Show me your aquarium

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HustleRussell

24,602 posts

159 months

Tuesday 10th August 2021
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extraT said:

I’m going to go with clearol + snails + easycarbo + blackout to try and beat this bd stuff!
After your blackout, get a timer for your lights and set them to something like four hours on, three hours off, three hours on e.g. lights on for seven hours a day with a three hour siesta.

9+ hours is too much, especially if continuous.


extraT

1,740 posts

149 months

Wednesday 11th August 2021
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HustleRussell said:
After your blackout, get a timer for your lights and set them to something like four hours on, three hours off, three hours on e.g. lights on for seven hours a day with a three hour siesta.

9+ hours is too much, especially if continuous.

Thanks Hustle!

Now it’s been two days of darkness and now the tank looks like this.

Water is cloudy (dead algae?) and only a bit of green Alge remains on the leaves at the back of the tank.



Water is testing fine.

What is the best course of action now? Another 24 hours in darkness? To try and kill the remaining algae? Ill continue to dose with EasyCarbo daily as it prescribed.

I’ll go and get some more snails or a BN pleco this week too.

Any thoughts?



Edited by extraT on Wednesday 11th August 17:31

HustleRussell

24,602 posts

159 months

Wednesday 11th August 2021
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Looks a lot better doesn’t it. Hopefully reducing the number of hours the light is on will reduce the rate the algae is growing and adding some algae eaters will help keep on top of it. Snails are great at this but watch out because some species multiply like rabbits and start to make the place look untidy.

If your plants are going to grow in sand you will probably need to pop some root tabs under them?

Other than that, it’s patience. Stability is the key.

techguyone

3,137 posts

141 months

Thursday 12th August 2021
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I went with Snails as my de-algaefiers this time around, I was a bit nervous as we've all had the snails before that appear from nowhere then breed like crazy and you end up with a tank full of snails, then you get assassin snails to get those snails, and then they breed...

I picked Zebra Nerite snails form my local Maidenhead aquatics, why these and not something else?

They need brackish slightly salty water for their eggs to hatch, so they may lay eggs but that's as far as it gets.

I started with 5 10 months ago, I've still got only 5

Edited by techguyone on Thursday 12th August 19:48

otolith

55,899 posts

203 months

Thursday 12th August 2021
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My nerite snails have laid loads of eggs, but as expected none have developed successfully into snails.

HustleRussell

24,602 posts

159 months

Sunday 15th August 2021
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Call me mad but I’ve deliberately introduced Malaysian Trumpet Snails into the orb. Time will tell whether that was a mistake or not! They do have a very specific job to do which is to gently agitate and aerate the substrate layer.

I am trying to keep the ramshorn snails and bladder snails out of this one, because they seem to have all of the drawbacks without that upside. Oddly my Ramshorns have really attacked any new growth on my Java Fern, which happens to be one of my favourite plants. Supposedly nothing eats Java Fern but in the case of my Ramshorns, new Java Fern growth seems to be the only plant they’re interested in eating.

I would put a Nerite or two in were it not for the fact that it’s an open topped aquarium. Nerites will venture above the water line and I don’t fancy finding snails on my carpet, or down the back of the cabinet.

techguyone

3,137 posts

141 months

Monday 16th August 2021
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Ah yes, I have a jewel aquarium with a close fitting hood.

extraT

1,740 posts

149 months

Monday 16th August 2021
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extraT said:
Thanks Hustle!

Now it’s been two days of darkness and now the tank looks like this.

Water is cloudy (dead algae?) and only a bit of green Alge remains on the leaves at the back of the tank.



Water is testing fine.

What is the best course of action now? Another 24 hours in darkness? To try and kill the remaining algae? Ill continue to dose with EasyCarbo daily as it prescribed.

I’ll go and get some more snails or a BN pleco this week too.

Any thoughts?



Edited by extraT on Wednesday 11th August 17:31
Despite my good feeling a few days ago, tonight I saw the water is starting to turn green again frown

Really getting fed up of this now because I have really tried to do everything correctly + time/effort/money.

Was looking at a UV submersible light. Are they any good?
Can anyone recommend anything else for me to try?

African Grey

100 posts

72 months

Monday 16th August 2021
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anxious_ant said:
I have sand substrate. I use root tabs, which are renewed every month. I also top up with Seachem flourish every weekly water change.

My issue is with the brown algae that grows on my swords, anubias and other broad leaf plants. If I turn the lighting down the brown algae reduces, but the plants suffer.

I agree it’s very frivolous to spend over £200 on a full spectrum smart light. However what piqued my interest is someone mentioning this eliminated his brown algae problem and his other plants thrive.
I have just ended a 3-4 months battle with brown hair algae. I have reduced my lighting to 7.5h a day split to 3h in the morning and 4.5h in the evening. I have stopped all liquid fertilizer as well as mechanical removal of the algae even if it meant removing plant leaves. I also used liquid carbon for the first 2 months but can't say that this had any impact so stopped it. On Amazon I came across an Anti hair Algae made by Interpet, didn't use it but you might want to have a look.

Good luck.

African Grey

100 posts

72 months

Monday 16th August 2021
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Matt Harper said:


I have had this 55gal set-up for about 10 years. My fish seem to be very healthy - it is very rare that I lose one, but I am aware of a glaring issue.

There are 4 fish that have grown way too large for this environment. In particular, the 2 Bala Sharks, which were about an inch long when I introduced them. There is also a Striped Raphael Catfish and a Sail-fin Plec that are 3-4 inches in size.

My local pet stores will not take any of these species back (to offer to fish keepers with larger set-ups) and Facebook etc will not allow offering of live animals.

I have two large capacity Aqueon filter systems and the aquarium is serviced religiously every week including a 25% water change.

I feel guilty about this dilemma - even though my fish are in really good condition. I'm not sure how much mental anguish a fish might experience, being as confined as they are, but it does trouble me....
SIMMS will take and re-home them, however they won't pay you.

HustleRussell

24,602 posts

159 months

Tuesday 17th August 2021
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extraT said:
Thanks Hustle!

Now it’s been two days of darkness and now the tank looks like this.

Water is cloudy (dead algae?) and only a bit of green Alge remains on the leaves at the back of the tank.



Water is testing fine.

What is the best course of action now? Another 24 hours in darkness? To try and kill the remaining algae? Ill continue to dose with EasyCarbo daily as it prescribed.

I’ll go and get some more snails or a BN pleco this week too.

Any thoughts?

extraT said:
Despite my good feeling a few days ago, tonight I saw the water is starting to turn green again frown

Really getting fed up of this now because I have really tried to do everything correctly + time/effort/money.

Was looking at a UV submersible light. Are they any good?
Can anyone recommend anything else for me to try?
You have not been going long. I have read back in the thread and it’s 10 weeks(?) since you set up? The tank just isn’t balanced yet.

UV filtration will sort out green water but it won’t attack the root cause of the algal growth and in all likelihood some other kind of algae will take the opportunity.

Have you changed your light schedule as I suggested before? How many days have you run the new light schedule?

What kind of light do you have? Is it worth considering reducing its intensity?

You aren’t over-feeding are you?

Do you have carbon media in your filter?

What frequency and volume are you doing your water changes?

Algae implies that your plants aren’t able to compete for nutrients. If your objective is a planted tank, I’d say you don’t currently have the plant mass or the vigorous plant growth to do that. I’d say if all the above is good, and the problem persists, the next thing you try is introducing more plants. You must specifically choose plants which will provide shade to the tank and mop up water-bourne nutrients.

Grow a Pothos plant out the top of the tank. Introduce a species of floating plant. Introduce an easy stem plant such as Elodea, Cabomba. The Echinodorus you have planted might not necessarily be going well in your substrate or water so you need to introduce variety and find out what does.

HustleRussell

24,602 posts

159 months

Tuesday 17th August 2021
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HustleRussell said:
HustleRussell said:
FAO algae sufferers. This little quarantine tank has been set up for three full months now and I have not removed any algae whatsoever. I have two hill stream loaches and ramshorn snails in there. I also have two Amano shrimp but I don’t believe they can make much impact on algae on the glass.

I ran the light quite a lot at the beginning when I wanted to get algae for my algae-eating occupants. I then reduced the duration on the light to 6.5 hours per day with a four-hour siesta in the middle. I found that at 6.5 hours, the opacity of the glass due to algae was actually decreasing as the algae eaters were eating it faster than it was growing. I’ve upped it to seven hours today.



It’s not going to win any aquascaping awards but it has been an interesting little experiment from somebody who always used to struggle with algae due to too much light.

Interestingly, the front glass and the left hand panel have the most algae. These are the panels which get the most external light from the window. I expect if I had been running the light for 12 hours, I would have significant algae on all panels and the front would probably be pretty much opaque by now.
This is my quarantine tank. I set it up in February. I have not wiped any surfaces at all since then. It was receiving 7 hours of total light per day but I have now increased that to 8.

This tank contains two hill stream loaches, two Amano shrimp and a pretty healthy colony of Ramshorn snails, so it is perhaps not surprising there is no algae on the glass and no filamentous algae on the surfaces. However, it also contains rampantly growing Vallisneria (I pulled half of it out a couple of days ago) which always does well in my hard, alkaline water, and the Philodendron and Epipremnum vines growing out of the top, the roots are in the water taking up water-bourne nutrients.



Edited by HustleRussell on Tuesday 17th August 11:46

extraT

1,740 posts

149 months

Tuesday 17th August 2021
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Hi Hustle,

Thank you for your long reply! Much appreciated!

To answer your questions:

Light schedule was changed: now just 3 hours in the morning +3.5 in the evening. Tank isn’t in direct sunlight either!

I have the standard LED the tank came with.

Carbon filter was removed because I had put some Algaecide. Then changed tactic to blocking lights/Easycarbo etc…

Water changes normally once a week around a 1/3 of the tank.

Feeding once every 3-4 days. Currently feeding one small cube of bloodworms + one multiveg tablet for the floor dwelling fish. So I don’t think I’m over feeding.

So am I looking at adding more plants to the tank? Easycarbo should be lowering the oxygen but to a safe level for the fish + supporting the plants.

