We took our kids on a Disney vacation and I left my sister some prepared food in tupperware for her to feed them on Sunday. This was last weekend. I fed the fish on Friday, no food Saturday, she fed Sunday, no food Monday then we came back on Tuesday. What I found is that the sunset hygro had algae near the tops and the tops seemed to be dead. The anacharis was covered in algae and the tops of my sunset hygro carpet were all covered in algae. Nitrite and ammonia at zero, nitrate between five and ten. Fifty five gallon with 2.5 wpg and dual DIY setup. Now, I noticed that the co2 was dead when I got back but I am at a loss to figure out what happened. I have since trimmed back all of the algae infested areas but am curious if you guys may have an idea of what could have gone wrong.
Plants after vacation.
- Thread starter trevor30
- Start date
2 possibilities
1) DIY CO2 exhaustion lead to BBA outbreak - this algae is easiest (for many) to supress by providing consistent (if not necessarily adequate) CO2 levels.
2) Lighting cycle got longer than usual because sister manually put lights on for a while while feeding the fish - maybe even left them on... Many timers have manual override switches. Too long a photoperiod encourages many algae types to grow.
1) DIY CO2 exhaustion lead to BBA outbreak - this algae is easiest (for many) to supress by providing consistent (if not necessarily adequate) CO2 levels.
2) Lighting cycle got longer than usual because sister manually put lights on for a while while feeding the fish - maybe even left them on... Many timers have manual override switches. Too long a photoperiod encourages many algae types to grow.
