The 20-Gallon Sorority Tank

[Baphijmm]

This was probably my third purpose-driven tank I set up in my current bout of fishkeeping, definitely back in 2018. The idea was, I had a beautiful male betta I wanted to try to breed, and also I wanted to try out a betta sorority tank to see how it went. I know 20 gallons is pretty small for such a setup, but I was never planning to have more than five girls in there at any given time.

At the moment, and for the last two years honestly, there have been exactly zero. 😛 I still maintain the tank though, as it's also got a small community of harlequin rasboras and kuhli loaches.

I've been trying to keep the tank as something of an Indochina biotope, and so I've got Java fern and Cryptocoryne undulata in there. The latter, while I'd planted several, only one ever survived (and it's doing alright, but it could be doing better, hasn't ever tried to send out runners or anything); the former, on the other hand, thrives, and I regularly have to tear down the scape to cut out growth and divide it into other tanks. (My mbuna, for example, seem to revel in destroying the stuff.)

I've had an issue with this tank for a number of years; BBA is fairly prevalent, as is green hair algae. In addition to these things, there's a lot of... I can really only call it "scum" for lack of a better word, thick particles of light-brown stuff that likes to collect on the algae and Java fern. I regularly shake it out of the plants in the hopes that it'll get sucked into the filter, but it never seems to make it that far, or else it is indeed some sort of living being and reproduces far faster than it can be sucked up. I know it's not diatoms, or at least I'm quite certain, as I know what diatoms look like; we do use well water here (even though I've been using RO water on this setup, this is the same RO system that I didn't realize hadn't been maintained in seven years), and so we do definitely have diatoms just hanging out in the source water. In my other tanks, where it is allowed to grow and multiply, it tends to grow on hardscape and glass, not plants.

I know BBA and green hair algae are themselves symptoms of either nutrient deficiency or chemical overabundance in the tank, but I don't actually know of what. Anyone have any thoughts on that? It'd be nice to finally reduce the problem without having to treat the tank with algaecide.

Yes, that's the reflection of a window in the front glass, and indeed it's a south-facing window; however, while I do know that's probably contributing somewhat, I've got a skylight practically directly shining on my mbuna tank and haven't had anywhere near this level of problem with these algae. (I've got green spot algae in that tank, which is another issue for another time.) So, I'm fairly confident there's something up with the water chemistry that's contributing heavily to this particular problem.

[SJ fishing]

I would start by trying to reduce the lighting duration or intensity.  
and maybe a couple small SAE to help clean up

[Baphijmm]

On 5/9/2022 at 4:02 PM, SJ fishing said:

I would start by trying to reduce the lighting duration or intensity.  
and maybe a couple small SAE to help clean up

Oh, I'm quite well-aware that there are temporary fixes to algae issues like changing lighting, or getting a "cleaning crew". But, the fact is, the algae's presence means something's wrong with the balance of the water, and that's what I'd rather address.

[SJ fishing]

Yeah lighting could be part of the imbalance.  Looks like you have all low light, slow growing plants that won’t use up nutrients as fast as algae will.  

[Baphijmm]

Doing just a quick bit of research on the site, it seems both forms of algae are caused pretty directly by too many nutrients in the water column, likely contributed by overfeeding (which I was doing for quite a while, though I've definitely pulled back on that), and the use of the "RO" water that wasn't actually RO water from before. Both of these are issues I'm already addressing with frequent water changes and changes to feeding schedules, so honestly the problem might just go away with current treatments. (Which is honestly part of why I've been doing those things anyway.)

Still doesn't answer the question of what the "scum" might be, but one problem at a time.

Reason I'm pretty sure it's not other contributing elements is, many of my other tanks have NO plants and similar light setups (including the aforementioned mbuna tank with its direct actual sunlight from the skylight above, which also has no cleanup crew and I've only just introduced some Java fern--FROM this tank, because the Java fern grows like gangbusters in there), which don't have these problems at all. So, gonna keep up my current regiment of regular water changes (with actual RO water) and the new feeding schedule; that'll probably take care of it.

[Baphijmm]

Some good news: After this evening's water change, GH does appear to have finally dropped below the upper threshold of the test strips. It might've been too early to check, that the water hadn't had a good enough chance to properly fully mix, but I figure a couple hours on a 20-gallon tank for a 25% water change should be sufficient to at least gauge where things are going.

Also, I suspect the "scum" may just be mulm. I've never had a problem with it before, so honestly I've never seen it (or at least not nearly as abundantly as this, within the tank itself; I've definitely seen it in filter sponges and whatnot). Further evidence of earlier issues I've been trying to remedy. And indeed, I do believe my initial steps are making some progress on that front.

Once I get paid, I'm planning to grab some water sprite and Pogostemon stellatus "octopus". They're both relatively native to the region, will add interest and texture to the back of the tank, and I'm hoping will start to suck up the nutrients presently allowing the algae to grow. I also want to try to get a carpeting plant, but alas, I'm not having much success finding something that'd be native to Indochina. I feel like having something in there to carpet the substrate might help ease the kuhli loaches out of constantly hiding amongst the Java fern (as-is, I only rarely ever see one at a time, when I know I've got a couple of 'em in there), since it would still provide some cover. It'd also help with the mulm problem I suspect, or at least with its appearance. (And, again, would help alleviate the nutrient surplus in the water column.) Anyone have any suggestions?

