new planted tank - need advice on filter and algae

[cedwards]

I have a newly established 55 gallon planted tank. I have 2.4 wpg, no CO2 but I have been using Flourish Excel. My first question relates to my filter. I have a Magnum 350 canister with the bio-wheel. After lots of reading on here I decided to dump the carbon and have ordered some Purigen. Currently the only thing in my canister is some aragonite. Even with that my KH is only 3-4, PH seems steady in the 7.2-7.4 range. I know with those numbers that means my CO2 is on the low side. I'm not ready to go the CO2 injection route. It kinda scares me and I'm hoping I can be relatively successful without it. My question is whether the surface agitation caused by the bio-wheel is making things worse. Or is the CO2 low enough that this wouldn't make a difference?

My next question is about algae and fertilizer. About 2 weeks with plants I started getting algae. I'm pretty sure it is green spot algae. Not too bad on the plants, but definitely on the glass and big-time on some larger rocks I have in the tank. I've been reading like crazy and am still not sure what to do. My tap water has about 0.5 ppm phosphate, so I've been thinking I could get away without dosing this and trying to target 5 ppm for nitrate. I DO have to add nitrate because it goes to 0. I've been using Flourish Nitrogen for that so far. I've also been adding Flourish Potassium shooting for at least 5 ppm. Some things I've read seem to suggest boosting Potassium and Nitrogen and letting phosphate be the limiting nutrient. Others have suggested that green spot will be caused by low phosphates. So I bought some Fleet in case I need to start dosing this as well. I use Flourish Trace for micros. I also added some more plants today.

Any and all suggestions on both of these points would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[cedwards]

Anyone have any suggestions for me?

Thanks,
Chris

 

[DaveinSF]

Anyone have any suggestions for me?

Thanks,
Chris

I had a similar situation but did not come up with any conclusive replies. I also have a biowheel that causes significant surface agitation. Some technical articles suggest that the oxygen/CO2 exchange at the surface is something of a wash and that you shouldn't have too much 'boil-off' of CO2. Consensus seems to suggest that CO2 is not needed unless you have some pretty high light levels.

I also had the green spot algae. Physical removal by scraping seems to work pretty well and it doesn't come back too quickly. Also, adding plants is probably a good idea, as everyone seems to concur that they outcompete algae for nutrients.

You could also try a 'blackout' for a day or two to see if it gets rid of the algae.

Finally, I also had concerns about a carbon filter and what it would do to dosing Flourish (not excel). I go ahead and change the filter about once every 4-5 water changes. When I do the weekly water change, I still rinse out the used filter cartridge before replacing. Even a reused cartridge captures quite a bit of waste, so rinsing it out (with treated water, not tap water, to avoid killing your bio filter living on the filter media) is important.

I achieve nitrate levels below 10ppm after a water change. Dosing for micronutrients seems to work. I think you may need to find your own individual level of stasis in the tank in which not too, TOO much algae grows. The balance between fish bioload, plants, lighting, etc., seems to be pretty fine, but I'm sure you'll find it soon.

 

[Walker_]

This may not necessarily be the “right” thing to do and I may be a bit old fashioned but its worked for me for years…..
Ignore your co2 levels entirely unless you want to really get into plants; like don’t even waste your time measuring it, jut stick to PH nitrate nitrite. I am not familiar with all the brand names of filters that are out these days; but if it’s a closed circuit canister filter and it has a fairly good volume, simply fill the whole thing with washed lava rock from the local gardening store. Cost less than $5, after the bacteria has set up shop in the rock pull all other chemical based filtration material; IE carbon, and all of the other brand name material… If you have a sufficient volume of bio filtration there is NO NEED for anything else; except perhaps a Diatom filter. By running a diatom every so often you can pull almost all of the waterborne algae from a tank; as well as any other nasty or murky things that may be hanging out there. Your media costs almost totally disappeared and you have a tank that is 100% self supporting; I had a 45 hex that I ran like this for 7 years with no water changes ever; just toped off with tap water when the filter was making too much noise…

As for algae control, Lots of fast growing plants for sure & the standard magnetic scrubber is certainly important, but the best thing to do is have enough of the right kind of fish to keep the whole thing clean. Think of them as maintenance workers who you don’t have to pay…
I am a big fan of Otocinclus (sp) they do wonders keeping plants clean
Flying foxes are also great for algae; especially hair algae…
Plecos are the old standby
Snails are good too; just be sure to get the right kind so you don’t have to bust out the purple string http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=70014

Really; in my humble opinion using chems is a bad way to go; there are times it may be necessary; but the only thing I ever use is Tropica; and things have very rarely gotten out of control…

Hope that doesn’t mislead you too much!

 

[cedwards]

Thanks for the thoughts. I feel better about my filter in any case. I do have 6 Otocinclus and they seem to be keeping busy, although they don't do much with the green spot. I did some scraping today and it does clean up fairly easily. I will run the diatom filter for a while tomorrow. Hopefully I can get the ferts to a point where I keep the algae to a minimum!

Thanks again!

 

[pbrack]

I'm not an expert by any means, but I beleive that if you dose with excel, you shouldn't worry about CO2 getting lost in surface agitation since it's not dissolved as a gas...not 100% sure though. Also, your light is getting fairly high, and might make you consider a couple of DIY CO2 bottles. If plants are limited by CO2, then that cuold give the edge to algea.

Good luck!