Pepere

The bacteria that metabolize ammonia to nitrite establishes itself quicker in my experience. The nitrite to nitrate bacteria seemed to take a whole lot longer. patience works… I would just be waiting right now…

First question, sounds like Algae of some sort. Second question? Yeah thats the 65,000 question…. How to get rid of it…. The most reliable way to get rid of it is to take all of the water out of the tank…. but fish dont do well with that… Lots of ideas and advice all over the internet on controlling algae… The most effective advice I have found is that found on the 2 hr aquarist web site… https://www.2hraquarist.com/blogs/algae-control

Pink Flamingo crypt is and odd one. I bought 3 of these from the Co op when they were carrying it. All in separate tanks, but pretty much the same conditions. 1 promptly died off never to rise again. 1 grew out quite nicely with no muss or fuss. I do have aquasoil under a cap, and co 2 injection and a good dosing schedule. The third struggled barely holding on for maybe 6 months. A new leaf would pop up, another would die. Running in place and getting nowhere. Well, maybe crawling rather than running… I would insert 3 root tabs around it on the first of the month every month… eventually I relocated a tiger lotus near it a foot away from it and within a few months it was noticeably improving and is growing well now… About 2-3 months ago, I pulled some plantlets from my best growing tank and put them in a 17 gallon non co2 tank. I didnt have high hopes giving how hard it was to get them to take off in a co2 injected tank, but after a quick melt of leaves, it has been growing very well for a tank woh no added co2…

That is a bummer. The Co op used to sell really good suction cups… The Co op has discontinued too many really good items after I have become enamored with them…

If you have Ryobi lithium Ion Cordless tools and battery packs, these little inverters are awfully handy for small loads. 150 watt output. perfect for air pumps. 4 amp hour battery packs have 72 watt hour capacity. will run a 3 watt air pump for 18 hours. There are also 6 amp hour battery packs. I have variable output dual output air pumps that consume 4 watts at high speed. I turned them down to the lowest setting. 12 hour run time only depleted the battery to 3/4 capacity. I could have probably run the canister filters for about 10 hours on a battery pack… I do have generators to keep buildings warm. I can easily recharge the batteries while I run the boiler to heat the building… While these are quite nice, I would not-recommend going out and buying them if you dont already have the cordless tools and battery packs. There are better options if you dont have the tools and batteries…

They can grow to 4-6 inches long. Most care guides recommend at least a 55 gallon tank for a Red Tail Shark.

About 18 inches of wet heavy snow hit today with significant power outages. I lost power for over 12 hours, which is the longest power outage the property I am at has ever experienced since my Grandfather bought the buildings in 1971… When it first went off and I looked at the outage list for my town, I knew it would be at least several hours. Itook out the media from the canister filters and set them in buckets of tank water and added an airstone to each bucket. The tanks have air driven ugf plates in addition to the canister filters.. Iran the airpumps with small Ryobi 120 watt inverters powered by 4 amp hour 18 volt Ryobi 1 plus battery packs. 12 hr run time depleted about 1/4 charge… The power came back on just as I was getting ready to do some water changes to raise the tank temp. I had run the generator to heat the building and the hot water tank, so had plenty of warm water to raise temp with… interspersed with all that fun was snowblowing and shoveling too…. Just got canister filters back in service in time for bed…

I like the Ziss adjustable valves. Much more fine control than others. ensuring your airstones to both uplift tubes are clean and flow equally plays a big part too. As does equal length airline hose. And having air feed in to a bigger manifold, and then into individual runs… Having said all that, The flow through your plates being equal from the risers is nowheres near as important as one would think intuitively. You have a big plenum under those airrisers with low restriction and then inches of gravel on top. The flow equilibrates fairly well under the plates… And flow is not nearly the issue one might think with ugfs. Fitting powerheads with dramatically higher flow than air driven does not increase biofiltration nearly so much as the increase in flow. The increase of biofiltration is around 20% more… Flow does have benefits other than biofiltration though… and if you want lots of flow but sticking with air driven, you can make adapters to fit the Easy Flow kits to standard PennPlax type ugf air riser stubs for about $2.00 of material and about an hour of your time for a pair….

Well, who knows…. But, you bought the stability. Might as well use it up…. I am not convinced it does much of anything myself, but it sure isnt doing anything still in the bottle…. Now if the question instead, is should I go buy more to continue the 7 day cycle, I know I wouldnt be… I would probably reduce feeding and monitor daily and water change as needed.

Well, If I had spent the money on a bottle of Stability, which I never foresee doing ever again, I would be adding some daily until the bottle was empty, along with feeding the tank an ammonia source, whether that be livestock, ghost feeding, or ammonia drops. I have no confidence in the bacteria in a bottle products myself. I have tried multiple bottles of multiple brands and never saw anything to convince me of their worth. A well cycled sponge filter is a wonderful thing though.. I would be adding 6-12 fish under 2 inches in length and feed them daily. And testing the water every other day. Fish poo has all the bacteria present in it to seed the tank nicely, so bits of poo sucked up by the new canister filters will seed them nicely. After a week or two if you never see ammonia or nitrites I would double the stocking and continue in same vein… I am a fan of slow increases in livestock, monitoring for ammonia and nitrite and increasing bioload over time giving the tank time to accomodate.

Without question and by a longshot, I have experienced the most success at controlling algae by following techniques and practices I have read on the 2 hr aquarist. and that is without making any purchase of their products. That doesnt mean I think their products are not worthwhile, just that the practices alone have brought me significant success. https://www.2hraquarist.com/blogs/algae-control/how-to-control-green-spot-algae

Maybe try lighting up the area around the tank more to see if that changes behavior any.