Probably gonna try moving one or two of the Cyrptocoryne undulata runners from one of the betta tanks where it's been growing prolifically into here too, maybe try to balance out the visual appearance of the one. I'd love to get that one really thriving too; since the Java fern is so thoroughly flourishing, I'm curious to know why this one isn't. Maybe I need a deeper substrate. When I put this tank together originally, I used one full bag of Seachem Flourite Black, and even though one full bag of Seachem Flourite was more than sufficient to create a nice deep substrate on the Socorro community tank I've been setting up recently, I'll admit in this tank (which is the exact same size) it seems somewhat thin for some reason.

I do want to try injecting CO2 on this tank at some point in the future too, help the plants grow while also helping take care of the algae. That's probably a good ways away at this point.

[Baphijmm]

Everything's still about the same since the other day, but wanted to share, I finally got a couple pictures of some of the kuhlis. I believe there are four in the tank at this time (which I know is fewer than they'd like, I intend to remedy that soon), and this particular time, I caught two of them out at the same time, confirming that these are indeed two different fish. (Not that it was hard to tell before; the second one is about twice the size of the first, having been in the tank for quite a while longer.) So, yes, these are only two specimens, but they're so infrequently out where they can be seen, I wanted to be quick with the pictures. (That also means they aren't very good pictures. 😛 )

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Kuhli watching can be a where’s Waldo kind of experience. They look happy.

 
Sorry about the algae. I think making these changes then waiting a couple weeks before you make another change is the best course of action. By nature as aquarists we’re tinkerers. Resist the urge and let the changes you make bring some results before you hop to the next fix. 

I like the idea of some fast growers, great choices. You could also come up with some floaters - I’m a fan of dwarf water lettuce and red root floaters. 

How are you doing with flow? You want to keep the mulm and detritus off the leaves but not more than that. 

[Baphijmm]

Welp, once again, somehow the USPS came through and delivered my ACO order placed literally Saturday afternoon, this morning. Definitely not complaining! Pleasantly surprised! Thrilled, even!

This shipment had a number of things I'd been wanting to grab for a variety of reasons, but several of those were the plants I'd talked about here. Water sprite, Pogostemon stellatus, and Hydrocotyle tripartita 'Japan' (the latter being my choice for a "carpeting" plant) have all now been introduced to the tank, after a thorough rinsing in the sink of course. (Don't worry, it's all well water, no chlorine.) I do eventually want to start CO2 in this tank; I know the Hydrocotyle in particular will definitely benefit from it.

Seachem Flourite is some of the most difficult substrate to plant in, I've found. I see lots of folks complaining about sand, and meanwhile I love sand for planted tanks! This stuff on the other hand, even if you plant with tweezers it's such a pain; the substrate moves right out of the way, and so of course nothing moves in to hold the roots in place. After much trial and error, I got everything at least in the substrate; definitely not the best job, but they're in there.

After multiple 25% water changes over the last few weeks with RO water to try to get rid of the old "RO" water from an RO system that hadn't been maintained in seven years and thus wasn't actually filtering anything out of the water, I now finally have GH down into the acceptable range for the current and planned inhabitants of this tank. On Thursday, as described in an earlier post, the GH had finally dropped below the upper threshold of the test strips, but as of yesterday, after another water change Saturday night / Sunday morning, we're now down to 75ppm, or about 4.25 dGH. This is still a little on the high side for the harlequin rasboras and kuhli loaches presently in there, but it's still within their ideal range; it's also a touch high for the bettas I'd originally planned to keep in this tank, but again, still quite acceptable, especially considering we'd been probably on the order of 1200ppm or even higher before we serviced the RO system and began trying to bring all that down.

Everybody was naturally fairly spooked as I planted the new plants, but now, all things considered, they're looking quite pleased. Now to clean up the algae and try to get those faster-growing plants to take off...

Oh yes, which reminds me! You can really tell in the kuhli loach pictures in my previous post here, that's the stuff I'd been saying I thought was mulm; rather, after someone brought an older post on the forums back into the current stuff, I realized what I had was a fungus! So, this week I'm gonna try to see if I can find an antifungal treatment when I go out exploring the pet store I'd planned to visit. This won't be the one I mentioned before, as unfortunately my scheduled follow-up appointment in that part of town won't be for another two weeks; still though, it's a store I've not visited in quite some time.

On 5/14/2022 at 10:22 AM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

How are you doing with flow? You want to keep the mulm and detritus off the leaves but not more than that.

Flow's a little weak; I've actually tried to keep it that way since I'd originally planned to have female bettas in here. But, we'll see how things look after these plants start getting to work and I treat the tank for the aforementioned fungus. I'm hoping a lot of my issues will just disappear.