thecap Posted June 14, 2012 Report Share Posted June 14, 2012 Ok team, My little tank keeps getting a little cloudy :dunno: 22L set up for 2 months Ph 6.2 Ammonia 0 Nitrites 0 Nitrates 10-20ppm KH 1ish Lights and CO2 for 6 hrs Fish - 4 ottos and 4 blue eyed forktails and all happy I was getting a bit of BBA so i increased the CO2 slightly and pulled most of the affected plants and it has pretty much gone What have i tried : I have tried a couple of 40% water changes over 2 days and it clears, but will keep coming back. I tried a black out on the weekend, 40% water change blackout for 3 days. Fish where happy to see me and water clear on Sunday. pic is tonight. It is looking white cloudy. Where to now? From reading a few things in the forum, could it be fluctuating CO2 levels? I reackon these sit at around 30PPM during lighting and drop to around 5 - 10ppm after. Ideas/thoughts would be appreciated Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snookie Posted June 14, 2012 Report Share Posted June 14, 2012 may be going through a cycle ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrahamC Posted June 14, 2012 Report Share Posted June 14, 2012 Perhaps you're feeding too much food causing a bacterial bloom? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecap Posted June 14, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 14, 2012 may be going through a cycle ? I did think that, i left it for the first week, and tested water daily, no changes in water parametres , nitrates still come back up after water change. 3 weeks now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecap Posted June 14, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 14, 2012 Perhaps you're feeding too much food causing a bacterial bloom? Feeding a very small amount of flake or individual bloodworms every 2 days. The food doesn't get much of a chance to settle. I will check out some threads on it tho cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squirt Posted June 14, 2012 Report Share Posted June 14, 2012 What Ferts are you dosing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F15hguy Posted June 14, 2012 Report Share Posted June 14, 2012 avoid doing black outs, the plant's you have should out compete the algae, but the algae will survive better in lower light conditions. try trimming some of your plants to stimulate new growth. Very nice tank though if it was clear :-? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecap Posted June 14, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 14, 2012 What Ferts are you dosing? Ok here it is Normally. Been doing a few extra water changes last couple of weeks Lighting: 7 LED lamps 6000K 6 hours/day Substrate: Flourite black sand Plants: Glossostigma elantinoides, Lilaeopsis novae-zelandiae, Eleocharis acicularis & Echinodorus horemani Fish stocking: 4 otocinclus, 4 blue eyed forktails, couple of snails Filtration: Aqua clear 20 320 L/hr good flow through tank Ferts : Pressurized CO2 direct into filter, timed with lights NPK solution as per Jennifers post 2ml 2 times a week Flourish comprehensive 0.5ml 2 times a week Magnesium sulphate solution at water change 40-50% /week Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cricketman Posted June 14, 2012 Report Share Posted June 14, 2012 ordinarily when my FW gets clouded, I would put some carbon in my overflow for a few days... Problem being that it will probably strip the nutrients/ferts that you are adding to try get the plants going... :dunno: I'm not very experienced in high-tec planted tanks... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted June 14, 2012 Report Share Posted June 14, 2012 Your plants will not use a lot of nutrient until they convert from emersed to submersed, get established and start growing rapidly. You may need to use less firts and light until the plants get properly established as I suspect they are feeding algae at the moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecap Posted June 16, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 16, 2012 ordinarily when my FW gets clouded, I would put some carbon in my overflow for a few days... Problem being that it will probably strip the nutrients/ferts that you are adding to try get the plants going... :dunno: I'm not very experienced in high-tec planted tanks... Ha Me niether... plenty of reading Here is the plan.... Water change tomorrow and am going to add carbon in the filter for a week. Since the carbon will strip the ferts out i am going to keep the same dosing and keep an eye on any other form of algae turning up. Plants, recently have trimmed the Hairgrass and glosso but they are growing fast so will probably get another next week. The sword has tripled in size so might take a couple of leaves of that. Lighting will drop it down to 5hrs....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecap Posted July 9, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 9, 2012 Righto, Update.... Carbon kinda started to work but went back to cloudy so have removed. Next i read some where that willow tree shoots .5 - 1 cm thick added to the tank could help. So after finding a willow tree, which was surprisingly hard, i have added a few shoots to the tank. 2 weeks later i have a clear tank. Have continued the same ferts and have increased the lighting period to 7 hrs. Fingers crossed it stays that way. Need to do some trimming next................. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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