# 38 Gallon Low-Tech...All Sorts Of Problems...



## Raymond S. (Dec 29, 2012)

Algae in the Planted Aquarium-- Guitarfish
There is a med listed in there for the BGA. Use only as suggested.
You will want to do a large water change at the end of the med dosing. Use your siphon to get rid of as much of the dead BGA as possible at that time and start dosing the PPS right when you add back the water.
What light do you use on this tank? HRS of?


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## 1hawaii50 (Oct 18, 2015)

Raymond S. said:


> Algae in the Planted Aquarium-- Guitarfish
> There is a med listed in there for the BGA. Use only as suggested.
> You will want to do a large water change at the end of the med dosing. Use your siphon to get rid of as much of the dead BGA as possible at that time and start dosing the PPS right when you add back the water.
> What light do you use on this tank? HRS of?




I am using a Finnex Planted +, 7 hours on/day. I was thinking that hitting the tank with a small dose of peroxide may be a safer bet than using Marycin.


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## 1hawaii50 (Oct 18, 2015)

Raymond S. said:


> Algae in the Planted Aquarium-- Guitarfish
> There is a med listed in there for the BGA. Use only as suggested.
> You will want to do a large water change at the end of the med dosing. Use your siphon to get rid of as much of the dead BGA as possible at that time and start dosing the PPS right when you add back the water.
> What light do you use on this tank? HRS of?




I am using a Finnex Planted +, I have it on a timer @ 7hrs/day. I was thinking that a peroxide treatment might be safer than Marycin...


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## anastasisariel (Oct 4, 2009)

You stated that your nitrates are at 0. Coincidentally, BGA fixes its own nitrates and is believed to be caused by having no nitrates.

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## 1hawaii50 (Oct 18, 2015)

anastasisariel said:


> You stated that your nitrates are at 0. Coincidentally, BGA fixes its own nitrates and is believed to be caused by having no nitrates.
> 
> Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk




That is my understanding also. I have the PPS-Pro fert system coming from nilocq. As soon as it arrives, I'm going to attack the tank. I'm just trying to figure out the best way to do it. I read through the peroxide 1/2 punch thread, and I know that marycin will treat BGA...


I've also read that bringing the Nitrates back into check will make the BGA go away on it's own. I'm just looking for opinions on the next steps to take.

Bump:


Raymond S. said:


> Algae in the Planted Aquarium-- Guitarfish
> There is a med listed in there for the BGA. Use only as suggested.
> You will want to do a large water change at the end of the med dosing. Use your siphon to get rid of as much of the dead BGA as possible at that time and start dosing the PPS right when you add back the water.
> What light do you use on this tank? HRS of?




Thank you Raymond. I read through that. Do you think the marycin would be better than the peroxide treatment?


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## 1hawaii50 (Oct 18, 2015)

Raymond S. said:


> Algae in the Planted Aquarium-- Guitarfish
> There is a med listed in there for the BGA. Use only as suggested.
> You will want to do a large water change at the end of the med dosing. Use your siphon to get rid of as much of the dead BGA as possible at that time and start dosing the PPS right when you add back the water.
> What light do you use on this tank? HRS of?










Raymond, 


I am using a 36" Finnex Planted +, 7hrs on/day, on a timer.


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## Raymond S. (Dec 29, 2012)

I do not know how well the Peroxide works on that kind of algae.
Really you have too much light for not having injected CO2. DHG likely is very hard in a tank with the combination that you have there. It likes tanks/w dirt subs better and also
grows much better in a tank/w added CO2 in DIY or injected. Then it needs higher light than the rest of the plants you have. So poor chances of it doing well in there. If it's in that first picture I think it's micro sword anyway. You could use some additional substrate at least towards the back. Room for the plant roots.
First I'd get a piece of regular window screen. Fiberglass probably would be better.
Make a cut out for the filter so the screen fits flat on top of the tank.
Then I'd get some Stemmed plants like Rotala indica. The Rotundafolia is commonly sold as that. Easy to grow. I'd plant them individually on the right side of the tank with some space between them. You can move them later to organize things better when you get some good growth in there. Then following the package directions except for using it half strength use the marycin. Just use the PPS Pro after that water change
at the end of the med period. If there's a lot of dead BGA left after you siphon for
that water change skip one or two days and do another 50% to get more out.
Any new plants should start growing fairly quickly but expect a longer wait on any
of those which were in there now if they make it.
You waited a bit longer than you should have to seek help on this, but we do need to work forward not backwards.


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## anastasisariel (Oct 4, 2009)

Pretty sure peroxide melts it very quickly but you gotta address your nutrient deficiencies for long term. Many have said the marycin worked

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## 1hawaii50 (Oct 18, 2015)

Raymond S. said:


> I do not know how well the Peroxide works on that kind of algae.
> Really you have too much light for not having injected CO2. DHG likely is very hard in a tank with the combination that you have there. It likes tanks/w dirt subs better and also
> grows much better in a tank/w added CO2 in DIY or injected. Then it needs higher light than the rest of the plants you have. So poor chances of it doing well in there. If it's in that first picture I think it's micro sword anyway. You could use some additional substrate at least towards the back. Room for the plant roots.
> First I'd get a piece of regular window screen. Fiberglass probably would be better.
> ...



I have a glass lid on the aquarium now....Are you saying replace the glass lid with fiberglass screen and leave it open? Also, I have Excel Flourish. Do you think the Flourish is enough, or still too much light? Can I live with the light by either raising it off of the tank, or shortening the time on or should I get something a little lower powered?



anastasisariel said:


> Pretty sure peroxide melts it very quickly but you gotta address your nutrient deficiencies for long term. Many have said the marycin worked
> 
> Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk




I ordered the PPS-Pro system and as soon as it gets here I'm going to attack this. I'll start dosing ferts with the PPS-Pro immediately.


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## Raymond S. (Dec 29, 2012)

Put the screen on top of the glass. That cuts the light level. The tank/plants need that right now. Later when "all is well" you may be able to get by without that screen.

Edit: That Flourish thing is a different chapter in the story. The tank is having these issues partially because the plants can't grow if they lack the nutrients they need. Flourish is figuratively speaking, only half of the ferts. The PPS Pro is all of the ferts.
When you get some time for it try reading this because it explains the ferts well. 99% of the difference between the EI and the PPS
Pro is in the amount of what is used. And that EI is designed for injected tanks. It's the basic concept of having all of the nutrients
that is important in this link. http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/11-fertilizers-water-parameters/517945-ei-concept-explained.html


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## 1hawaii50 (Oct 18, 2015)

Raymond S. said:


> Put the screen on top of the glass. That cuts the light level. The tank/plants need that right now. Later when "all is well" you may be able to get by without that screen.
> 
> Edit: That Flourish thing is a different chapter in the story. The tank is having these issues partially because the plants can't grow if they lack the nutrients they need. Flourish is figuratively speaking, only half of the ferts. The PPS Pro is all of the ferts.
> When you get some time for it try reading this because it explains the ferts well. 99% of the difference between the EI and the PPS
> ...




The screen is installed, and PPS-Pro system arrived today! Will get going on this when I get home from work later this afternoon! 


At this point, would you pull everything except the Water Wysteria and plant some new plants just prior to starting the PPS-Pro, or wait and see what recovers and just add a few stemmed plants as stated earlier?


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## Raymond S. (Dec 29, 2012)

I probably would wait till after that BGA is mostly gone to add more plants.
After you are sure you won't need another water change. You may need the first and
if you can't siphon a large part of the dead BGA/w that then you may need another WC.
No sense in wasting the ferts till finished with that/those. Can't say other people might not do it differently, but that is also when I would add any new plants.


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## wantsome (Sep 3, 2006)

BGA is caused by lack of nitrates. Nitrates are the end product of your biological filtration. The bacteria in your filter need waste from fish to produce nitrates. You have enough fish so that is not the problem. Another possibility is your plants are using all of your nitrates. Given the condition of your plants or lack there of that isn't the problem either. So that leaves the filter you don't have enough biological filtration and your bacteria count isn't high enough to continue the cycle. With low nitrates water changes will just exacerbate the problem. Get new plants clean out as much BGA as possible and fix your filtration issues. After fixing the root cause and a clean up it shouldn't come back. 

I don't know what kind of light you have. But if it's a t5Ho that is too much light for a beginner on a low tech tank. Any direction you go with your set up it's going to be nothing but an algae factory.


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## 1hawaii50 (Oct 18, 2015)

wantsome said:


> BGA is caused by lack of nitrates. Nitrates are the end product of your biological filtration. The bacteria in your filter need waste from fish to produce nitrates. You have enough fish so that is not the problem. Another possibility is your plants are using all of your nitrates. Given the condition of your plants or lack there of that isn't the problem either. So that leaves the filter you don't have enough biological filtration and your bacteria count isn't high enough to continue the cycle. With low nitrates water changes will just exacerbate the problem. Get new plants clean out as much BGA as possible and fix your filtration issues. After fixing the root cause and a clean up it shouldn't come back.
> 
> I don't know what kind of light you have. But if it's a t5Ho that is too much light for a beginner on a low tech tank. Any direction you go with your set up it's going to be nothing but an algae factory.



My light is a 36" Finnex Planted +. I've got an AC110 filter with only a sponge, and 5 bags of bio-media. The sponge/media are well established. I've put the fiberglass screen over the top glass to cut down on the light. I nuked the tank with peroxide on Monday, and most of the algae is now gone. I did a 50% water change 15 minutes after nuking the tank and I immediately dosed Excel and started on the PPS-Pro fertilizers. 


The recommended dosage rate was 30ml/10 gallons of water and I only dosed at 20ml/10 gallons of water....figuring 30 gallons of water in my 38g tank, I dosed 60ml of Peroxide. 


Here are my results only 2 days later....

Bump: The plants look 100% better! I think the sword in the corner is beyond help and I'll pull it in another day/two. I still have a very tiny bit of BGA growing on the sand. I'll give it a week and see what happens.


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## AWolf (Jun 13, 2014)

My immediate response is the plants are not healthy and growing well. They need a real boost of nutrients of some sort. Whenever I get algae on a plant, it is because the plant is not getting the right amount of nutrients.


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## Oso Polar (Apr 22, 2015)

I once got a very bad case of BGA and this product Aquarium Treatments : Amazon.com: Ultralife Blue Green Slime Stain Remover killed it completely after just one application (but not immediately - it took several days to see the effect).


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## 1hawaii50 (Oct 18, 2015)

AWolf said:


> My immediate response is the plants are not healthy and growing well. They need a real boost of nutrients of some sort. Whenever I get algae on a plant, it is because the plant is not getting the right amount of nutrients.


You are correct....I've corrected the problem...If you look at the initial photos vs the latest photos, the plants do look better...



Oso Polar said:


> I once got a very bad case of BGA and this product Aquarium Treatments : Amazon.com: Ultralife Blue Green Slime Stain Remover killed it completely after just one application (but not immediately - it took several days to see the effect).


I haven't gotten to that point yet! I'm hoping the peroxide treatment and the proper nutrients will kill it and keep it away!


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## meheytavel (Nov 6, 2014)

I'm jumping into this conversation a bit too late, apparently. I had the BGA issue a while ago, and read on the web what sounded like a wonder treatment, but I tried it and it worked amazingly well. I just turned off the lights and covered up the tank completely for 4 days. No peeping, no feeding. After that all that was left was to peal of the dead remains... 

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## wantsome (Sep 3, 2006)

Agree with the above poster I'd try the black out method before nuking the tank with chemicals and ferts. I haven't been back to the site in a while that's why I haven't responded.

When first starting out less light it better until you get a better understanding of the dynamics of a planted tank. You'd be surprised what you can grow under a single florescent tube light.

I had a Finnex fugeray and it was way too much light. The more light you have the more your plants are going to demand c02 and ferts. If you don't supplement those two your tank will be nothing but an algae factory. 

In a low tech tank with low light the plants out compete the aglae. The key is adding enough plants to do so. Then if you see any deficiencies you can supplement light doses of ferts. It all depends on the type of plants substrate fish load ect. 

Floating plants are great for defusing light. Personally I like duckweed and frogbit. If you get the algae to slow down stuff that tank full of crypts anubias and very easy plants. They'll out compete the algae as long as there isn't too much light.

Heres a pic of my 38 gallon


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