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Planted tanks failing!!!!

4K views 26 replies 5 participants last post by  Blaxicanlatino 
#1 ·
in my main 10 gallon tank, i noticed a consistentgrowth of green dust algae on the glass of the tank! i have to scrub all sides of tank 0nce a week and many of my plants such as my anubias nana, pennwort, moneywort and water wisteria are getting green blotches all over it. Ive been fighting this stuff for some time with no success. the tank is a 10 gallon with 25 watts. i think maybe a few months ago, i put in alot of root tabs. could that be a source of too much nutrition? i also put in 8 drops of seachem flourish every week also.

in my other 10 gallon tank, its aa new cycling tank with 30 watts. and i bought some micro swords baby tears into the tank but the baby tears are dying off quickly. at first it looked like the baby tears wre growing but then suddenly started dying. And the micro sword looks like its growing but theres alot of white stuff in it. not sure what it is 0_0. ps im using that seachem flourite sand for this tank.

any suggestions?! please help! thanky ou
 
#2 ·
How long has the tank been running? Its fairly common in new tanks.
Goggel pictures for "green spot algae" - Is that what your plants look like?
What tab's exactly did you use? And how many do you recall adding in there? Most brands I read up on recommend 4-5 pills for 10g - was it far more or less then that?
How long are you running your lights?
Any detectable NO2 NO3 or Ammonia levels?

Sorry so many add. questions I just wanna have all needed facts to help. I do not think its too much nutrition I think you have a imbalance between fert's / lights and maybe even the amount of w/c.
 
#3 ·
In addition to the info asked by Angel, what type of light (presumably fluorescent, but what make, name and wattage)? And I'm not sure what the "white stuff" refers to, can you post a picture?

But a couple of things do jump out from your post. First, substrate fertilization is next to useless for the plants you have named in the "main 10g" tank. None of those plants have extensive substrate roots, even the Wisteria which does develop good substrate roots also has roots along the stems, indicating it absorbs nutrients mainly from the water column. While I'm not certain as to how much nutrient would leech into the water from tabs in the substrate, they are wasted, though they may be useful to the algae.

As for Flourish Comprehensive (I assume it is the comprehensive product), dose the recommended amount on the label, no more. It is very effective fertilizer. While all this may balance the light [more on this momentarily], it probably doesn't balance the carbon (from CO2 from the fish) unless the tank is heavily stocked with fish. And the light is certainly more than I would use over a 10g. Fifteen watts is plenty; 30 watts over the new 10g for the higher light plants won't achieve anything if the carbon and other nutrients are inadequate to balance. Your light schedule will tell us more.

Byron.
 
#4 ·
Thanks for the elaborate replies. I use compact flourescent light bulbs, the main tank use daylight bulbs and the other uses soft white. The new tank I put baby tears and micro sword in so I figures high lights but I think co2 might be the issue. I'm not using a diy in neither tank so should I put one for each tank? Would adding more fish help?
 
#5 ·
Daylight is good to grow plants. However if the water offer no fert's, then that's your issue, so I'd buy something like Flourish Comprehensive and/ or Excel and start using it for several weeks.

How long per day are your lights on? What's your pH and KH in each tank?
 
#6 ·
Lights are on 8 hours a day. No ammonia or nitrite and about 5-10 ppm nitrate for the main. I'm not sure about the new one yet. I realize though that I never understood balance if light, nutrition and co2. I Always though high lights for high light plants.
 
#8 ·
I personally wouldn't bother with CO2 on such small tanks. If carbon is the missing nutrient, Seachem's Excel carbon supplement will work. I've never had to use this as I have a good fish stocking in my tanks and I experiement over a few weeks to get the other nutrients (via fertilizer) balanced, and the light too. Don't overload the tanks with fish, but yes, the more fish the more CO2 there will be. Avoiding any surface disturbance and having minimal filtration (water movement) also conserves CO2 which is expelled out of the water quickly the more water movement and surface disturbance there is in a tank.

Byron.
 
