Planted 120G Tank

[JAY973]

The algae you see the pics is early on in EI until recently all the driftwood look like black vines in the tank. Peroxide provide very little relief it was spreading so fast.

I just did a test today and realized there is no way my NO3 is at 0 with the Nitrate protocol I'm doing with this MCI. It's really hard to say if it is going to have an affect on algae it's only been a week.

Hardware as of today is
I'm planning on breaking down the filters to short the hose lengths I'm currently using in hope to increase flow.
(1) 405 w/ inline Co2 reactor 1000
(1) 404 w/inline Hydor 300w heater & 25w UV (not plugged in) Fluval skimmer. (was getting a thick film on top)
(1) smaller power head than pictured atleast in size (on intermitently because it really disturbs the plants.)
(1) 20# Co2 canister (I've cranked up my Co2 my 30ppm indicator is yellow so I know it's higher than that, but it's not affecting the fish.)
(3) 80w T5HO on Icecap balast
(1) Stealth 250w heat in tank on controller as a back up.

Today's test
KH 3
GH 12
New NO3 kit 20ppm
I turned off the Co2 tonight to see what the PH controller reads tomorrow without Co2 overnight.

Instead of trying to explain it this method No3 generic protocol can be found here
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/algae/69737-method-controlled-imbalances-summary.html

The new algae that the sprung up during EI looks like D.3. RODOPHYTAS SP. 3 picture in the link above claims it's an imbalance of Ca/Mg to much Mg. As I'm sitting here trying to figure out how to reduce it I answered my own question R/O.

I'm currently dosing 4g of Kno3 per day to my tank last week I was at 3g per day but never got to GSA, because I'm only dosing Kno3 I'm seeing deficiencies in Alternanthera reineckii new growth is shriveld but this plants almost completely covered in BBA before starting this method. The other plants aren't that bad just the hardscape.


The tank is perling like crazy where it was only perling at weekly water changes before.

Thanks for any help.

 

[67chevelle]

Never ran across this thread. Nice looking tank. BBA can be a PITA as you have found out. I didn't read every post,(getting late,need to get to sleep) but if you are only diffusing in 1 part of the tank,that could be part of the problem. Do you have more than 1 drop checker? Just some thoughts.

Tank looks good! Good luck with it!

 

[JAY973]

I do have more than one of those RedSea drop checkers I can do that tomorrow I usually put it futherest away from the filter since the 405 on the left is running the Co2 reactor I put the checker on the right side glass.

this is the reactor (I use it with no bioballs found it was slowing the flow to much works better without it) get almost total diffusion
http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=9918

I used a Hagen Ca test and it took 2 drops to get it to voilet although the 1st drop got it a darker pink so it's 2 drops x 20 for 40ppm Ca??? seems like a lot.

I also tested Po4 Hagen kit as well the color was between 1 and 2.5 mind you I'm not dosing any K2HPo4 as I'm still doing the No3 generic protocol.

Forgot I had a Hagen No3 test kit so I did that one again was darker than 10 almost 20. The other No3 was the API one.

Test Fe nothing no color change...

 

[JAY973]

Here are pics left to right, to lazy to go looking for a lens with wide zoom so I didn't get a FTS but you get the idea.

Left to right...

Plants with the worst of it forgot the Alternanthera reineckii

Removed some of the driftwood because it all got like this and this is showing some improvement after peroxide

I just put the drop checkers in had to replace the suction cups so it hasn't changed color yet still very blue but at opposite ends of the tank.

I'm not sure why the pictures aren't portrait they are on photobucket couldn't figure out how to rotate them here never had that problem before.

 

[dundadundun]

hmmm... seems mg is ~40ppm using gh(17.86) - ca(80) /4.1... a bit high maybe. not sure what that'd hurt.

i'm not sure i'd really trust this method with such a large, packed tank. as it is it seems you're very low on some ferts and you have the algae to prove it. limiting everything to relative zero and working one at a time seems like it would only make way for a prolonged outbreak to me. i could be absolutely wrong, though. good luck.

one thing i would do is see if i could get away with only to of those icecap ballasts until i could get things balanced out. seems you're having algae in all the right spots as far as light is concerned (as to be expected). the tips of your taller plants... places that are planted sparsely... and equipment/decor that are dangerously close to the light.

add to that diffusing your co2 and dispersing it better, monitoring both sides of the tank and a full dosing regime and eventually you should have the upper hand. if you feel the need to you certainly could dose excel or gluteraldehyde as a supplement to your co2/algae buster until you can get things leveled out a bit better also.

 

[JAY973]

hmmm... seems mg is ~40ppm using gh(17.86) - ca(80) /4.1... a bit high maybe. not sure what that'd hurt.

i'm not sure i'd really trust this method with such a large, packed tank. as it is it seems you're very low on some ferts and you have the algae to prove it. limiting everything to relative zero and working one at a time seems like it would only make way for a prolonged outbreak to me. i could be absolutely wrong, though. good luck.

one thing i would do is see if i could get away with only to of those icecap ballasts until i could get things balanced out. seems you're having algae in all the right spots as far as light is concerned (as to be expected). the tips of your taller plants... places that are planted sparsely... and equipment/decor that are dangerously close to the light.

add to that diffusing your co2 and dispersing it better, monitoring both sides of the tank and a full dosing regime and eventually you should have the upper hand. if you feel the need to you certainly could dose excel or gluteraldehyde as a supplement to your co2/algae buster until you can get things leveled out a bit better also.

Well my algae out break problems was during EI dosing which is were there should be excess of nutrients. I've only started MCI last week and I think it's too early to tell although I did a 50% water change I don't know how high the ferts levels were.

I just added Excel this morning 60ml for the 120g (volume wise I'm sure there's less.) I expect the corkscrew to suffer again but it will recover. I 2 drop checkers in there with 30ppm solution and they are both the same green color as of this morning.

As long as I don't affect the fish I'll tinker with trying to get it balanced some more.

Thanks for the feed back.

 

[JAY973]

Well I can't say with any definitivity that I'm winning the war on BBA but removing most of the driftwood made it more pleasing to the eye for me. I increase the water flow with the power head and shortened the lengths on the 404 removing the UV which wasn't in use. I'm still tinkering with dosing because I wasn't comfortable with dosing 5g of KNO3 in the tank although as you can see from the plants they took off. The queen marble sword is kicking out 8-10 inch leaves every 2 days so I'm going to have to pull it it's not what I want for this tank. The Glosso is growing like mad I've been too lazy to give it the attention it needs. I've been trimming and replanting smaller areas at a time to not disturb the SMS too much because it is so messy.

Anyway here are a few pics.
Left side (BBA on remaining driftwood. The higher flow seems to have had a positive affect on the staghorn algae, seeing less of it.)

Right side (The colorata is showing signs of red as it's closer to the light I'm waiting to get enough growth to replant the tops more evenly spaced to see if I can keep the color through out it's a bit crowded at the moment.)

Queen Marble sword

Thanks for looking.

 

[aXio]

Looking good! And good luck with the on going BBA battle.

 

[fishycat]

Those pics a couple weeks ago really broke my heart! I'm glad things seem to be improving... fingers, toes & eyes crossed for you! The r. colorata is gorgeous!

 

[bigwave]

Looking pretty good. Too bad sometime this is a battle, but keep up the fight!