Greg H

Hello, I have a brand new 66 gallon tank that I’ve been running for 2.5 months now. Everything so far has been running great! In the last 2-3 weeks I’ve noticed that I am developing what I think is BBA on my crypt spiralis and apontogeton crispus. I added my co-op light at click 3 for 8 hours. My tank is fairly tall and the algae largely appears to be attaching itself to the leaves that are mid way through the tank or towards the top. I am starting to see some at the bottom even though it is much less than the mid level. I am wondering if this is just a phase in the new cycle of my tank or if this is a sign I’m starting to get out of balance and need to make an adjustment. substrate: stratum, ecocomplete and crushed coral fertilizer: easy green. 2ml, 1 time per day Nitrates are at 25ppm after 2 weeks with no water change running CO2 for 8 hours stocking - 4 neons, 5 chili rasboras, 4 amanos, 1 hillstream loach, 3 killis.

Has anyone ever seen this before or treated? Neon is acting totally normal but this been in like a bubble on him for a few weeks and has grown in size.

@Mmiller2001i recently just added CO2 to my 20L and I saw that you mentioned doing regular 50% water changes. Why is that? I am finding a lot of resources about how to set up CO2 in your tank but not having much luck on what you should do to maintain a CO2 injected aquarium after you’ve added it.

@Jennifer Vdid you make any other lighting intensity adjustments besides the siesta with the reduction in hours on?

@lefty oI’ll give that a try. Thanks!

@lefty o you think that could happen even at 30% intensity? I considered lowering but was concerned my plants may suffer a bit

Hello, Need help identifying this algae and opinion on solution. I am 5 months into my 20 long low tech and I believe I am very close to having the tank balanced. I am autodosing 2mls of easy green 3x/week and keeping my nitrates at 25ppm which is primarily from fertilizer as my plants consume all my nitrates very quickly. I seem to be struggling with what I believe to be BBA on the edges of my plants and most of the algae affects leaves that are closer towards the top of my tank. Bottom plants don’t seem to be as affected. I am unsure what lever to adjust next to reduce the amount of BBA. I am running my fluval 3.0 at 30% for 7.5 hours every day and have a good mix of fast/slow growing plants. I have 3 Amano shrimp and a full blown infestation of cherry shrimp. Wondering if I should increase lighting, increase ferts, decrease both or a combo. My primary concern is that if I don’t figure out eventually i will have to keep trimming off the affected leaves that I’ve worked so hard to grow out. Thoughts?

I’m not sure if you guys were able to find a solution to this. I have 6 cardinals and one appears to be affected by this. @Frogmouth Catfish @silveRx

@Rob E.i agree with you for sure. I’ll back down the dosing a bit and start adding a little food this week and see if it handles it. I hadn’t thought of adding some floating plants temporarily but I think that could probably help keep the algae off the slower growers. Really appreciate your help!

@Rob E. thanks for the response. I have a fluval 3.0 and have it on for 8.5 hrs a day maxing at ~60%. I am using the API liquid test kit and shake the hell out of number 2 before and when I mix the tube. I have a pretty solid LFS near me and they also tested zero nitrates and recommended that I hold off on adding fish but they seemed to be making that basis off of normal bacteria cycling rather than the fertilizer method. I had put in 5 pumps before I posted this yesterday and tested 10 mins ago and my nitrates are zero again. So I am assuming that the algae is consuming it so quickly because there is nothing in the tank eating it. I’m worried that if I lower my dosing that my plants will starve but if I don’t lower it I’ll continue to see rampaging algae growth. Considering maybe time to invest in some algae eaters despite being in early stages?

Hello, I started my second tank (20 long) after running a 10 gal for 6 months and having a scud infestation. I started this tank off right by alum dipping all my new plants and ordering them all from the co-op. I have a mixture of postegemon stelattus octopus, Java fern, Amazon sword, and crypt Lucens I started the cycle with plants from day one in eco complete and with every other day dosing of easy green (5 pumps) and did not add live bacteria. I am experiencing an explosion of stag horn and hair algae and am in my 5th week with no live fish/shrimp yet and my tests are showing ammonia, nitrites and nitrates all at zero. I am following the video Cory put up about cycling with fertilizer remember him mentioning to only change one variable at a time and I have wanted to keep fertilizer constant while I dial the lighting in but the tank seems to be consuming the easy green within 2 days because I am not showing any nitrates despite testing every 3 days. with all that said, my primary question is, do I keep my fertilizer dosing the same or is that causing my algae to explode while my plants are trying to keep up? Their growth is awesome but I have to clean them regularly because of all the hair algae

Thanks. I’m on the fence still. We spend so much time trying to make our plants look amazing and it’s hard to watch these scuds eat them away even though I know they are good for your substrate

Appreciate your responses @DShelton,@eatyourpeas I’m moving in a week and am going to start up my 20 long. Any thoughts if I should start from scratch with my filter media? Any ideas for making sure plants transfer without these hitch hikers?

I am a relatively new aquarist getting back into the hobby with over 4 months into this tank. I posted over a month ago with the question of whether or not scuds that ended in my tank (probably from LFS) were beneficial. I understand that they help break down mulm and detritus but that some species eat plants. It’s apparent that they have taken significant hold in my eco complete and I rarely see them unless I gravel vac or add root tabs. I have also taken apparent my canister filter and noticed them in there as well. The other day I noticed one on top of my crypt spiralis and then days later started seeing what appeared to be sections of my plants missing (attached in picture) that don’t appear to be plant deficiency’s. I even noticed a section of my Java fern chewed as well. I only have 5 CPDs, 5 chili rasboras, Amano shrimp, and a reticulated hill stream loach. I have been wanting to upgrade to a 20 long from my current 10 gal for a while and was planning on instant cycling with all my substrate and filter media but am seriously considering starting all from scratch being that I know it’s next to impossible to rid your tank of these once there in. My two primary questions after all this are as follows: Has anyone else experienced this issue? If you started over, how did you transfer your plants and hardscape to make sure that they did not infest your next tank? Did you get new filter media as well?

Hello all, My name is Greg and I’m just getting back into hobby. So far I am really enjoying my 10 gallon and am already looking at upgrading to a 20 long. Really wanted to prove to myself this time around that I could grown plants really well and make a really natural looking tank. So far it’s been fun but I have a long way to go and will probably spend a lot more time on here