment, Lots of light, no algae and good dwarf hairgrass growth. I think it'd be an interesting study to set up a dwarf hairgrass only tank and to turn the lights on for 24 hours a day.
I also wonder if too much light might be bad for algae. All my plants were able to handle the light with only slight damage, no losses, but the algae was eradicated.
I also wonder what caused the cloudy water. I'd love to hear all your thoughts.
Anyways about a month ago, I had to pull up my glosso bed because it was going downhill and getting infested with algae. I also trimmed a bunch of the plants to about half thier height because they has algae on them too. I then planted a bunch of random plants for 2 reasons, to combat the algae and to see what took to the tanks. I also knocked the photoperiod from 10 hours to 9 hours. I then went away for 10 days on vacation. When i got back the algae was completely gone. However, the tank was cloudy white. Also pretty much every plant in the tank has some sort of damage, holes in the leaves, yellowing leaves, small leaves. I also noticed that the plants were doing weird things. First off, every plant was bright red, the rotala, hygros, ludwiga. Nothing had an ounce of green in it. My dwarf hairgrass was yellow. I was happy to be rid of the algae, but the plants themselves didn't seem happy. BTW all the fish were fine.
The tank is 10G, has 3.6 WPG, CO2 injection and Flourish Excel and an Ecocomplete substrate.
I did a little research and figured that the plants had nutrient deficiencies and that there was some sort of bacterial bloom that was causing the cloudiness.
So I started to dose various nutrients, but nothing seemed to be working. I then noticed that none of my plants were growing up, they were all growing horizontally. Even my ludwiga was creaping along the ground. I was completely baffled, the tank was getting less light than usual (9 hrs.) and there was no algae. But the plants were growing horizontally, even the stem plants. The only plant doing well was the dwarf hairgrass which was growing everywhere, very rapidly.
I was at a loss until yesterday (over one month since the problems first arose arose). One of the employees at the studio who's there from 645am to 11pm noticed that everytime he came in the tank light was on and every night he left, the tank light was on. He'd wondered if the tank was supposed to be on for that many hours a day. I felt stupid, all this time the timer for the light had been turned to on instead of "timer." The tank was getting 24hrs of light for over one month.
I was so happy though to find out what was probably causing the cloudy water. It was definitely causing the horizontal growth. I feel so bad for the fish, who all survived luckily. They'd been suck in a bright room for over a month.
So I think this in an interesting experiment, Lots of light, no algae and good dwarf hairgrass growth. I think it'd be an interesting study to set up a dwarf hairgrass only tank and to turn the lights on for 24 hours a day.
I also wonder if too much light might be bad for algae. All my plants were able to handle the light with only slight damage, no losses, but the algae was eradicated.
I also wonder what caused the cloudy water. I'd love to hear all your thoughts.
