KevinVA's 75gal Journey in Planted Tanks

[KevinVA]

I was curious as to why the Quick Disconnect was leaking today, so I decided to take it apart. It looks like the previous owner treated this filter like crap. Aside from the hole in the lid, the Quick Disconnect level had a missing piece in one of its' inner components, which connects to the intake/outtake valves. Not only that, but one of the valves had a huge crack, where it connects to the lever. No wonder this thing was leaking...

I also heard back from the person I bought the Filstar from, and he said to call on Monday and they'll "take care of me." We'll see what that means on Monday. lol I'm hoping they'll split the cost, so I can buy a new Quick Disconnect while retaining the awesome deal on the filter. Then I'll have that for a new tank and the new Grech for the 75gal. I've been reading here: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/sh...ad.php?t=98858 some very good reviews/experience comments about the Grech, so I'm sure it'll be fine for what I need it for, which is just additional filtration to replace the 30gal sponges I have in there. With the bio-load of the Opaline Gourami and SAEs (both constant eaters/poopers), I need something more than a couple of sponges.

In fish news, while my sick Serpae is still alive, I still find him resting at the bottom of the tank every now and then. It doesn't appear that he's getting better, so I decided to do the more humane thing and put him down. I always feel bad about doing that and losing a fish, but I usually do this for the ones who are too far gone and not responding to medication.

I'm not having the best of luck with tetras of any kind, it seems. ;/

[KevinVA]

After adding carbon filtration to the filter, scraping off the algae in front and doing a pwc (about 60-65%), the tank is much clearer. It's amazing how fast carbon works at removing medication/odor/color.



I also removed about 30+ red root floating plants. They were consuming the top of the tank, preventing a lot of light from reaching the rest of the tank. I need to stay on top of that.

Speaking of clean tanks, here's my little Algae Eating Crew:



All of those specs in the background are air bubbles attaching to algae/plants. I was having some issues with air in the filter. =X It's now been taken care of. lol

Going to start a new post, so I don't run out of pic-posting room. =]

[KevinVA]

So, I haven't showed you the new plant additions in the tank yet (just the idea). I realize you can't see everything from the front-on view of the tank, so hopefully with these, you can see everything ok:

Here's the left side of the tank:



Here you can see more of the Water Sprite behind the driftwood branch on the right side. Two bunches of the Alternanthera reineckii roseafolia are in front of the thicker part of the driftwood branch. Hopefully those will grow pretty tall, covering parts of the branch. I moved the Ludwigia repens in to the corner, by the sponge filter, so that all of it's together. In the left front corner is my other Amazon Sword, and while you can't see it, the Tiger Lotus is to the right of it, in front of the little caves. It IS making progress - I just saw an offshoot from the bulb (very red). I'm looking forward to seeing what this thing looks like, but it's an amazingly slow grower.

Center, with a pretty good pic of the Raphael Cat (he's been making many more appearances since the first week I had him):



Here you can see the Red Rubin Sword in the background and the Cryptocoryne undulata in the foreground. I took a pic of it on the left side, but you can see the Hygrophila Corymbosa stricta to the left of the undulata here, as well.

And the right (don't ask me what my GBR is doing... that's a really weird photo):



Here you can see the red Dwarf Lilly (which isn't so "dwarf" anymore). You can also see one of the Water Sprites behind the driftwood (there is another one, toward the right, directly behind it). You can also see my algae-infested Anubias nanas (two of them) in the driftwood, and my Amazon Sword, behind the Lilly.

You can see the Pygmy Sword Chain plants all over the place. I used to like it, but I'm having second thoughts. It grows rapidly and anywhere it wants... I know that some of the fish appreciate it, because they can hide in the front middle, because of them, but I could easily replace them with something that's NOT a chain. ;P

Anyway, here's the diagram I started with again, just to show you how I followed it. =]



I posted that on 1/28... see how fast that Dwarf Lilly grows?

[Gesp56]

Sheesh your little Algae Eaters need to get to work!! Your walls are really covered with algae.. Have you thought about checking out what is the problem or what is in over abundance in your tank that's causing the algae??

[MandyK]

Your tank is beautifully scaped my friend, but what is up with all the algae? Are the whole back and sides covered??

Loving the weird GBR pic. :)

[Gesp56]

Thats what it looks like to me MandyK to be honest.. His water actually looks sort of green.. Like something you'd see at a petstore that didn't watch their levels of something, phosphates maybe? Idk.. If I were him I'd check out everything and try and find the source of the problem and remove it.. Considering his problem is so severe. No amount of algae eaters or Nerite Snails are going to clear that all up.

[KevinVA]

The water isn't green, just the backs and sides of the tank. I've had an issue with algae since starting this sucker up. I had an algae bloom when I was cycling it w/ plants and it's taken a stranglehold on everything since then. I'm pretty sure it was introduced by plants, but as I was just entering the hobby, I also made several mistakes in the beginning. I left the lights on for about 12-13hrs a day, I didn't have appropriate lighting (wpg wise), I dosed liquid ferts according to the instructions (about every three days), and I overfed my fish (fed them 3 times a day).

Unfortunately, addressing these issues hasn't helped. I cut liquid ferts down to once per week, I started dosing with liquid CO2 on a daily basis, I upped my lights from 140 to 216 watts (which gives me 2.88wpg), I only leave my lights on for 8hrs a day, I cut feedings back to 1 time a day, my phosphates are 0, pH 7.6, am 0, trite 0, trates usually 5-10, I just started using additional tab ferts to address any trace shortage... and now I've added a school of SAEs (can't have Nerites, because of Assassins, unfortunately).

I used to scrub the algae off the back/side walls, but got sick of doing it - I figure it's only helping to filter the tank and the SAEs can eat it (just as the GBRs & Gourami do). You'd be surprised at how many fish actually eat algae, and not just algae eaters. My Gourami grazes on it all day, which is why he poops so much.

So, if anyone has any ideas that I haven't tried, lemme know. I'm waiting to see how HP does with pure CO2, before I go that route. I really don't need a CO2 canister sitting around in the basement, but if it works, it works. ;/

[KevinVA]

I just had a thought.... While my tank water doesn't have phosphates, I'm wondering about my tap water. I used to have ammonia in my tap, so maybe I have phosphates and nitrates... If I have phosphates in the water supply, I might need to get some phosphate remover in my filter. =/ Going to run some tests now.

[KevinVA]

Just tested my tap and here are my findings:

Am = .5
Trite = 0
Trate = 0
Phos = .25

However, I just did some quick research/reading. Apparently the old school of thought was that too many phosphates stimulate algae growth... However, the opposite is true, which is why people dose phosphates for planted tanks. 0 phosphates can stimulate algae growth, while 1ppm phosphates will aid in plant growth and is aimed for by planted tank owners. And yes, I was of the old school mentality (since that's what I've been told and heard so many times before).

I'm amazed by this knowledge... I'm going to have to start dosing phosphates, since I'm obviously lacking. ;/ As for the Ammonia, that's been an issue for a while (I contacted my water supply company. They actually sent someone out here to test free ammonia, and said there wasn't a problem - phft). Luckily my bio filters are perfectly able to handle the load + the bio-load in the tanks.

The more you know...

[Gesp56]

Hmm that's really fishy then... I'm sort of OCD about the whole thing.. I'm the type of person who does a head count on all my fish and snails, doesn't like it when plants grow among each other and get mixed up, and even a spec of algae on my walls bothers me.. There seems to have been a difference in your algae since the adding of the SAEs but honestly if I was you, I'd go to some pretty insane lengths to rid my tank of that algae, even as far as using chemical additives or just simply wiping it off everything, almost every day.