I'm a newbie too but I'm in the same boat so I'm just leaving a comment to bump this post so hopefully I can learn too.
New Hobbyist, Tank, and Cyanobacteria
1 - 7 of 7 Posts
I'll second getting a cheap timer so your photo period is consistent. Sounds like you are going for a low tech planted shrimp tank? As long as you do weekly water changes 50%, I wouldn't worry too much about your nitrates. They likely aren't directly causing the cyanobacteria and many folks with planted tanks keep them a little higher on purpose. Adding phosphate or oxygen to the tank will both hinder/prevent the future development of cyanobacteria (as will the liquid CO2/Excel/Glutaraldehyde).
Sounds like you're running a sponge filter, so the water should be fairly well oxygenated. If you want more flow, see if you can run your sponge filter using a jet-lifter from swiss tropicals:
www.swisstropicals.com
They actually move a lot more water around the tank than the standard vertical bubble tube most sponge filters have. If it won't fit your current filter, you can just suction cup the jetlifter in the tank to move water around. Or just buy a small sponge filter from swiss tropicals and run it in parallel with your existing filter for a month if you don't want extra stuff in your tank all the time and don't want to fiddle with matting up filter parts.
Sounds like you're running a sponge filter, so the water should be fairly well oxygenated. If you want more flow, see if you can run your sponge filter using a jet-lifter from swiss tropicals:
Jetlifter & Cubelifter Shop - SWISSTROPICALS
The Jetlifter and Cubelifter are super-efficient air-driven lift tubes that power our Cubefilters, Tower Block Filters, Mattenfilters & Cornerfilters.
They actually move a lot more water around the tank than the standard vertical bubble tube most sponge filters have. If it won't fit your current filter, you can just suction cup the jetlifter in the tank to move water around. Or just buy a small sponge filter from swiss tropicals and run it in parallel with your existing filter for a month if you don't want extra stuff in your tank all the time and don't want to fiddle with matting up filter parts.
I ended up buying a timer and have it running 5 hrs on, 4 off, and 5 on every day. I also took the sponge filter out and replaced it with an 80gph fountain filter. The tank is so small, though, that even that baby pump. overwhelms it with flow! I ended up stuffing it with a sponge to decrease the flow and attaching a little acrylic spout so it spits the water out above the waterline. It seems to stay pretty oxygenated, and my parameters seem alright still (the sponge i stuffed in came from my old cycled filter).I'll second getting a cheap timer so your photo period is consistent. Sounds like you are going for a low tech planted shrimp tank? As long as you do weekly water changes 50%, I wouldn't worry too much about your nitrates. They likely aren't directly causing the cyanobacteria and many folks with planted tanks keep them a little higher on purpose. Adding phosphate or oxygen to the tank will both hinder/prevent the future development of cyanobacteria (as will the liquid CO2/Excel/Glutaraldehyde).
Sounds like you're running a sponge filter, so the water should be fairly well oxygenated. If you want more flow, see if you can run your sponge filter using a jet-lifter from swiss tropicals:
Jetlifter & Cubelifter Shop - SWISSTROPICALS
The Jetlifter and Cubelifter are super-efficient air-driven lift tubes that power our Cubefilters, Tower Block Filters, Mattenfilters & Cornerfilters.
They actually move a lot more water around the tank than the standard vertical bubble tube most sponge filters have. If it won't fit your current filter, you can just suction cup the jetlifter in the tank to move water around. Or just buy a small sponge filter from swiss tropicals and run it in parallel with your existing filter for a month if you don't want extra stuff in your tank all the time and don't want to fiddle with matting up filter parts.
Unfortunately, I lost all my shrimp but one. I didn't catch any ammonia or nitrite spikes, and my nitrates are consistent too. It may have more to do with an unrelated GH travesty.... or the fact that they were ghost shrimp from petsmart...
The cyanobacteria is gone, though! Thank you for your advice!
I might end up breaking down the tank and setting up something a little more friendly for a new shrimp colony. My substrate is completely inert and I didn't add root tabs when I started (noob) so the plants are already showing signs of deficiency. I think the complete lack of nitrates i had was causing a lot of my problems, coupled with the poor flow.
Cyanobacteria is vanquished, but I want to change the tank anyway... I'll be back for more advice soon im sure
My first tank was similar to yours, and I had problems growing some plants (namely floating plants). Similar to you, I thought that the problem was not enough light, but the real problem was that the tank was not balanced.
There are three things that you need to have in balance:
a) light,
b) CO2 and
c) nutrients.
If one is way off, algae may develop a lot. If the three are relatively balanced, algae will stay to a level you can tolerate, maybe hardly noticeable. Totally avoiding algae is a hard thing so you may consider it a part of your ecosystem.
Regarding light, I believe that less light is needed in some cases. You can start from tropica's guideline, that is 10-20lumen/litre for easy plants, 20-40 for medium and 40+ for difficult. Of course medium and difficult plants mean an increased need for CO2 and fertilizers (don't forget the balance mentioned above). Having no injected CO2 and no scheduled scheme of fertilization means you probably won't be able to grow difficult plans. That's a good thing because such a setup is expensive and needs a lot of your spare time. I'd go with easy plants, like anubias, microsorum mini or windelov, limnophilla sessiliflora, bacopa compact, marimo, salvinia natans (aka salvinia auriculata) and cryptocorynes. I'd buy a smart RGBW bulb for the desk lamp which would give me the ability to regulate light intensity and color temperature to my taste. In combination with a timer that would provide with total control over light.
I have been successful with the above in a 16lite (approx 4gal) NPT (Natural Planted Tank) also known as Walstad tank. You can check the El Natural subforum for more information.
Have fun!
Reference:
tropica.com
There are three things that you need to have in balance:
a) light,
b) CO2 and
c) nutrients.
If one is way off, algae may develop a lot. If the three are relatively balanced, algae will stay to a level you can tolerate, maybe hardly noticeable. Totally avoiding algae is a hard thing so you may consider it a part of your ecosystem.
Regarding light, I believe that less light is needed in some cases. You can start from tropica's guideline, that is 10-20lumen/litre for easy plants, 20-40 for medium and 40+ for difficult. Of course medium and difficult plants mean an increased need for CO2 and fertilizers (don't forget the balance mentioned above). Having no injected CO2 and no scheduled scheme of fertilization means you probably won't be able to grow difficult plans. That's a good thing because such a setup is expensive and needs a lot of your spare time. I'd go with easy plants, like anubias, microsorum mini or windelov, limnophilla sessiliflora, bacopa compact, marimo, salvinia natans (aka salvinia auriculata) and cryptocorynes. I'd buy a smart RGBW bulb for the desk lamp which would give me the ability to regulate light intensity and color temperature to my taste. In combination with a timer that would provide with total control over light.
I have been successful with the above in a 16lite (approx 4gal) NPT (Natural Planted Tank) also known as Walstad tank. You can check the El Natural subforum for more information.
Have fun!
Reference:
The right light for your aquarium - Tropica Aquarium Plants
Choose the right light for your tank
tropica.com
1 - 7 of 7 Posts
