OT : FW question

[latazyo]

ok, so my buddy has a tank around 30g or so

we set it up for plants about a year ago and its been a constant struggle with algae (looks like standard green hair algae on the glass)

inhabitants - 2 tetras of some sort, a few mystery snails....barely any bioload
filtration - whisper 30 (or whatever size is correct for that tank)
lighting - bathroom light w/ 4 screw in spiral PCs
photo period - 6 hours (turned down from 10 when the algae started)
substrate - schultz aquatic potting soil

so I think of the big causes of algae
1. excess nutrients - shouldnt be a problem in this tank with that filtration and the nearly non existant bioload (and he doesnt over feed, I showed him how much to feed and he's good about it)....because the algae is so out of control, he's been doing weekly water changes

2. photoperiod - shouldnt be an issue (besides, wouldnt the plants out compete for the algae for light and nutrients both?)

so that leaves me with
3. tap water.......he lives off of Manchester just east of 141....do any of you guys in the ballwin/manchester area know what the tap water is like down there? is it really high TDS?

should we look into going RODI for this?

I'd hate to recommend a 100 dollar water filter if thats not gonna do the trick

is there anything to be testing water wise?

thanks for any help if possible

 

[MayoBoy]

Several things:

He's running a high-light tank, and when you do that, you also need to run CO2. If you don't the plants can't out-compete the algae for the nutrients.

He should be dosing fertilizer to keep the plants growing.

How many/what kinds of plants does he have? He might not have enough to out compete the algae.

The CO2 thing is easy - he can make his own with a two liter bottle and some yeast and suger or spend a few bucks and get something like this http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3747+6318&pcatid=6318 or this http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3747+4610&pcatid=4610 or this http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3747+9933&pcatid=9933

For ferts, just get a bottle of Flourish. re: the substrate: If he didn't go with Eco-complete or Flourite or the like, he should think about pulling it out and replacing. The Schultz is really light and he's probably not vacuuming like he should (because it would probably be getting sucked up if he did).

 

[latazyo]

the substrate is shultz aquatic planting soil

he just gets whatever plants they have at petco or petsmart...nothing special

and he only has about 5 in there

its a 24" bow front tank around 30g

 

[MayoBoy]

I was editing above while you were posting.

Change out the substrate, add LOTS more plants and add some CO2. or, Change out the substrate add some more plants and get the wattage down below 2 WPG.

Here's growth pics with CO2, light and ferts

First planted

2 weeks later

 

[latazyo]

is that substrate bad or something?

 

[MayoBoy]

It's good for potted plants in ponds but bad for tanks. It's so light that it clouds the water and takes forever to clear. It's also so light that when you vacuum the bottom, it all gets sucked up and goes down the drain. That means you won't vacuum like you should so detritus builds up which can lead to blue-green algae problems.

 

[Im Lon 2]

I always thought you didn't want RO/DI in fresh water.

 

[DrBDC]

Well, not necessarily the di. Planted tanks keep a lower pH around 7 maybe a little lower. It's a good gauge at how much CO2 saturation you have.

Here are some good reference sites:

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/

http://www.plantedtank.net/

http://www.gregwatson.com/ (Look over at the right at links, I have a bunch of the pmdd premix if you want it, free!)

http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Fertilizer/pmdd-tim.html

 

[breutus]

I would second going with more co2 I used the 2 liter bottle trick with alot of success for quite some time... but it takes alot of fanigalling with it. before i got rid of the system I went to a simple co2 bottle with a regulated drip the whole set up only ran me about 80 bucks and you only had to fill it about every three months. tank grew great and never had any algae problems

 

[Indermark]

Do some research on the Carbo Plus. I was going to get one for my planted tank a couple of years ago but decided not to after doing some research on it. The reason why I didn't get it has slipped my mind right now.

 

[BigMOCats]

Get some shrimp.