# 2nd tank ruined



## Raymond S. (Dec 29, 2012)

Please give the dimentions of the tank. I can convert CM to inches.
Also please give the measurement of how far it is from the bulbs to the substrate.


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## nigel (May 24, 2014)

40cm to the lights however for 6 days i have only been running one light for 10 hours a day

30cm width
76 cm length
38 cm height

86.640ltrs
19.058 imp gallons
22.88 us gallons

i use no ferts just treat water every water change. 20 neons 3 corys


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

You need to use fertilizers, and CO2 to provide the complete menu of nutrients the plants need to grow at the rate the light is driving them to. Otherwise the plants can't grow in good health, and unhealthy plants attract algae.


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## nigel (May 24, 2014)

thank you so much, could i bother you to suggest a good fert i could use, i have looked at the dry and mix your own but if possible an all in one would be ideal, once i get the fert and start a regime how long until i see some progress?

can i do anything more in the mean time to help until the fert gets suggested and purchased.


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## fablau (Feb 7, 2009)

I also see you should have more plants. You should have 3x or more plants in your tank. The more the better


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## nigel (May 24, 2014)

more plants is the easy and fun part, my worry is with out a good fert will i just not ruin the plants with the same algae that is on the rest of my plants?


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## nigel (May 24, 2014)

im going to buy some SeaChem Flourish, if its wrong please let me know soonest.


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## jbig (Jul 13, 2012)

you won't be covering all nutrients with seachem flourish. it will help a little, but you need to ensure your plants are getting all the macro ferts they need (Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium).

Seachem flourish is only good for some micro nutrients. 

Seachem carries a line of these fertilizers, pretty much all you need. but some people prefer the dry ferts over liquid.


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## nigel (May 24, 2014)

Ahh. Ill dose Florish x2 times a week, and I will look in to the dry ferts.

Can to tell from the below what I am missing?
GH 30
KH 40
PH 6.0
NO2 1
NO3 40 

Or do I need to get a different test kit.


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## jbig (Jul 13, 2012)

nigel said:


> Ahh. Ill dose Florish x2 times a week, and I will look in to the dry ferts.
> 
> Can to tell from the below what I am missing?
> GH 30
> ...


you need a different test kit for phosphates and i am actually unsure of how to test potassium levels...

Some people may say your nitrates are a little high. If you're not dosing phosphates or potassium your nitrates are definitely high and probably causing an imbalance leading to algae. If you were dosing phosphates and potassium 40ppm of nitrates might not be so bad. 

You should also try and get your no2 down to 0.

How long are your lights on for?


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## nigel (May 24, 2014)

Lights are on for 11 hours a day. I do not dose anything other than flourish x2 times a week for 2mg. "only just started doing that though"


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## Chris_Produces (Feb 19, 2014)

nigel said:


> Lights are on for 11 hours a day. I do not dose anything other than flourish x2 times a week for 2mg. "only just started doing that though"


Lights are on way too long IMHO. 6-8hrs is more than plenty with high lights.


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=21944 should tell you all you need to know to fertilize the tank well enough to be sure the plants are getting all of the nutrients they need.


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## gus6464 (Dec 19, 2011)

With that much light and such a long photoperiod you need to cranking that CO2 a lot more than 0.5bps.


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## nigel (May 24, 2014)

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=21944 <<< this is perfect thank you, answered all my fert questions.

co2 now at x1 drop per second lights adjusted to 8 hours per day.


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## jbig (Jul 13, 2012)

nigel said:


> Lights are on for 11 hours a day. I do not dose anything other than flourish x2 times a week for 2mg. "only just started doing that though"


yeah, your lights are definitely on way too long, especially if you're only dosing flourish. 

+1 on the 6-8 hour light cycle.


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## nigel (May 24, 2014)

I just did a water change and got,
GH 60
KH 40
PH 6
NO2 1
NO3 40

Water clarity seems great, dosing Florish x2 weekly @ 2mg and co2 upped to 1 drop per second. lights at 8hours.

Still got the algae and it seems to be spreading in to my new DHG also.

Its even growing on my snails.


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## klumas (Apr 15, 2014)

I find i get some monster looking algae stuff in areas i don't have enough flow, could that be possible? When i keep my filters clean and the flow is visible almost everywhere in my planted tank i find algae isn't much a problem. But my lights are no longer on for more than 8 hours unless i want algae. On a side note if planted tanks didn't have to worry about algae would a longer photoperiod like one by fine tobacco growers lead to much faster growth in the aquarium?? I'm guessing this is why people leave lights on for so long, unless you're really sitting in front watching it for 11 hours a day

Oh it's so sad about the dhg! You should probably spot treat those if you can you may lose em, maybe some h202 spot treating if you got good flow, but with excel id be wary.

