Should I just re-do my entire substrate?

coach_z said:
what are the results of a recent water test? ammonia, nitrite, nitrate.

your algae doesnt seem to be a problem from stuff being in the substrate it sounds like it is from too long of a photo period with swings in co2 levels.

a 75 gallon tank, 2wpg, co2, canister filter, EI dosing i dont see a need to add or subtract anything. just plant it and let it be. i wouldnt vac that substrate...just 'hover on top of it with the gravel vac' to suck thestuff off the top layer.
Click to expand...

I don't quite have 2 wpg though. I've got 110w CF on a 75g tank. I was going to add another 100w fixture though I'm told CF is no longer the way to go. 200 w would give me nearly 3 wpg which I think would work perfectly with my pressurized CO2. I'm currently blacking out the tank this week to kill the algae. It's like a green scum that grows on the substrate and the rocks in the tank. I'll adjust my lighting to 8 hours a day. So the turface substrate is fine?
 
can we get pics of the algae? different algaes have different reasons for popping up. Not to mention imbalances can cause not only algae but cyanobacteria
 
I looked at this site - http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm. My main problem is BGA. I have some of the Rhizo whatever, but that popped up after I gave up on the tank and started changing water once a month instead of every other week. The BGA is the main culprit. I pull it out, but it just comes back. I've only got 3 fish in the tank right now - three neons and a rubber lip pleco.
 
agreed^ i suspected bga... when you said covering everything lol

bga is actually a cyanobacteria the best treatment is a antibiotic treatment coupled with a 3 day blackout..

also i would sterilze all of the equipment that you use

bga typically grows when you dont have enough nitrates in your tank

couple things you should be aware of... when the erythromycin starts to kill the bga you may encounter a spike in ammonia which is releasing from the bga breaking down... the best way to counter this is by doing a waterchange prior to the EM treatment and getting as much bga out of the tank manually as possible.. and then keep an eye on your parameters throughout the treatment... if you need do a waterchange do a waterchange etc...

what you do not want to do...
do not cut your em treatment short and do not cut the dosing in half...

if you do not erradicate this colony after the em treatment you could potentially have some stronger bga since it will build up a resistance to the antibiotic so you want to make sure you have a full dose of em and for the recommended time...


also in the future to prevent bga you may want to keep your nitrates up by dosing them in the tank
 
Last edited:
I'd like to avoid chemical methods. Basically, this algae grew all over my plants and killed them. I have a couple of crypts that simply are too stupid to die. That's it. It does say in the article:

Make sure your substrate and filter doesn't become too clogged up with mulm and also make sure you have good water circulation around the whole tank.
Click to expand...

My substrate is definitely clogged with mulm which I wonder if it's not contributing to the problem. I also wonder about my water circulation. I have an XP3 with the spray bar on one end of the tank and the intake on the other. I wonder though if it's enough. I've got a big piece of driftwood in between and I wonder if lack of circulation is part of what's adding to my problem. Should I consider something like a SW wavemaker? or is that too extreme? I want to get this tank cleaned up and up and running again and I want it to be successful.
 
well i can tell you that the erythromycin treatment worked the best out of anything i ever did for bga...
but you may get away with doing a blackout till its gone... but i would manually remove as much as possible before doing it...
 
It kinda sounds like you know you need to do a heavy cleaning. and with bga you should run the EM treatment as well, after you heavily vac the tank. I'd suggest running a small cannister as a gravel vac, and just go over it for an hour, churning as much of the substrate as possible. Then I'd do a large water change, and start the EM. I'd probably cut the light back a bit as well, but I don't think that's what's causing your problems.

In the long term, you should study your water movement, and try to get more flow down around the substrate, it should help your filter grab more detritus by keeping it from settling.
 
mellowvision said:
It kinda sounds like you know you need to do a heavy cleaning. and with bga you should run the EM treatment as well, after you heavily vac the tank. I'd suggest running a small cannister as a gravel vac, and just go over it for an hour, churning as much of the substrate as possible. Then I'd do a large water change, and start the EM. I'd probably cut the light back a bit as well, but I don't think that's what's causing your problems.

In the long term, you should study your water movement, and try to get more flow down around the substrate, it should help your filter grab more detritus by keeping it from settling.
Click to expand...

Stirring the substrate sounds like an excellent idea. I'll go home and do a 50% water change. Then I'll put a couple of filters on the tank and stir the substrate up while I let the filters hopefully pull all the crud out. I'll post some pics when I get home (I'll have to search my computer for them) and hopefully you guys can give me some ideas of where I need to look for water flow problems going forward.

I'm wanting to (in an ideal perfect world) grow a lawn type plant out of the substrate. I want 6-8 schools of tetras swimming in my planted paradise. Pics of the completed project will be posted here if I can pull it off.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom