d6veteran
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Posts posted by d6veteran
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Attached is a pic of two tiny (baby?) snails. I currently have around 20 Nerites who are of course laying little white sesame seed looking eggs.
- Are these Nerites? I assume not since they only hatch in brackish water.
- If not, any ideas which type? Perhaps introduced on a plant?
For scale, the substrate is sand.
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@Mmiller2001 Update.
As of today:
- Pre-CO² pH: 7.4
- Peek CO² pH: 6.6
- Reduced light duration by 1 hour
- Reduced light intensity from 18w to 16w
- Pearling happening on all plants
Going to see how this pans our for 7-10 days before any adjustments. More pics of algae on Buce (getting the most light, and full of staghorn) and the Java Ferns, getting the least light and young leaves growing well (not the dark green growth on tips).
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9 minutes ago, Mmiller2001 said:
Here's a great source for you to read through. A .5KH is as stable as 5KH. And fluctuating pH does not harm fish. It's an old wives tale from yesteryear when people didn't have the multitude of tests and understanding we have today.
https://www.2hraquarist.com/blogs/choosing-co2-why
Hope this helps. Helped me tremendously.
Oh interesting. I just read that you cannot go by the chart without getting a baseline since there are other factors contributing to pH. So to your point, I need to get a pH reading when my water is without injection, and that should be 2-3ppm. Then I want to target a ~1 pH drop from that reading.
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4 minutes ago, Mmiller2001 said:
Here's a great source for you to read through. A .5KH is as stable as 5KH. And fluctuating pH does not harm fish. It's an old wives tale from yesteryear when people didn't have the multitude of tests and understanding we have today.
https://www.2hraquarist.com/blogs/choosing-co2-why
Hope this helps. Helped me tremendously.
Oh interesting! I wish I had known! Everything other persons advice has been to raise kH "to stabilize pH", which led me to believe I needed to limit changes in pH.
Thanks, will read through the article.
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23 minutes ago, Mmiller2001 said:
Increase your CO². You are looking for a pH of 6.4 to 6.1. Once you reach 6.4, if you decide to push more, watch your fish for signs of stress.
You don't have enough CO² with your current numbers and is the main contributing factor with your algae problem.
I'm not sure why people told you to raise your KH? Did they say why?
You want a 1 pH drop from your degassed pH. If you want to be more accurate, take some tank water and set it out, open to the air. Wait 48 hours and pH it. That is the number you will use to adjust a 1 pH drop.
OK, so I need some more education on Co2 levels. Because, going by the chart, at a kH of 8-9, I don't want to dip below 7, right?
I was told to raise my kH in order to stabilize the pH. That was the feedback.
Going to grab some tank water and set out to measure and then will reply with my degassed pH.
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On 4/21/2021 at 10:10 AM, Mmiller2001 said:
What's your pH before your CO² turns on?
7.4, then 7.0 at peak CO². kH consistently at 8-9.
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On 4/21/2021 at 8:29 AM, Irene said:
If you want to keep your 10 hours of light, you could also raise the light. Your java fern is looking great by the way!
Good idea. I will look into another attachment to raise the lights - currently they are at the maximum height for the brackets I have.
I did take the lighting down in wattage a bit more to 16W. I did this by reducing Warm and Green light spectrum. The tank is still lit well enough to see things well, but with the lower wattage I believe that should translate to less light for plants/algae.
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On 4/21/2021 at 2:58 AM, Munkyaquatix said:
It looks like staghorn to me.
habe you tried adding fish that will eat algae? If your not a fan of Siamese algae eaters Molly do a really good job also. I’m battling algae my self. But I found if I hold back feeding a bit they’ll just go to town on the algae.
I have 20 Pygmy Corys, 10 Panda Corys and 2 Plecos. They are constantly active but do not touch the staghorn.
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Question. Is this Brown Algea or Staghorn, or both. I cannot tell.
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@lefty o good idea. Going to adjust and watch weekly.
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3 weeks ago I posted about my newer planted aquarium and how to diagnose algae issues.
The feedback was to raise kH, pH, CO2 and reduce light. After those changes, 3 weeks later the algae situation has changed for the better, but I still am waging a battle. Looking for advice on next steps.
My new stats are:
Stats [Before] > After:
- [kH 6] > kH 8.5
- [pH 6.8-7.4] > pH 7.0-7.4
- [75-76 F] > 74-75
- [CO2 3.5bps on with lights] > 4bps
- [Lighting 5000k, 27W, 10 hours] > 1500K, 18W, 10 hours
- [Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 0 - .1] > Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 5-10
- [Fertilizer: 2x/week Flourish, 2x/week Pottasium, 1x/week Iron (all Seechem products)] > removed Iron, added Phosphate
Algae: What's Improved.
I have some floating plants that have rapidly reproduced stick the the left and right sides of the tank. That light shading, along with reduced lighting, seems to have improved the plants towards the sides. The picture below shows how the Java ferns there are now basically free of algae (the brown hairs you see are roots).
Algae: What's Still A Fight
As you can see below about 60% of the tank in the center has an algae problem. It's either brown or staghorn, and despite manually ripping it off every other day it keeps coming back. The Buce is growing, faster than I expected, with some good color and a few flowers, but if I do not rubbed the leaves free of algae ever other day they would be totally consumed by it. You can also see the same algae growing on the Java ferns (again, remarkably different from the ones towards the sides).
Conclusion
The obvious answer is to further reduce light. Which I would have to figure out how to reduce wattage while still keeping enough light for viewing (through choosing various spectrums). But, I really want to keep the growth I am seeing with the Buce. So wondering if there is another tactic to try with the fertilizer or CO2.
Thanks!
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Just got 10 more Kyathits -- yay!!!
Highly recommend Zebra and Kyathits. They school well (together) and look great mixed in with each other. We have about 30 now and they sometimes look like a bait ball.
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Posting two more pics for identification. It does look a bit "tufted". Blackbeard? It looks most like pics of Staghorn on the web as @Brandypointed out.
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Got 10 of the Pygmy Corys ... wow! They are awesome little schoolers. They school alone or join my Danios, and are already getting into all the nooks of my plants. Highly recommend! Fun to watch.
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41 minutes ago, Brandy said:
Looks like staghorn to me. I have always seen it in my tanks with high light/low nutrients. So depending on the plants you may want to fertilize more or light less.
Thanks for that observation - that sounds right to me. I have had 0/0/0 Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate even with fully stocked with fish. I just increased the fertilizer dosing on Sunday, including Seachem Nitrogen, Trace and Flourish. Sounds like I should dose regularly and see where that leads in 2 weeks.
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Tank is about 10 weeks old. Made it past a green and white algae bloom, then past 4 weeks entered brown algae bloom. But now the brown algae looks more black. Very hard to remove.
In the third photo you can see the difference between the brown and black hairs.
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10 minutes ago, awymorePDX said:
That is still pretty low in terms of Nitrates.
Be patient, keep testing, and wait on the water change for now. I wouldn't try and have it planned for a certain day, just watch your levels and let the tank tell you what it needs. As it gets more established and you understand how long it takes the nitrate to build, you can start figuring out a schedule.
So what level should I watch for before I do a change? 20? 30?
Thanks for the comment/advice!
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I have Nitrates!!! Officially recorded between 4-5ppm at 5PM. Going to do a 20% change Monday, test, and then see how long it takes to get to 5+ppm. Sounds like I want to start with some Nitrates after a water change and build up to 10-20ppm before the next change.
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Thanks for the suggestions/comments! I have two Plecos, 10 Panda Corys and 15 Nerite Snails. They are constantly munching.
@Betsy I love the suggestion to use a Turkey Baster! One of the issues I think is that the petite Java Ferns cannot support the snails so they don't touch them - but I could help out with a turkey baster. Ordered one today!
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I love your analogies @Cory! Thanks for the reply!
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15 minutes ago, KBOzzie59 said:
Smaller size what?
I replaced the photos. I take it you still cannot see them?
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@Cory @Solidus1833 Quick question. I am taking your advice to cut down to one 50% water change per week. That means a water change tomorrow (last change was 50% on Saturday). However, Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate/Phosphate are all 0 (using new, non-expired API test tube kits, double/tripled checked). Should I hold off even longer to get the Nitrate and Phosphates up a bit?
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1 hour ago, KBOzzie59 said:
Cannot see any of your images. Your nitrates are crazy low. Cut back on CO2 until you get some nutrients in there.
Increasing Nitrates ... keep adding fish? I was doing water changes 2x/week and this will be my first week switching to 1x/week based on advice from others. Hoping that might drive them up, but it has been 6 days of no water change and still Nitrates at 0.
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@KBOzzie59replaced with smaller size. Does that work?
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Help to Identify Baby Snails
in General Discussion
Posted
Got
Got, so need to remove asap! lol