# New planted tank, algae trouble



## Nlewis (Dec 1, 2015)

Well algae in a newly set up aquarium is normal. To start I would tone the lights back to around 6-8 hours. 

Your ph should not be steady. With co2 injection the ph of your water should be dropping and you would like it to drop about a point. Are you using a drop checker at all to give you any kind of idea where your co2 levels are? What is the baseline ph of your tap water? You can't really base your co2 on BPS. For instance the bps on my 40b is so much I can't count it. 

For diffusion I see you're using a in tank ceramic disc. Do you have anything pushing the co2 throughout the tank or is it just rising to the surface?

And crypts will pretty much melt if you look at them the wrong way, but they will bounce back if left alone. 

Oh, and for long term use look into a set of dry ferts. Seachem ferts are great but will get expensive long term. 

Any other water parameters you have please post.


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## rywokast (Aug 2, 2016)

thanks for your speedy response  yea I'm not sure why it is like that I will measure the ph again tonight then tomorrow morning before co2 comes on to check for any changes.. unfortunately no drop checker atm ordered one from eBay should be here this will, but from the disc the bubbles go right into the output stream from the filter and I can see them all around the tank from bottom to top.. I know a ton get wasted I have a co2 reactor on the way also that I will be setting up as soon as I get it.. as for any other parameters you mean like ammonia etc? my ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates are all at 0.. I'm assuming that is because I just added fish the other day and any left over that the plants didn't use up was removed when I did a massive water change the night before I got fish.. well I'm glad to hear that about the algae hopefully it goes away although it seems to be steadily growing,,, if I decrease my lighting won't that affect my plants? especially like the dwarf hairgrass and various high light plants? it's very hard to know with LED but I'm assuming that I have quite high lighting for a tank of this size?

oh sorry forgot to add baseline ph is around 6.8 of my tap water after 24 hours in the open, and yea I do plan to use dry ferts when these run out but as I'm extremely new and sort of learning as I go, I will have to order them online these ones I just got because they're what my lfs carries


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## Nlewis (Dec 1, 2015)

rywokast said:


> thanks for your speedy response  yea I'm not sure why it is like that I will measure the ph again tonight then tomorrow morning before co2 comes on to check for any changes.. unfortunately no drop checker atm ordered one from eBay should be here this will, but from the disc the bubbles go right into the output stream from the filter and I can see them all around the tank from bottom to top.. I know a ton get wasted I have a co2 reactor on the way also that I will be setting up as soon as I get it.. as for any other parameters you mean like ammonia etc? my ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates are all at 0.. I'm assuming that is because I just added fish the other day and any left over that the plants didn't use up was removed when I did a massive water change the night before I got fish.. well I'm glad to hear that about the algae hopefully it goes away although it seems to be steadily growing,,, if I decrease my lighting won't that affect my plants? especially like the dwarf hairgrass and various high light plants? it's very hard to know with LED but I'm assuming that I have quite high lighting for a tank of this size?


With those 2 lights I would imagine you're in the high light range. It's better to start with a shorter photo period on a new tank and slowly increase it over time. I would say the average photo period is about 8 hours. Don't worry about the plants, they're just getting settled and be fine with a light reduction. Just don't forget to adjust your timer for your co2 when you do this. 

This is my dhg carpet on an 8 hour photo period.


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## rywokast (Aug 2, 2016)

gorgeous tank! oh really? wow ok haha had no idea that they could do that good on that little photo period... I just checked and actually it is 11 hours that the light are on xD I will dial it way back and gradually work up a little bit,, do you think it's advisable to have a like one hour break or just leave them on steady?


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## Nlewis (Dec 1, 2015)

rywokast said:


> gorgeous tank! oh really? wow ok haha had no idea that they could do that good on that little photo period... I just checked and actually it is 11 hours that the light are on xD I will dial it way back and gradually work up a little bit,, do you think it's advisable to have a like one hour break or just leave them on steady?