Cories are not going to clean up algae but they do clean up food that falls to the bottom not eaten by other fish. They also scurry along the bottom a lot and in the process re suspend mulm and detritus in the water column giving your filter, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th …. Chances to suck it up. The bigger cories do this far better than Pygmy cories, but Cories are definitely valuable for cleaning up…. Just not Algae…

I think the employee was out of line. However I would probably have opted for6-8 myself on first stocking and pick up more in a week or two… generally I try to add fish in groups of 6-8 when starting a 29 gallon tank and wait a week or two before adding. I also tend to test for ammonia and nitrite after adding fish every few days for a week or so… in essence your tank may be fully cycled inso far as it can metaboloze all the bioload it is exposed to. Double or triple the bioload and it needs time to adapt…. And it might not keep up and could be issues. Now water changes will deal with those issues just fine…

I got fed up with the Safe T Sorb migrating to the surface above the Black Diamond Blasting Sand. so… today… rocks, driftwood, java fern, anubias in one bucket of tank water, floating plants and hornwort in a plastic tub, stem plants crypts, s repens in another plastic tub, and all livestock in a bucket of tank water. modified ugf plate. Old Safe T Sorb and BDBS mix in mesh bags for beneficial bacteria on it as well as cation exchange, 2 mesh bags aquasoil in front where all the stem plants are… New BBBS 2 inch cap, rocks, driftwood java fern and anubias replaced.. then fill with water, plant stems return livestock… replanted stems, filled up and livestock returned… Now, that table could sure use some cleaning up too.

I haven't had any personal experience with Ramshorn snails doing anything for me in regards to algae. And I have had Ramshorn snails that hitch hiked in to my tank on plants that have been resistant to attempts to eradicate them.. I finally gave up…. In my personal experience I feel their algae control abilities are over rated…

I am not a big fan of the whole dimming your lights to battle algae program. I also have not had much success with algae eating livestock taking care if the issue. I tried those strategies for months and months with minimal to show for it, My greatest success battling Algae has been from optimizing plant growth and reducing preferred food for the algae. Healthy vibrant plant growth defends itself well from algae growth. Struggling plants leach waste organics from their leaves that Algae likes to munch on. I have found the best results with practices such as weekly 50% water changes, increasing flow in the tank, using the combination of a turkey baster to suspend detritus from the substrate while using a siphon to pull out the resulting cloud of debris stirred up by the turkey baster while doing the water changes. Clean your filter often, especially during initial clean up…. Doing water change clean ups more often than weekly in the initial phase…. Pulling out plants and soaking them in room temp seltzer water overnight and replanting them… keeping water parameters such as GH with optimum Ca and Mg levels and low KH optimized and stable as well as Nitrates in the 20-30 ppm level. Using these methods I have been able to Maintain a non CO2 injected tank free of visible algae. I have also utilized 15 minute hydrogen peroxide whole tank treatments to help knock down algae. The way I do it is to remove biomedia from the tank and let it set in a bucket of tank water during treatment. Turn on filter without media to have good flow in the tank assuming some sort of powered filter with good flow…. Add 4 tablespoons of 3% hydrogen peroxide per 10 gallons of water and allow it to circulate for 15 minutes and then do a 50% water change to reduce Hydrogen Peroxide levels. I would only do this hydrogen peroxide treatment a few days after having thoroughly cleaned the tank and substrate and soaking the plants in seltzer first. In fact I would personally do a few whole tank cleaning sessions first before doing the peroxide treatment. If you are not comfortable doing the whole tank treatment with peroxide I can understand. It can speed things up, but I bet you can achieve similar results over time simply with the cleaning and stability methods over a longer period of time. I would not reduce lighting photoperiod below 6 hours myself. All of the above is what works for me…

Excellent write up Roy.. the Magnesium issue is 1 reason I don’t follow the adding crushed coral to deal with soft water mantra so prevalent in the hobby. Crushed coral only adds calcium and carbonates, and your levels are constantly in flux, plummeting with a deep water change and rising from there… dosing Equilibrium, or calcium and mgnesium salts gives you a predictable level of calcium and magnesium that can be extremely close to the water being taken out…. Plants reprogram their leaves to optimize for the soup they are being served. A fair amount of energy and resources are used to reprogram. Stable levels allows the plant to use that energy and resources for plant growth and defending against algae instead…

Another week, another update photo. The Ludwigia Repens had broken the water surface. I shortened it. The Tiger Lotus was getting overpowering. It looks like I really butchered it but there are several young leaves that will develop quickly. The new background plant by the intake is establishing nicely. I will likely be trimming it down next week and planting the tops to expand that one. The Cardinal Lobelia should grow in nicely in the coming week.

If you are planning on concentrating on plants and especially if using pressurized CO2, a strong argument can be made for a canister filter. canister filters can provide better control of flow helping to keep co2 in suspension better especially with an inline diffuser. When I start up a 75, it will be a canister filter without question.

I think by and large the leaves themselves are unlikely to recover. The plant very well might recover. Plants seem to prioritize new growth optimized for growing conditions as opposed to repairing existing leaves.

And which answer is the right one… cause they are not all right… I avoid letting them dry out…

Just rinsing out the polyfill and replacing eill help also.

I wouldnt think you need another HOB in addition to the Aquaclear. I have not felt the need for a UV sterilizer myself. I have had cloudy water a few times. Every time, adding a cycled sponge filter in addition has cleared the tank up quickly.