Should I readd the carbon media to the tank?


HustleRussell

24,602 posts

159 months

Tuesday 17th August 2021
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I ask about the carbon because of this account from the Walstad book

(DOC stands for dissolved organic carbon)



Also patience is important. The green water is doing no harm to your fish. IMO take your time making gradual adjustments so that you are eventually no longer creating ideal conditions for green water, otherwise you will just be putting sticking plaster upon sticking plaster until you get fed up. You can’t dose algicides indefinitely.

Your tank is still new and new tanks are prone to outbreaks. If you get through this green water phase you’re having you may never have to see it again.

Finally I haven’t seen or heard anybody advocating that you should feed your fish any less than once per day. Some people do it twice. The reason I ask about over-feeding is that you look in some people’s tanks and there’s waste food sitting on the bottom. Especially with kids there’s a tendency to put way too much in or do it more than twice a day as it’s entertaining. I wonder if feeding every third day could help create conditions where your plants aren’t that happy but simple old algae is ready to bloom come feeding day / the day after.

S11Steve

6,374 posts

183 months

Tuesday 17th August 2021
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Had the final measurements taken today for the plumbing work in the new cabinet, and installing planned for a weekend in mid September.

I'm moving the fish and live rock into a separate temporary tank on the Friday, stripping down the tank to bare glass and giving it a thorough clean and refresh of the seals. We're going to wallpaper behind the tank, and paint the whom while it's all out over the weekend, then rebuild everything and plumbing in on the Monday.

Although it's going to be the same glass box, same rock, same surviving 8 fish, and all existing lighting pumps and filter kit, it's still got that new tank excitement feeling.
It's going to have a complete rescape with three towers of rock under each of the three lights. At the moment with a nearly 3ft wide wall of rock, there is a fairly large inaccessible area that I've only ever seen with a boroscope camera.

It's probably going to be another month before I start building up the livestock, but I'm back in love with the hobby again after a very tough year.

And if I'm brutally honest, it's really only that my big doofus rabbitfish survived that we've kept going. If we'd lost him too it would have been an ideal time as any to get out of the hobby if we were going to.
Although I lost plenty of other old timers, "Gordon" is still our big "special one"...


HustleRussell

24,602 posts

159 months

Tuesday 17th August 2021
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S11Steve said:
I'm back in love with the hobby again after a very tough year.
Glad to hear it! Good old Gordon

Sway

26,070 posts

193 months

Tuesday 17th August 2021
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Awesome to hear Steve - and Gordon is a dude!

I'm still going through my 'fun'. Cyano is pretty much beat, replaced (as expected) with hair algae. Phosphate is zero, so clearly it's being consumed as fast as it's produced - cause I'm certainly putting enough into the tank for there to be measurable phos!

Lost my lawnmower blenny and my orange spot goby to jumping in a single night - I'd left the lid slightly ajar accidentally... Also lost my acans finally to my peppermint shrimp (worth it overall, as there's zero aiptasia) and oddly one Duncan coral decided to 'bail out' (suicide) out of it's skeleton - when one right next to it is absolutely thriving.

Current stock is my thread fin wrasse, shrimp, and some clean up crew. A small hammer coral, some zoas and small duncan colony. Pretty unimpressive!

So, supersizing the clean up crew. Loads of snails going in, plus some more crabs. There'll be a bit of a food chain that will occur, but that's OK.

Add in lots of mechanical scrubbing and water changes.

Then, should have a much better platform of a nicely matured tank that's got through it's first year troubles and I can start rebuilding both reef and some select fish. Still really considering a larger tank... Glutton for punishment!

addz86

1,439 posts

185 months

Thursday 19th August 2021
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Beautiful things the odd time I get to see them, Shame they’re so shy and hideously expensive

extraT

1,740 posts

149 months

Friday 20th August 2021
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I’m about to throw this fking aquarium out. Really getting pissed off with it.

Two days ago I did the water change, added the carb filter, added whatever the fk it’s called to help neutralise the nitrate, and within two days, the water is turning fking green again. Not on the glass, it’s free floating algae.

Before I flush the the whole fking lot down the toilet, what else can I try? Lights are on minimal amount of time during the day which is killing the enjoyment for all of us, especially my 8 year old who is fascinated with it.

Filter is one that came with the aquarium (Aqualiantis bio box 2) that should be sufficient for 200L.

Would an upgrade help? I can get a UV light and drop in there (out of direct sight of the fish) but that isn’t a cure, is it?

What the fk else can I try?!

I’m going to give myself a 4/10 for the ranting!!

SDK

866 posts

252 months

Sunday 22nd August 2021
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My 9 year old’s tropical tank.

Fluval Roma 240 with the following fish

6x Rainbows
10x Neon Tetras
7x Rummy Nose Tetras
8x corydoras.
5x Yo Yo Loaches
1x Otto
1x Bristlenose Pleco
1x Red fin ruby shark
3x Blue neon Dwarf Gourami
2x Giant African Shrimp
1x Double tail Male Betta (fighting fish)
2x Garra Rufa
2x Red Dwarf Gourami
4x Golden Gourami



Edited by SDK on Sunday 22 August 22:37