Arofanatics Fish Talk Forums  

Go Back   Arofanatics Fish Talk Forums > General Aquatic Forums > Planted Tanks & Aquascaping Forum > Aquascaping Showcase / Journals

 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Prev Previous Post   Next Post Next
Old 15-04-2011, 05:16 PM   #34
Alvin Koh

Administrator

 
Alvin Koh's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2000
Posts: 1,421
Default

Hi all, thanks to all who contributed, especially blue33 (from AQ) via PM.

I was monitoring quite closely the past 10 days and didn't want to make any premature conclusions thus there were no immediate updates until today.

I am glad to report that the UG/diatom issue is mostly resolved.

Understanding the situation better, my primary change was to increase water changes to once every day for the past 8-10 days while keeping the lights constant (actually increased to 39w x 3 tubes).

After searching online, I realised that diatoms are not as light-dependant as I'd thought. Since they are free floating and coat most surfaces, manual removal via water change was the best method (algae eaters don't seem to work too well with UG).

Noticable changes:
1) 50% water change daily.
2) Brushing of hardscape, glassware, tank surfaces stirred up alot of floating particles, but I used a fine filter mesh at the outlet to catch the floating debris.
3) Added additional 1KG BioHome to my filter and replaced the fine filter wool (clogged with diatoms / soil particles).
4) I've kept up with my dosing regime (NPK + Seachem Equillibrium which includes more K), dosing (50-100%) more than usual since 50% water change is daily, so nutrients are being diluted more frequently.
5) Added Seachem Excel at twice the recommended dosage for algae control.
6) Re-introduced Amano shrimps (previously, they were uprooting my UG), to uproot/get rid of all the unhealthy rotting UG. Within 24 hours, about 80-90% of my UG was gone. Hehe.

My aim was to keep the water clean, and to let the other plants continue to thrive without light starvation. I'm happy to report that other than the residual diatoms hidden in pockets of spaces within some of the denser plants (e.g. HC), the tank is back to a healthier state.

I will update again soon with photos soon. Cheers!
Alvin Koh is offline   Reply With Quote
 


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT +9. The time now is 11:08 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Copyright © 2000-2008 Arofanatics.com (Since 30th August 2000)