Not sure on that on, I always run mine a straight eight hours. I have heard of others running 2 four hour cycles but I'm not sure of the benefits of doing that is.


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## rywokast (Aug 2, 2016)

ok okay,, yea seems a bit odd to me haha,, okay thanks a lot for your help 

see this is what I mean,, this is last night right before the co2 turned off, and the other pic is this morning right before it came on... can't even tell the difference lol


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## Nlewis (Dec 1, 2015)

Yeah you're not getting enough co2 to dissolve in the water. There are a couple things you can do to help the situation while waiting on your reactor. First, do you have a power head by chance? If so, then stick it in there above the diffuser an it should push it all over the tank. Second option would be to place the diffuser under the intake tube of he canister. This you would have to be a little careful about because if you have the co2 to high it could have an adverse effect on the canister if it can't cycle it fast enough. Third, push the diffuser all the way down to the bottom of the tank and turn up the co2. The longer you keep the co2 bubbles in contact with the water, the better diffusion you will have. 

Once you get the co2 dissolving efficiently it will aid in the reduction of algae.


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## houseofcards (Mar 21, 2009)

I agree with Niewis. You never want to start a tank with 10-11 hrs. I pretty much always start high-tech tanks with 5-6 hrs. Of course you could do more, but the 5-6 hours will be that much easier to control algae based on your plant mass and species. 

One thing I'll say is there's really nothing wrong with using a diffuser on that size tank. I've used them on 46 and bigger with very good results and co2. ADA uses simple ceramic diffusers on 5 foot tanks. One thing I did notice is the diffuser looks small for a 46. One with a bigger disc would be more effective and as Niewis said you should put it as low as possible if your having trouble getting good co2. Also is it directly under the return (spray bar or lily pipe?


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## rywokast (Aug 2, 2016)

okay cool thanks guys,, yea I should have got a much bigger one but I'm a total noob and had no idea xD same with the lighting, I cut it way back and put the output right into the stream,, but that idea of it right under the filter intake sounds pretty good I think I'll give that a shot while I'm waiting for the reactor because from what I'm seeing basically none of the co2 is getting dissolved lol... maybe this cheap ebay thing doesn't work very well not sure heh


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## Mr. Bean (Jul 10, 2016)

You run a fairly good chance of CO2 under the intake building up in your canister filter to the point where the impeller will just be spinning in CO2 and your filter could burn up. You're call, but I probably wouldn't do it...read...I did it and this happened to me a few years ago


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## houseofcards (Mar 21, 2009)

I buy the cheap ebay discs all the time. Is it clean? You shouldn't have any problem getting distribution under the return of a fuval 406. The disc could be bigger but it should still work pretty good. Is there something killing the return flow?


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## rywokast (Aug 2, 2016)

Mr. Bean said:


> You run a fairly good chance of CO2 under the intake building up in your canister filter to the point where the impeller will just be spinning in CO2 and your filter could burn up. You're call, but I probably wouldn't do it...read...I did it and this happened to me a few years ago


oh geez thanks for the tip dont want that to happen haha... i think i will just crank it up until my reactor gets here

Bump:


houseofcards said:


> I buy the cheap ebay discs all the time. Is it clean? You shouldn't have any problem getting distribution under the return of a fuval 406. The disc could be bigger but it should still work pretty good. Is there something killing the return flow?


hmmmm... well, it was clean haha.. not so much now with all of this algae xD but it has been the same since i got it as far as affecting the ph goes... but i did just swap it out with my second one just in case, ill clean the first one.. return flow is excellent would spray right out of the tank if i tilted it up lol


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## Kubla (Jan 5, 2014)

rywokast said:


> gorgeous tank! oh really? wow ok haha had no idea that they could do that good on that little photo period... I just checked and actually it is 11 hours that the light are on xD I will dial it way back and gradually work up a little bit,, do you think it's advisable to have a like one hour break or just leave them on steady?



I've not tried 2 photo periods but the idea is that it has a negative effect on the growth of algae and helps slow the growth down with no effect on plants.


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