HELP!
Returning to the hobby after a couple years break...
By no means a pro… although this isn't my first tank, nor most demanding, yet it is humbling me… hard!
Looking for some recommendations on next steps, I’m starting to come up empty.
Dealing with what on the surface looks like an algae issue, but starting to second guess whether it could be something else?
Could this be a biofilm or fungal issue? The main driftwood piece is quite large and dense, although I'm not seeing biofilm as youd expect concentrated on the wood itself.
I’m struggling with brown, gelatinous looking clumps that are appearing everywhere.
They hang from driftwood, clump in the foreground and take hold in any nook and cranny. It’s completely weaved itself into my moss..
It's almost like a mix of diatoms and string algae, but not quite either.
It’s not filamentous or dark green like you’d expect with string algae, it simply melts into a puddle of brown muck if you try to grasp it…
Some sections of it appear to be pearling oxygen bubbles within it.
I can’t manually remove like you would hair algae.
Sucking it up with a turkey baster helps, but 2-3 days later it’s as bad as it was before.
The overall plant health has not great to be honest.
More greenspot than I’d like to see for sure and my buceps are struggling HARD, I used to keep these with no issue!
Part of me suspects low-light, but at 75 PAR and with these plant varieties, I wouldn’t expect issues. I’m seeing loads of pearling during the mid/late photo period, which leads me to think light is not an issue... tbh, it's so much that it’s almost annoying how many microbubbles there are, lol.
Nitrate/Phosphate seem in range and have been dosing recommended APT3 dose daily, consistently for three weeks now.
Considering:
Setup:
50g
ADA Amazonia (1/4) & Tropica soil (3/4) substrate (what was on hand)
Oase BioMaster Thermo filter – spray bar right, left intake
Oase Surface skimmer
Yugang CO2 reactor
Fluval Plant 4.0 pro light – 7hrs running ~50% power, except blue at 5% (schedule attached)
Conditioned municipal tapwater – source: Lake Ontario. Note the water does pass through a home water softener (set to lowest setting)
APT 3 dosing – daily dosing as recommended
Parameters (chart timelines attached):
Par reading: 75 μmol/m2/s dry, at substrate depth (measured by Photone iOS app)
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20
pH: 7.2 down to 6.2 with CO2
Phosphate: 1.25ppm
GH: 10
KH: 9
TDS : 250-300
50% water change every 5-7 days, with light substrate vacuum
Stocking:
24 Emerald eye dwarf raspbora
8 Celestial pearl danios
6 Otto cats
6 Amano
Light feeding every 1-2 days
Appreciate folks talking the time to share their thoughts!
View attachment AlgaeVid.MOV
Returning to the hobby after a couple years break...
By no means a pro… although this isn't my first tank, nor most demanding, yet it is humbling me… hard!
Looking for some recommendations on next steps, I’m starting to come up empty.
Dealing with what on the surface looks like an algae issue, but starting to second guess whether it could be something else?
Could this be a biofilm or fungal issue? The main driftwood piece is quite large and dense, although I'm not seeing biofilm as youd expect concentrated on the wood itself.
I’m struggling with brown, gelatinous looking clumps that are appearing everywhere.
They hang from driftwood, clump in the foreground and take hold in any nook and cranny. It’s completely weaved itself into my moss..
It's almost like a mix of diatoms and string algae, but not quite either.
It’s not filamentous or dark green like you’d expect with string algae, it simply melts into a puddle of brown muck if you try to grasp it…
Some sections of it appear to be pearling oxygen bubbles within it.
I can’t manually remove like you would hair algae.
Sucking it up with a turkey baster helps, but 2-3 days later it’s as bad as it was before.
The overall plant health has not great to be honest.
More greenspot than I’d like to see for sure and my buceps are struggling HARD, I used to keep these with no issue!
Part of me suspects low-light, but at 75 PAR and with these plant varieties, I wouldn’t expect issues. I’m seeing loads of pearling during the mid/late photo period, which leads me to think light is not an issue... tbh, it's so much that it’s almost annoying how many microbubbles there are, lol.
Nitrate/Phosphate seem in range and have been dosing recommended APT3 dose daily, consistently for three weeks now.
Considering:
- Am I dealing with excess organics as a result of a thick foreground capturing debris (I am getting a lot of debris when I vac/water change
- Could light be too low?
- Lesser degree - Could my lighting spectrum choice be impacting plant health?
Setup:
50g
ADA Amazonia (1/4) & Tropica soil (3/4) substrate (what was on hand)
Oase BioMaster Thermo filter – spray bar right, left intake
Oase Surface skimmer
Yugang CO2 reactor
Fluval Plant 4.0 pro light – 7hrs running ~50% power, except blue at 5% (schedule attached)
Conditioned municipal tapwater – source: Lake Ontario. Note the water does pass through a home water softener (set to lowest setting)
APT 3 dosing – daily dosing as recommended
Parameters (chart timelines attached):
Par reading: 75 μmol/m2/s dry, at substrate depth (measured by Photone iOS app)
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20
pH: 7.2 down to 6.2 with CO2
Phosphate: 1.25ppm
GH: 10
KH: 9
TDS : 250-300
50% water change every 5-7 days, with light substrate vacuum
Stocking:
24 Emerald eye dwarf raspbora
8 Celestial pearl danios
6 Otto cats
6 Amano
Light feeding every 1-2 days
Appreciate folks talking the time to share their thoughts!
View attachment AlgaeVid.MOVAttachments
Last edited:
