So, what do you do.....

[Milliardo Peacecraft]

So, what do you do when the rest of life has you completely consumed and you have no time to troubleshoot your aquarium and it starts to get away on you?  I was wondering what you all do in those senerios to reduce the losses when you simply do not have time to keep tabs on all of the tank parameters to figure out what just thrown out of wack.

Ever since Christmas I've been working long hours and there has been tons of family obligations so I feel like I've been doing the bare minimum and mostly just feeling my way through things on the aquarium..  Its probably going to be another 4-6 weeks before things calm back down and i get a little more time (I really home I'm not wishful thinking that there is light at the end of the tunnel). 

My fish have been healthy, but the algee is starting to overwhelm some of my plants and I can't quite put my finger on what to change.  I have a few pics I took this evening attached below to explain things.  I've been dosing Easy Green every 2 to 3 days.  On the 1st day I dose easy green + Postasium (it seems to help the Java ferns), then on day 3 I dose easy green + Phosphorus (my anubius was looking a bit yellow and this seemed to help, but I'm not so sure about that anymore).  Then on day 5 or 6 I'll dose just easy green by itself.  Then 2 or 3 days after that the cycle repeats.  My biggest concern currently are my Anubias plants.  The Anubias Barteri took forever to grow to the size it is, but it looks like it's ready to keel over.  The Anubias Nana on the rocks doesn't really look any better.  The pennywort on the surface seems to be dwindling away and the amazon swords are rather week and not really growing.  The windalov Java ferns seem to be holding their own.  The octopus plant is really the only thing thriving currently in the tank.  Water wise I do you soft water and back add seachem Equilibrium to it.  I do a roughly 30 to 40% water change every 2 to 3 weeks.

At the moment I'm thinking maybe I should try dropping the phosphorus out of the schedule,  but that is totally just a guess.

[AllFishNoBrakes]

Sorry you’re going through it. I feel ya on working too much and other obligations. I work way too much, but have really developed a nice routine with the tanks over the past 4 years. Every Wednesday (my typical day off) I’m able to do maintenance to all 14 of my tanks in 3-5 hours depending on what all I have to do. If all I do is change water it’s about 3 hours. If I have to clean filters and tinker with other things the additional hour or two can get tacked on. 
 

Probably not the answer you want, but sometimes less is more. If it was me, I would cut back fertilizer to once, MAYBE twice per week with just Easy Green. I would also water change each week, but my water is super soft with little to no buffer, so I want to replenish those minerals and the little buffer I do have. 
 

Are you running C02 with high lighting that requires all those ferts? Dosing every 2-3 days with additional Potassium and Phosphorus just seems like a lot to me.

[nabokovfan87]

On 3/13/2024 at 7:32 PM, Milliardo Peacecraft said:

I can *absolutely* relate to these photos.

So... Step 1 for the "let's get the tank doing it's own thing" method and have a situation where the plants are actively working hard to filter things for you.  Pull that piece of PSO on the far left (dark corner) and move it towards the center back of the tank.  Take all of your PSO stems and trim off 12" sections, plant those ~4" deep in the substrate if you can.  You want to have enough in there that they don't get pulled up by the fish.

You're dealing with BBA it looks like as well as some green dust algae.  Your anubias is rooted to that rock, but that rock is right under the middle of the tank which is the brightest part.  you have some java ferns in the front of the tank, also low demand plants.  Take that rock that has the anubias, or just the anubias itself and relocate it to one of the ends of the tank (left or right) and that will give you lower light and help to shade out that plant.  That should help to let it recover.  Pull about half of the dying/dead leaves with the worse algae and you can even cut off that section of rhizome to allow it to use maximum energy on new, algae-free growth.  With your sword, drop some root tabs around it in the substrate and then go ahead and pull off the worst couple of leaves.  Finally, push your light towards the rear 1/2 of the aquarium to focus the light on the PSO stems and to avoid having it centered above the rocks, ferns, anubias.

Your anubias on the right is a sight to behold.  Well done! Pull off the dying leaves and let it focus on repairing itself with healthy, new growth.

In terms of algae fighting crew, some amano shrimp would love the rocks.  Otos would be great in this tank as well as ~1-3 SAEs.  They would actually enjoy the setup you have and just do their thing eating on surfaces.  Hillstreams or borneo loaches might be a fun add too.

There's always something, but it's just about finding the "right things".

Focus your energy on cleaning filtration.  Do your water changes when you can.  If you're doing less of them, then do 50% or larger.  Preferably 75% if you're only doing it once every couple of months.   Once a month, that's a typical schedule a lot of people have.

Keep on focusing on the good things, find something to enjoy about the tank and dwell on that.  Find a reason to smile when you look at the tank and go from there.  That's how you get through those difficult times.

Edited March 14 by nabokovfan87