#9 ·
oh see so it takes trial and error? that makes sense. i had some excel but i ran out. i was gonna add more femlale platys to the tank (slowly of course) and there is high surface movement from the filter. i tried putting some plastic inside the filter so that it would slow the flow of water but it just made if overflow 0_0 lol maybe i should clean the tnak more often? i clean once a week. and remove enough water to where i have to replace a gallon of water.

on the main tank with 25 watts, should i lower the wattage? would my plants be ok with thtat?
 
#11 ·
I don't think its the wattage that's your problem nor the w/c weekly.
How much are you doing like 20-30% w/c? That's sufficient enough.

What I'd do after what I now learned with my hardcore algae attach if this was my tank: Use a dish sponge/ scrubby pad and clean your tank sides out, then while there's all that stuff "floating" do your w/c (maybe need a lil more then normal).
Then set your lights to something like 4 on 4off 4 on or 5-4-5 something that gives a light break in the PM for about 3-4hrs.
Then see to get Excel again and start dosing as recommended on the pack for 10g.

Within 1-2 weeks you should then see the matter becoming much better if not fully disappear. Make sure meanwhile your NO2, 3, Ammonia is not gonna go up for no reason to feed the algae even more.

All that will conquer the green algae issue at least - Now what that "white stuff" is you were talking about I still don't know, any way you could take a picture of it for me???
 
#13 ·
Sorry to be so strait fwd but that is strait out stupid to do. In doing so he'll immediately hinder the plants to thrive and the algae WILL take over full force. And I'm not only making this statement cause of first hand pers expierence but this is also a very well document big no-no to do;-)
 
#17 ·
wow thank a bunch everyone! eveyone has been a huge help! im working on them today! im getting the excel and will begin the "blackouts" throughout the day. I will let you know how it goes :)
i think the white stuff i spoke of was the stringy fibery stuff the plants were potted in when i bought them. I tried to remove as much as i could but there roots were so delicate. I cant get a pic cause for some reason my sd card for my camera is spazzing. sigh more money... lol im getting an amano shrimp for the new tank IF its finished with its cycling already.
 
#18 ·
so to sum up everything, my lights are fine for both tanks but i should start dosing with seachem excel and should suck more water out during my weekly cleaning. and also do that lights on 4 lights off 3 right?

how long should i do this lights off lights on trick? forever or just till the problem is over?
 
#19 ·
Oh ok, well if its from the plants, just suck it out with your next w/c, it happens...I thought there for a min you had some fancy fungus lol

I'd do siesta & Excel until its visibly gone - Then you CAN try dial up your lights to 10hrs/ day again, but if you see the smallest of algae, stop it and stay with the break. As for my tank, honestly I'm gonna stick with the break, I actually like it cause its on longer at nights :)

Yea make sure about them w/c to do them every week (let's say every Sat) and then ~30% if you see dead leaf's while doing it, clip them out as well.

You should soon see a difference, mine took like 2-3 days till I seen a change (not gone, but a change for the better). So give it some 2 weeks and see what happens while dosing Excel. If not, come back and beat us for more ideas :)
 
#21 ·
I recently posted data on stats showing that a major pwc once a week is more effective at eliminating pollution that smaller changes twice a week. There is a good set of articles on this in the November and December 2009 issues of TFH if you're interested in the data numbers. But my recommendation is to do a major (50%+) pwc once a week regularly. I have been doing this for 15 years, although I was not aware of the benefits until I read the afore-mentioned articles. And it is usually easier for most of us to stick to a once a week schedule--and it is important to stick to it, whatever you decide.

By "cleaning" all this is necessary is the pwc with a vacuuming of the gravel where you can get to it (without uprooting plants, etc). Filter rinsing is needed when it becomes necessary; the water has to be able to pass through the media an dpads easily without circumventing them. Scraping algae off the glass may be necessary; I use one of those sponge scrapers every week even if I can't see algae, because if I don't usually before the following week I find a couple of spots where it is starting.

Byron.
 
#23 ·
I pers never done 50% unless either my Nitrite went up on newly set up tanks, or the tank has been neglected for long and had a lot of debris. You will develop a "feel" for this over time too. If you vacum and you have a TON come up or nothing at all you'll know what to do. Also the amount of w/c is kinda driven by the fish in the tank, some leave more waste behind then other :)
 
#24 ·
Angel's last sentence is quite true, as explained below. I found my last post on this, so here it is copied over, with a few additional points.

The first thing to remember is that in nature fish are continually in "fresh" water. The water is being turned over (as in ponds and lakes) or constantly flowing past (as in streams and rivers) and the percentage of fish mass to water is considerably less than in any aquarium. No fish is forced to live in the same water, so right from the start our aquarium is at a disadvantage for the fish.

The only reason to do a pwc in a planted aquarium is to rid the tank of toxins that build up and cannot be effectively removed any other way. These toxins are urine and solid waste from the fish, and they are significant; a small tetra can produce its body weight in urine within 3-4 days. No filter will remove this, period. Plants can, but it is a slow process and only effective if the fish load is very minimal and there are many plants. One author used the example of 6 or 7 neon tetras in a 55g tank that was heavily planted as being the upper limit. Most of us have far more fish in our tanks that this, so we need to do the pwc to remove the pollution. If a well-planted aquarium has a small fish load, fewer pwc's will be needed; Diana Walstad writes of doing one every few months, and that works if the fish load is not beyond the capacity of the plants and biological system. Again, most of us have more fish than the system can support without our assistance via the weekly pwc. In non-planted tanks, the pwc also dilutes/removes nitrates, but this is irrelevant in a healthy planted tank because the plants consume the ammonium, and nitrates are therefore minimal.

It is frequently said that the pwc should be more frequent with less water in order to sustain stability in the water quality. In a planted aquarium the plants are doing the major filtration and the water is, as I've indicated above, going to be stable if everything is working the way it should. So that leaves us with the pollution (toxins). The more water changed, the more pollution is removed, plain and simple.

In the November issue (2009) of TFH there is a good article on this. The author ran tests and explains why changing more water is preferable to changing less water. Pollution accumulates daily (the waste from the fish is steady) and every day an equal amount of waste is added. In other words, the toxins are increasing far more as each day goes by, so each day there is a high percentage of pollution in the aquarium. Changing 50% once a week is cutting the pollution in half, with the result that day by day the pollution will gradually increase toward the end of the week; in other words, the fish are only going to be subjected to very high levels of pollution at the end of the week just before the 50% water change, so during the previous days they are exposed to slightly less pollution that they are with a twice-weekly 25% water change. Of course, changing 50% or more each day would be ideal. But most hobbyists can find it easier to maintain a regular weekly schedule rather than a daily one.

Coming back to the water stability issue: there is no logic in maintaining more stable pollution in a tank. No one could logically dispute that reducing pollution is a benefit and the more the better. At the same time, a significant weekly water change will actually work to maintain more stability long term in the water parameters.

To sum up, a weekly pwc is the minimum in an aquarium, and changing 50% will be healthier for the fish.

Byron.
 
#26 ·
Plants can, but it is a slow process and only effective if the fish load is very minimal and there are many plants..... If a well-planted aquarium has a small fish load, fewer pwc's will be needed
Good pointer there!
I'd like to add an experience along these lines... After the first 2 community tanks I started setting up individual tank's 20g in size. This was mainly started for a group of 8 Killi because of their needs, I later on continued this however with several different species of fish to MAX have 2 in one 20g tank, e.g. 8 Killi 6 Cory per 20g or 8 African Dwarf Frogs on 20g etc and also always tried to aim for fully planted tanks that only left a little "feeding corner" free.
Thou the tank's capacity was much smaller then the community tanks and over time about 99% of the tanks only had sponge filters with small air pumps - These tank set up's ALWAYS seemed to work for much better not only on the fish behavior but also as far as stability within the tank and the waste in comparison tot he plant/ tank size was so minimal that a pwc every 2nd was def enough.

Sometimes less is more ;-) that's why you'll always hear me recommend less fish & more plants lol
 
#25 ·
wow thanks a bunch again. im gonna start this new stuff now! just gotta get some more excel. im about to aquascape the tank now. im taking out some of the water wister inthe middle of the tank cause it kinda doest look good there and get some plastic driftwood and putting my jave moss on it. water wister onthe sides and some mmoneywort. hopefully i can get some pics
 
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