Whats up guys,
EDIT: this turned into a long read, for those who read all the way through and help me, thank you very much!
I started a iwugami style 29 gallon planted tank about 3 weeks ago, cycled basically over night by adding mature bio media from other tanks. There are 3 types of plants, baby tears, dwarf baby tears and S. Repens.
its current stocking is:
22 neon tetra
6 Ottos
4 ghost shrimp
2 tiger shrimp
1 powder blue dwarf gourami
Its parameters:
29 gallons
standard 10 gallon kit HOB filter @ 100GPH packed to the gills with ceramic cylinders bio media
Temp: 78.4°F
PH: 6.8
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10
Ammonia: 0
Phosphate: 0
General Hardness (GH): 15°
Carbonate Hardness (KH): 10°
Co2: 2.05bps
glass top
Substrate:
1" base of original florite and 1.5" Eco-complete black fine substrate cap
fert/ dosing schedule:
None
Light duration:
9+/- hours
Light type:
6x ebay Gu10 spot lights producing 6.4Watts and 560 lumens each, 6500K temperature
My goal:
Obviously first and foremost to have a perfect environment for my fish to thrive, but equally so i want to see my plants pearl like crazy, to make it look like reverse rain with the amount of pearling, i love that look and when i first planted it, within the first hour of the plants being in the tank they were pearling like crazy, and since i turned the lights off on day one, they have not pearled since.
My problems:
Like i mentioned, the plants aren't pearling which is very frustrating. I havent had any fish die except two ghost shrimp, and the parameters are telling me the tank is fully cycled, so i dont know what the problem could be.
Also, i am having an algae problem, what i believe to be BGA algae is really taking over the substrate and the dwarf baby tears on it.
My questions:
- it is my understanding that any surface agitation will dissipate any Co2 making the Co2 being injected into the tank useless for the plants, so i have the water line really high, all the way up to the brim of the tank so that the return from the HOB filter is under water so there is no splashing. But last night when i googled " how to get plants to pearl " i read that there needs to be oxygen and high circulation in the tank for the plants to absorb Co2 to create O2 (pearl).... then my brain exploded and i went to bed...very confused on this
- as far as my BGA problem i read that a manually removing as much as possible then doing a 3 day black out will solve the problem. im worried tho that 3 days of no light and co2 will melt my baby tears... is there an alternate solution?
- I am am thinking about switching from my DIY led setup to a dual T5HO fixture that way i can read up on the PAR of the fixture so i know where exactly i am on the light scale, low, med or high, but i feel like with my lights im in the high end, but i have no way ( other than purchasing a par meter ) to know for sure. I am thinking about getting the ebay oddysea 30" Dual T5HO 6700K fixture, ive read mixed reviews, people say its awesome while others say its garbage. any input here would be nice.
- I feel like my KH and GH are really high and i am thinking about trying to get an RO/DI unit to eliminate this problem, thoughts on that please
I guess that is all for now, Thank you for any input!
here is a pic of the algae im having:
EDIT: this turned into a long read, for those who read all the way through and help me, thank you very much!
I started a iwugami style 29 gallon planted tank about 3 weeks ago, cycled basically over night by adding mature bio media from other tanks. There are 3 types of plants, baby tears, dwarf baby tears and S. Repens.
its current stocking is:
22 neon tetra
6 Ottos
4 ghost shrimp
2 tiger shrimp
1 powder blue dwarf gourami
Its parameters:
29 gallons
standard 10 gallon kit HOB filter @ 100GPH packed to the gills with ceramic cylinders bio media
Temp: 78.4°F
PH: 6.8
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10
Ammonia: 0
Phosphate: 0
General Hardness (GH): 15°
Carbonate Hardness (KH): 10°
Co2: 2.05bps
glass top
Substrate:
1" base of original florite and 1.5" Eco-complete black fine substrate cap
fert/ dosing schedule:
None
Light duration:
9+/- hours
Light type:
6x ebay Gu10 spot lights producing 6.4Watts and 560 lumens each, 6500K temperature
My goal:
Obviously first and foremost to have a perfect environment for my fish to thrive, but equally so i want to see my plants pearl like crazy, to make it look like reverse rain with the amount of pearling, i love that look and when i first planted it, within the first hour of the plants being in the tank they were pearling like crazy, and since i turned the lights off on day one, they have not pearled since.
My problems:
Like i mentioned, the plants aren't pearling which is very frustrating. I havent had any fish die except two ghost shrimp, and the parameters are telling me the tank is fully cycled, so i dont know what the problem could be.
Also, i am having an algae problem, what i believe to be BGA algae is really taking over the substrate and the dwarf baby tears on it.
My questions:
- it is my understanding that any surface agitation will dissipate any Co2 making the Co2 being injected into the tank useless for the plants, so i have the water line really high, all the way up to the brim of the tank so that the return from the HOB filter is under water so there is no splashing. But last night when i googled " how to get plants to pearl " i read that there needs to be oxygen and high circulation in the tank for the plants to absorb Co2 to create O2 (pearl).... then my brain exploded and i went to bed...very confused on this
- as far as my BGA problem i read that a manually removing as much as possible then doing a 3 day black out will solve the problem. im worried tho that 3 days of no light and co2 will melt my baby tears... is there an alternate solution?
- I am am thinking about switching from my DIY led setup to a dual T5HO fixture that way i can read up on the PAR of the fixture so i know where exactly i am on the light scale, low, med or high, but i feel like with my lights im in the high end, but i have no way ( other than purchasing a par meter ) to know for sure. I am thinking about getting the ebay oddysea 30" Dual T5HO 6700K fixture, ive read mixed reviews, people say its awesome while others say its garbage. any input here would be nice.
- I feel like my KH and GH are really high and i am thinking about trying to get an RO/DI unit to eliminate this problem, thoughts on that please
I guess that is all for now, Thank you for any input!
here is a pic of the algae im having: