Bunnie1978

Well. I love you all.

I am not starting this journal in the beginning because I've had this tank set up for some time, but I want to share what's going on with people that are smarter than me, so that you can help me make it better.

Here's what I've got:
75 gallon tank
Magnum 350 canister filter
Penguin 330 HOB filter
DIY CO2 - 4 two liters with two Elite mini underwater filter for diffusion (it's awesome) one on each side.
Florite substrate
2 x 65 watt 10000k CF, 2 x 65 watt 6700k CF

I don't know what half of the things are called, so pardon my fumbling!
Fish: Corys, Otos, SAEs, Amano shrimp, ghost shrimp, blue/red columbian tetras, black skirt tetras, cardinal tetras, white clouds, red eye tetras, black tetras, and 1 small clown loach. I think that's about it. I just added the shrimp this week, but I think something is eating the ghost shrimp. I haven't seen the algea eating shrimp since I put them in. I hope they're still in there somewhere.
Plants: Watersprite, corkscrew vals, red tiger lotus, Myrio red, java fern, java moss, wendelov fern, cabomba, ulvaceaus, several cryptocornes (which are all rotting away), banana plant, amazon sword, melon sword, mayaca, ludwigia peruensis, stargrass, diandra, anacharis two kinds, anubias.

I'm going to get you caught up with where I've been in another post, but the photo is where I'm at today. I'm running between 6.6 and 6.8 on my PH.

PLEASE tell me what you think - and if there's any suggestion you can give me on the algea. I have maybe 20 algea eating fish besides the shrimp... still it's bad news.

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davemonkey

Hello Bunnie1978. I bet that your clown loach is eating your shrimp (tasty morsels for any loach). Your scape looks really good and I don't see any algae to speak of. But, if you are having problems with it, it may be due to the unconstant CO2 since you have DIY (it will fluccuate some no matter how hard you try).

Bunnie1978

That's interesting. I just added CO2 just a couple weeks ago, and I've noticed a massive improvement in the growth rates of all my plants. Even my anubias that I thought were never going to produce another leaf have new leaves now. But the algea is ten times worse than I've ever seen. It's growing faster and more aggressively, and I've usually only ever had the green dots and a little hair algea, and now I think I've got every kind you can imagine. Brown, green powdery, green slimy, green dots, black... all of it. The good news is that my SAEs eat every kind I've got. The bad news is that there's way more than 5 SEAs can eat.

Bunnie1978

I think I'm going to thin out the fish and move some of them around. I'm getting a new 10 gallon to use as a breeder/fry tank so I can move some into my 29 and make it a display tank. Maybe. We'll see. I change my mind often. I'm a girl - we do that!

mudboots

Hey Bunnie1978,

I noticed your lights have a lot of green output. I had the same lighting setup (spectrum, not wattage) on a 125 and swapped out two of four 39 watt 6700's for "pink" sold at fishneedit.com. I'm not sure what the K-rating is on them, but the difference was amazing (2 6700K, 4 10000K, 2 "pink"). If you were to look for a similar light, it would MAYBE be close to the 9325, or whatever number that bulb is called...

geeks_15

Algae issues can be confusing and sometimes seem to brake the "rules."

I've had tanks that had an algae bloom whenever I changed something (new light, new bulbs, change in CO2 delivery, new ferts). But the algae would usually regress with a little time and maybe some tinkering (adjust lighting spectrum or lighting period).

I know lots of people love their algae eating fish and shrimp, but I have never relied on them. They create waste, that if not taken up by plants will contribute to algae problems. Also, dead shrimp or fish can create bioload spikes that can contribute to algae.

The best way that I have found to prevent algae is to plant heavily. And I mean heavily. When you look down into the tank you see no substrate. I bet a bunch of extra hygrophila difformis (water wisteria) would go a long way toward reducing your algae.

That said, every tank is a balancing act. It may be something we haven't thought of. It may improve on its own over time.

The first things I would try would be:
1. add more fast growing and easy to grow plants
2. reduce the bioload in the tank by removing some fish

An understocked, heavily planted tank is a great way to prevent algae.

Bunnie1978

I got the 10 gallon today - off craigslist. The lady gave me the fish that were in it too. I have added 2 long finned bushy nose female plecos to my 75, and 5 really pretty peach and red colored plume tail platys to my 29 with a few white clouds that were in there. I'll get pictures for you soon. I noticed white cloud fry swimming at the top of the water and tried to get them out. I suspect there will be more tomorrow too. They seem to like the light, so they're pretty easy to find for how small they are.

Bunnie1978

Well, I tried something new. I got the water softener pillow and put in my HOB filter to see if it helped any with the algae. It seems to have helped slow down the growth and my water looks a bit clearer too. It's noticeable anyways. After I ran it for a couple days I added back in trace elements because I know it takes them out. I am contemplating pressurized CO2. Any thoughts? Is it really worth it to get the really nice ones or do they need replacing just as often as the cheaper ones?

cah925

I'm not sure what you are replacing, but I've had the same regulator for almost three years and never had to replace it or any parts of it. I bought it from Orlando at Green Leaf Aquariums.

davemonkey

If you are thinking of going pressurized, I recommend shopping around for good regulators. Also, the most expensive is not always the best. Search and read through several posts to see what others have used and whether or not they are happy with their regulator.

-Dave