Could the wood be rotting from the inside out? You tried boiling it?


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## nigel (May 24, 2014)

My flow is good ty and I do breakup surface tension also both power heads point up and i can see the plant leaves moving all over my tank from water movement


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## klumas (Apr 15, 2014)

I found some wood outside, boiled it for 20 hours. Put it in my tank and stuff grew on it. It spread a little. I took the wood out and let it dry in its new place outside. Never had that same stuff come back, it was like a mold or mildew i think from rot somewhere inside the wood


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## nigel (May 24, 2014)

I think my issue is more thatn wood. but i may be wrong reading this thread i am out of balance somewhere.


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## Mounty1512 (Apr 23, 2013)

I recently had a similar looking algae problem in my shrimp tank (maybe not quite as bad) which was caused by having too intense light (only 6hrs a day though). I think people are right that you need to reduce the photo period. 

The only way i found that i could get rid of the algae was to actually turn the lights off. I let the tank run for a week with no lights and when i turned them back on all the alga was gone.I replaced the light will a lower wattage one and set it at 6hrs a day. The plants all bounced back and i've had no algae problems since.


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## nigel (May 24, 2014)

Tomorrow is my 3rd day of total blackout, ill clean up big water change feed fish lights and co2 and see how that fairs


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## nigel (May 24, 2014)

Just a heads up a carried out a big water change to hopefully reset everything, I did another 3 day black out and it does seem to help, I currently does flourish 1mm daily and have upped my co2 to 2dps ish. Added a few plants but as you will see from the pictures HC melted in a few days.


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## nigel (May 24, 2014)

Im just about algae free now, thanks to a 3day blackout, howerver the one treatment that almost worked over night was the use of hydogen peroxide, ramping up my co2 and over dosing florish to 2ml perday. its been a struggle and to be honest my tank just makes me smile more each day. hc and dhg took a beating from the hydrogen peroxide but im hoping they will come back. i just need to sort dry ferts out now.


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## nigel (May 24, 2014)

Hello again,
Well things were OK for a month or so but now my Anubis is struggling? any ideas?


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## Raymond S. (Dec 29, 2012)

No ferts and too much light.
Did you work out the dry ferts yet ?
I asked how tall the tank is to see if the light is more or less than normal.
It is 2 x what people usually use in a set up like that.
Either loose two bulbs or raise the light up to a minimum of 30CM above the tank.
Three basic types of planted tank exist.
Few plants and some fish and no good substrate and low light is one.
The same thing/w a good substrate like dirt and a few more plants.
Or a tank/w lots of light lots of plants AND FERTILIZERS.
All the fertilizers must be use in these tanks in order to be sucessful or you can have one of the other two types of tanks.
You do not have enough plants to use that high of light.
It also seems like you do not supply all of the nutrients that the plants need for that hgh of light.
Anubia is a low light plant. They can live in a med or sometimes even a high light tank if shaded by other plants. But they get no nutrients from the sub but rather from the water so all nutrients must be in the water.
You can't bake a cake without all the right ingredients no matter how high you turn up the fire.


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## Okedokey (Sep 2, 2014)

ph of 6 is too low in my opinion. Nitrification is at about 10% efficiency at this level. I would add some sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) at 1 spoon per 200L per 0.1ph increase. Do this with water changes over time. This will increase your hardness, but its pretty low, so that'll be fine. Try get it to at least over 6.5ph.


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## klibs (May 1, 2014)

Your problems (biggest problems first):

WAY too much light / WAY too long of photoperiod. Drop it to like 6-8 hrs a day and raise your lights A LOT

No ferts - you need to dose a complete fert line with high tech. Get dry ferts and dose full EI. Don't pay for a bottle of water with trace amounts of nutrients in it.

WAY too few plants

Not enough CO2


Running that much light is basically doing planted tanks on 'super-hard mode'
It is VERY DIFFICULT to run a tank that can use that much light and succeed. Yes - high light produces the best results / growth but it is 100x more difficult to maintain vs. a lower light setup. If anything in your balance is off then... well... you know what happens.

Start low and work your way up. It is MUCH MUCH MUCH harder to deal with a tank that has crashed / turned into an algae farm than being patient and working your way up. I've been there too - it was a lot of work and frustration.

Good luck! It will not be an easy battle but you will prevail in the end!


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