Jennifer

nachos

Yep, adding more plants is fine. There are lots of options for small tanks these days. I especially like a number of the small danios around at the moment. I have 15 danio tinwini in a small tank and they look fantastic. Danios tend to swim around fast and school a lot while tetras are slower, more inquisitive and tend to shoal. I have the very tiny ember tetras and similarly small sparkling gourami in a small tank and they are very nice. The sparkling gourami are a very under rated fish (speaking from one who has never liked gourami before). Endless possibilities when you are ready!

Brown algae/diatoms are normal for a newly setup tank. Otocinclus will eat it up but if you don't have a cycled filter yet you can try increasing surface agitation and temporarily decreasing the photoperiod to around 8 hours a day. Keep wiping away any that you see. When things settle down, gradually increase the photoperiod to 10 hours a day. I would remove your carbon from the filter. It isn't needed and trace nutrients will adsorb to the surface making them unavailable to the plants. HTH

Cute, and odd, and cute - but that is a nice plan for a tank. Makes me want another one. :roll: I think you should have hit that poor worm on the head (or tail) first though. :lol:

I have done the exact same thing but used good mature filter media instead and no substrate. Again, no problems.

I do that exact thing quite frequently, but I ensure that I only remove 1/3 of the total mature media in my filters and I give it two weeks before doing anything drastic with the filter or the substrate.

If you just want to use the one tank, you could get a phospahte test kit and measure how different types of foods release phospahtes into the water after feeding. With a standard test kit you may not be able to detect much but it would be a good project anyway. For example: Phospahte levels in the water as a result of feeding different foods. At the same time each day before feeding, measure the phosphate level with a test kit. Then, an hour after feeding measure the phosphate levels again with the same test kit. Make a note of the relative increase in phosphate that occurrs as a result of feeding. Measure out the amount fed so that it is exactly the same each time. The controls can be two days when you don't feed at all but you still carry out the tests exactly as you would normally do (including at the exact same time of the day). Do this on two separate days, and try to randomly select which days they will be. Instead of adding food, you can add something inert, like water. It would be good to carry out this test over 4 weeks. each week would include 5 days of feeding five different types of food and two control days when you don't feed. Each week you would carry out a regular water change on the same day, and each day of the week you would feed the same type of food as you will do for the other weeks in the experiment. Create a graph that lists each of the different types of food on one axis and the phosphate levels on the other axis (take the average phospahate level over all for the 4 weeks). How different foods can affect phospahte levels and the risks for having high phosphate levels in both freshwater and saltwater tanks. Details about the risks of phosphate levels as well as the results of your tests and suggestions for how to reduce phosphate when feeding.

Yes. The pH will change upon sitting. It is probably just 'outgassing' of dissolved CO2 which will increase the alkalinity. In general, don't panic about pH, fish can tolerate a range of pH - it is the pH fluctuations that are the biggest problem and often in our efforts to create the perfect pH we create endless fluctuations. If your fish seem happy, just leave it.

Logging

TMI!!!

It is a misconception that green water is caused by excess light, particularly sunlight. If you doubt that, just try making a bucket of green water by placing it out in the direct sunlight all day - it is not as easy as you might think! It sounds like your situation has been caused by nutrient excess/imbalance. The plants simply cannot outcompete the algae so the algae is taken the upper hand. Black out will cure the green appearance but to prevent the problem from reoccurring, get the plants growing well by giving them good light and appropriate balanced nutrients; avoid overfeeding so you don't have excess gross nutrients to feed the algae; and support an environment that will allow the beneficial microorganisms to flourish.

Sounds like you have a good set up. Flourish excel at a dosage of 1ml per 15 litres seems to be pretty safe for a short term treatment (10 days). Be careful with discus though - it is best to increase the dosage slowly and watch carefully for any signs of distress. A maintenance dose of Flouish excel is around 1ml per 30 litres - it seems to have a good algicidal effect and the liquid carbon is useful for the plants. Trace fertilisers should be added every day if possible to give the plants enough so that they can outcompete the algae. The UV light will inactivate some of those nutrients so you might want to consider cutting back on that if you can. Be careful to rise any fresh food before you add it to the tank or you will be adding a lot of excess phosphates which will make it more likely that there will be an algae outbreak.

