Planted tank restart help plz

[Simian]

After a frustrating time with battling green spot and green beard algae, I have cut back and ripped out most of my plants and have removed 99% of my fish from my planted tank. (3' standard size)

In preparation for the arrival of 3 baby Discus its my last ditch attempt at a planted tank.

I have left my substrate in along with the only plants which really seemed to do well,and weren't so covered with Green beard that I can still stand them.

Base is Daltons topped with sand and a thin layer of bright water.

Remaining plants

Dwarf Sword of some kind 8'' max height

Crypt Wendttii sp?

Some Mystery Crpt with thin leaves

Trimmed Ambulia and water wisteria back to base's and ripped up all my dwarf sag which while it was growing great looks awful when covered in algae.

Lighting consists of 2x 3' plant tubes running 12 hrs and 2x 24W compact fluorescents 840 colour running 9 hrs.

So I have plenty of light (not convinced if the CFL's are contributing to my algae isses or not but green beard was worse under the CFL's).

I am in the Waikato so hence high Phosphates. I have PMDD (Thanks Hans ) and will dose with Excell or once that runs out DIY CO2 until I can afford a pressurised system (which will be never at the rate I spend money on my fish).

So heres my plan please help with advice.

Add JBL Balls

Start again with replanting the dwarf Sag and encourage existing bigger plants to grow lush.

Add only a few fish until I get good growth then slowly stock up to full

How do I get massive growth for my regenerating aquatic garden without the Algae?

Not concerned about the fish too much at the start as I'll use sacrificial Guppies in case of high nitrates/poisoning etc.

Do I use my UV steriliser as I have heard conflicting reports on using them on planted tanks.

Thanks

Owen

[Dave+Amy]

baby Discus with substrate? that's not a good idea...

I'd go barebottom until at least 5/6cm

There's nothing wrong with using UV filter..probably good if you're having algae problems. have a look at my tank http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=38115&start=30 - I haven't started liquid fert dosing yet and am only using JBL fert balls and it's growing quite well. But am going to start using Han's PMDD when I've picked my motivation and mixed up the solution lol.

What colour discus you getting in? you could plan your plants (colour, heights etc) to optimise your Discus to standing out more if you're determined on having substrate?

[Navarre]

Easy as with baby discus

plant up your tank.

add algae eaters and base fish

next take second tank

add baby discus to this (add water first of course) then feed every hour on the hour and do 50 % water changes every day if they are needed or not.

once discus are grown (in about 2 years) then place in plant tank

Take photo

remove discus and have photo enlarged to size of tank

look at foto whilst weeding tank and feeding discus.

HTH

Navarre

[Dave+Amy]

lmao..or you could try Navarre's solution lol best of both worlds

[phoenix44]

hi simian,

I like the sound of your tanK!

with the UV steriliser - you can use them on planted tanks with no problems - and since you have one, you may as well use it. I certainly would have.

How often can you do water changes on the tank? If you can do many small water changes over say a week or so, it may be worthwhile having a large water storage unit or similar and pre-treat that water with phosphate remover - then use that water to top up your tank. That method however would be too much work for me personally :lol:

maybe use a phosphate remover in your filter? what sort of filter will you be using on the tank?

Daltons can in some cases feed algae but keep an eye on the PO4 levels and you should be fine. Also depending on how densely the tank is planted at the time - Nitrates may not be such an issue.

if you are at all concerned about initial plant growth (but it seems you have lots of good lighting) consider taking off the glass covers on the tank, and running it rimless until the plants pick up to a level that you are happy with.

DIY Co2 should help as well - just keep the surface water flow as low as you can.

Oh and if you do have nitrate problems just put some heavy root feeding plants in the tank, even if its just temporary.

HTH, and let me know if ive missed out on any thing.

[Adrienne]

I started of with Daltons in my planted discus tank and then replaced it with the JBL balls as I have swords which are heavy root feeders. I do get algae (black beard) but regular - not every day - dosing with flourish excel keeps it under control and the 3 SAE I have in the tank help too. My lighting is not really strong enough to do a lot to help plant growth but it looks okay. The reason I got rid of the Daltons was because it made a mess when I tried to vacuum the gravel thoroughly, mind you so the JBL balls if you suck them up! I have a UV sterliser but have not used it on this tank as there has been no need. Its only really useful if you have green water and imo will do nothing on bbs or hair algae. It works on the water passing through the steriiser unit only.

[Simian]

Thanks for the advice one and all.

The baby discus are not totally teeny but I will be growing them out in a bare bottom until I get my plants established.

I run a eheim classic canister filter on this tank currently, the UV is mainly there because I had green water issues for a while and I like the idea of killing pathogens off.

does anyone have any idea if the compact fluro's colour 840 would be contributing to the algae? or is that just the by product of having such a high light density.

As a result of this discussion.

I am going to increase Heavy root feeders such as swords and crypts to ensure nutrient leaching from daltons is minamised.

And stick with ambulia and water wisteria as water column feeders to extract the PO4 from the water.

Start up DIY CO2 and see how that works.

Cheers Owen