Just about ready for Discus.... Need to learn a few more lessions... i think

[srusso]

I have a 55 gallon planted tank, been running for a year and a half. I have hit a few bumps in the road but I have been really lucky over all. I have a pair of breeding Kribsensis and 3 other community fish... I feel my last two things I need to learn are related. One is the never yielding Blue Green Algae I have and the reason for it must be my lack of understanding of how to feed my little friends... As I understand it, the "blue green army" is a sign of unbalanced something. I am always at 6.2-6.8pH, 0-Ammonia, 0-Nitrites, and barely 2ppm of nitrates. So I know its my feeding... Once I get these two things under control, I feel I will be ready to take on Discus...

Please tell me methods, tools, schedules of everyones feedings...

I feed once a day, now a half a brine shrimp cube, some times a few pieces of normal food instead... I hate when food hits the floor of the tank... :mad:

[Eddie]

Blue green algae is like indestructible isn't it. Once you got it, you can't rid of it from what I've read.

I don't know if can be narrowed down to just feeding. Maybe some water experts can jump on this one.


Eddie

[Scribbles]

What is your regimin for your plants. How many watts is your lighring? How many hours are your lights on? Do you use fertilizers or co2? What kind of plants do you have?

[srusso]

I have 2 lights: One has two 65w 67K power compact bulbs. The second light has two T5 54w bulbs one is 5k and the other is 10k (I hope to swap that 10k out for a 65k) The lights stay on for 12 hours a day. I have few melon swords, amazon sword, a java fern, java moss, water crest, banana plant, umbrella plant and some tall grass-like ones that I dont know the names of... I have flurish tabs in the sand, I dose with PMDD+B some times. I have fry in the tank right now so have held off on liquid ferts and and took out my DIY C02... (hard to keep the pH consistent with my DIY C02 in the tank)

http://www.sgrusso.com-a.googlepages.com/S7300450.JPG/S7300450-full;init:.JPG

[Eddie]

Nice tank. I agree, nixing the 10k will help you with the algae issue.

Eddie

[srusso]

Thank you, yeah I clean as much of this blue green as I can but in a week it can look like I never clean my tank ever! Covering almost everything :mad::mad::mad:

I use Erthromycin to kill as much as I can but the stuff is really expensive! So I would like to stop the under lying issue, which I believe is my feedings... :(

[Eddie]

Thank you, yeah I clean as much of this blue green as I can but in a week it can look like I never clean my tank ever! Covering almost everything :mad::mad::mad:

I use Erthromycin to kill as much as I can but the stuff is really expensive! So I would like to stop the under lying issue, which I believe is my feedings... :(

Yeah, I understand. The tank looks great though. Once you have some discus in there it will look very nice. ;)

Eddie

[Scribbles]

Good looking tank. I would cut way back on the wattage and hours for your lighting though to keep algae at bay. If you are running 2 65w and 2 54w bulbs on a 55 gallon tank thats over 4 watts per gallon. I would eliminate one of the fixtures entirely. If you only have lights on for 8 hours per day it should also help.

Just my 2 cents. You might want to post this in the planted tank section and let someone with more experiance help out. I'm no expert.

Good Luck

[rickztahone]

Good looking tank. I would cut way back on the wattage and hours for your lighting though to keep algae at bay. If you are running 2 65w and 2 54w bulbs on a 55 gallon tank thats over 4 watts per gallon. I would eliminate one of the fixtures entirely. If you only have lights on for 8 hours per day it should also help.

Just my 2 cents. You might want to post this in the planted tank section and let someone with more experiance help out. I'm no expert.

Good Luck

i agree completely. 6-8hrs a day is optimal for plant growth and keeping algae at bay

[shawnhu]

Check in with Aquaria Central, they'll be able to explain better than I can regarding BGA(Blue Green Algae).

From my understanding, BGA is not an algae at all, it's a bacteria, as you already know from you using Erthromycin to try to combat it.

There's several things that you can do at this time. You can leave it alone, and let it take over your tank and eventually kill all your plants, or you can kill it and correct the cause of this once and for all.

If you decide you want to get rid of it, you'll need to understand why BGA occurs. From my research and readings, BGA is present when there is a lack of water movement, and low concentrations of Nitrate. If you think you are overfeeding, you are probably not with only a Nitrate reading of 2ppm. You can also try using plant ferts to increase Nitrate concentrations. Sometimes it's diffcult to feed a large tank, with little inhabitants.

Once you get these 2 things in place(additional flow and Nitrate), you will need a way to rid the current BGA that has a foothold in your tank. You can nuke it with Erthromycin, do an entire teardown of the tank using Bleach, or use Potassium Permanganate.

The cheapest would be using Bleach, but it will require the most work. Your biological filter will also be destroyed using this method. Since BGA is a bacteria, it's most likely that any use of an anti-bacterial will harm the bio-filter. The safest way would be the use of PP, at a concentration of 2ppm, it will not harm the fish, but will combat snails, shrimp, algae, BGA, etc.

I hope this helps.

[srusso]

Will Erthromycin also kill the bacteria in my filter? :confused:
Also I have a Fluval 405 on my 55gallon... is it really not creating enough water movement?