Green water is usually caused by one of three things: 1. lack of microorganisms (as is seen with a new setup or an overcleaned setup); 2. medications (which can kill the beneficial microorganisms); 3. nutrient imbalance. You can resolve a green water problem by doing any number of things but one of the most long term solutions is to get any nutrient imbalance sorted out and then let the microorganism population establish itself by doing small water changes over the course of several days. No, it is not immediate, but the root of the problem is addressed with a long term solution. To resolve the nutrient imbalance aim for Nitrogen 10-20ppm, Phosphorus 0.5-2ppm, Potassium 10-20ppm, Calcium 10-30ppm, Magnesium 2-5ppm, Iron 0.1ppm. Other treatments include: blackout the tank for 3 to 5 days or remove algal particles with a micron filter, UV filter or Daphnia in a breeding net. Flocculants can also be used to force the algae into larger clumps that your filter can more easily remove.

For DIY CO2 I have used a successful combination of 2 cups sugar, 1 tsp baker's yeast a pinch of basking soda and a bit or Marmite. It lasts 3 weeks. Everyone has a different combination though, it is just a matter of experimenting. The ambulia will have longer internodal segments when the light is good or when it is growing quickly. It will be bushier if you feed it with trace nutrients but the internodes will still be longer if it is growing well. It will have short internodes and bushy growth if the light is low or if the nutrients are poor. If you upset the root systems of the plants when rearranging, the plants will pause in growth but it shouldn't make a huge bit of difference. If you are worried that they have been disturbed too much you can cut back the photoperiod for a couple of days so the algae doesn't take off if the plants are not usisng up the nutrients like they used to.

All good advice. I would personally add a little more depth to the substrate so you can allow for more root development and eventually facilitate the addition of gross nutrients via root tablets for those plants that require root feeding for good growth. If you begin dosing trace nutrients, you will see a marked improvement in the amount of growth and the iron will make the red plants really develop good color. It will also keep the algae away since the plants will outcompete the algae. You will need to dose in small amounts daily or every other day to achieve the best results though. The UV filter will degrade liquid carbon and many trace nutrients (including the ones you add) so the plants will not be able to thrive quite as much as they might otherwise and fertilisers will be a waste of money. My advice is use the UV when you need it and turn it off the rest of the time. If you do add CO2, that will also help to fight algae but only if the CO2 levels are not fluctuating. Also, fluctuating CO2 will cause pH changes so proceed slowly and carefully. For a tank that size, I would recommend building up to two bottles of DIY CO2, one that you start one week, and the next that you start the next week so that there is always a steady stream going into the tank.

Waddaya reckon Caryl, think we can make it there and back on Saturday? :lol:

Hmm, me thinks a Saturday of trolling around is in order! 8) BTW, have a good meeting guys, you can have your thread back now. :lol:

Let me know if you need some company.

Ooo, that sounds like an awesome thing for a club to do! Wish I lived closer.

Keep in mind, an imbalance in many nutrients can cause algae. If you remove all the phosphates you can have a problem. Instead of fixing a problem, prevent it at the source. Plants can utilise phosphate, IF they have enough potassium. It's a similar story with nitrates and a number of other macronutrients. Easiest thing to do is provide a good trace nutrient supplement to the tank. The plants will then use up a lot of the excess nitrates and phosphates and your tank will be more likely to be balanced.

Well hopefully the praziquantel will do the job. It should immobilise the flukes fairly soon after dosing but the gills may still be inflammed for a week or so afterward so the symptoms may persist for a few days.

Praziquantel is marketed under a few different trade names so I would not be surprised if it looked different...however, mysteriously packaged secret drugs sound somewhat questionable! Keep in mind, praziquantel will not kill the most common worms, like roundworms. It will kill cestodes and trematodes (flukes and tapeworms) though.

Carbon is a chemical filtration method (it removes particles by chemically binding with them) whereas filter floss is a mechanical filtration method (it removes particles by physically trapping them in a fine web of mostly inert material).

Other than the rare allergic or anaphalactic reactions, there are no significant side effects for praziquantel, even at several times the dose rate although the action of the drug is dependent on it being metabolized by the liver so if this organ system is already compromised, the drug could exacerbate the condition. There is no risk to your tank. I think the biggest risk is with developing drug resistance so careful use and dosing is important. Theoretically, you should not need to keep redosing once you have treated an animal unless the animal is repeatedly exposed to new populations of the parasitic organism.

Hey thanks! Ryan said the same thing so I am going to give it a try as soon as I can get a new culture.