Since my last post, I've had a bit of a rethink of how I'm running the tank.
I got a bit fed up with the constant battle with BBA with my CO2 injected planted tanks. I found that I could keep a tank looking good for about 6 months, but any longer than that and BBA would always start to take hold, growing with increasing vigour on the plants and the hardscape. Changing lighting period/intensity, CO2 level, ferts, water flow etc. etc. never really dealt with it and as time went by the tank began to look worse and worse.
I tried using EasyCarbo and Algexit, but at the dosages recommended to deal with BBA it seemed to be bad for the health of the fish, I had a number of unexpected deaths with both products, so I stopped using them quite quickly.
All that aside, I felt that running the CO2 at the levels required also wasn't that great for the fish, they just didn't seem as happy as I like. So all things considered, I decided to that after 10 years+ of CO2 injected planted tanks, it was time for a change of tack i.e reverting to low tech again.
Previously, with low tech, I had always struggled with plants, but I've learnt a lot about their requirements over the past few years whilst playing with CO2 injection, so I decided I'd probably got a better understanding of what they do and don't like, and hopefully that would lead to more success.
The thing I noticed during all the problems, was that regardless of what I did with CO2 and ferts, the only parts of the tank that remained free of BBA and algae were those that were well shaded. So it made me think that the main driving factor for the BBA was the light rather than anything else. I really don't subscribe to the excess nutrients school of thinking as a major factor for algae growth, as I've seen algae grow inside a bottle of RO water when left in sunlight.
I'd already tried different light intensities with little or no success, but I had always stuck with the recommended 8-10 hours planted tank lighting period, therefore, it seemed like it was worth looking at that aspect with a mind to reducing the time the lights are on.
With all that in mind, I took out the CO2 injection, stopped adding ferts and reduced the lighting period to 4 hours, down from 8, to see what effect it had. I didn't remove any BBA affected plants or hardscape, because I wanted to see if I could clear it naturally.
The first thing I noticed after the initial few weeks, was that the reduced lighting period and cessation of CO2/ferts didn't cause the plants to die off (I had Java Fern, Anubias and Crypts, so all pretty undemanding anyway) and they did continue to grow, albeit more slowly, which was a good start. As time went by and new leaves appeared, the new leaves stayed free of BBA. The old leaves still did still have BBA on them, but it didn't increase or reduce or change its appearance, so I wasn't sure if it was alive or not, but as long as it wasn't growing and spreading I was happy. As the older leaves on the plants died off and were removed, the plants gradually started to look better, and eventually, after some months, became completely BBA free.
During this time, without me really noticing, the BBA on most of the hardscape had disappeared, so the reduced lighting period must have killed it off, and after enough time had passed, I guess it rotted away, I doubt anything in the tank would have eaten it. Any remaining BBA on parts of the equipment and hardscape was easily removed with a quick wipe, so was obviously also dead by this time (live BBA can be quite hard to remove manually).
Another side effect of the changes I had made, was that the glass now hardly ever needs cleaning, a quick wipe over to remove the film of bacteria is now all that is needed every couple of weeks. Also, I have stopped seeing the ejection of 'gunk' into the tank any time I stop my filters and restart them, which had previously been the case.
After nearly a year, I finally had a planted tank that was stable and had both healthy plants and fish and no algae growth
The only thing I wasn't quite happy with, was only having the lights on for 4 hours, it didn't give me enough time to look at the fish in the evening, before it was plunged back into darkness. So, I decided to risk upping the lighting period a bit, and over the next 4 weeks, I increased it to 6 hours. Since doing so I still haven't encountered any algae problems, and as this is a long enough lighting period to suit me, I won't push it any further.I've since added some Vallisneria and Aponogeton Crispus, and they are also doing well. I did however, remove 80% of the Java Fern that had grown over the past 2-3 years, because I went off the overgrown jungle look that I used to like and I added a few more rocks and some more driftwood to hide the equipment (heater, filter pipes etc.) from view and add a bit more interest.
So this is my tank as it is today and has looked for the past 3-4 months since I upped the lighting to 6 hours.
Population is various Platies, 20+ Cardinals, 5 Bronze Corys, 1 Bristlenose and my 10 year old Clown Loach
Other details:-
Tank temp 25 C +- 0.5 C
2 x Fluval 307 Canister Filters
APS 150 air pump
38 Watt T8 light, on for 6 hours a day
Water change regime 25% twice a week
I'm planning to change the lighting later this year, I'm thinking of getting a Fluval Plant Spectrum Bluetooth LED 59W, as I like the sunrise and sunset functions, plus the control it gives over colour temperature and intensity.
Well, that's me done for now, if you managed to get this far, then well done!
See you again soon (or knowing me, maybe not that soon haha!)
