can get good regulator from jln pasar meh?, all those I found are good for welding type wor,....

the other very good regulator I found (which is demm expensive) are medical regulators that makes controling bps as easy as open and close water tap (but really expensive lah)

a. brown color thingy - how is it like?
a.1. slimy, if u pick them up, it looks like a cluster of hair?
a.2. looks like a layer of coating?
a.3. short tuff of hair, feels like fur

for a.1. 50% chance BGA/50% is BBA - ref to a.3
for a.2. 90% chance BGA
to confirm BGA, check your pH if it is like 10 or 11, you definitely got BGA

b. green spot.
b.1. green dot on leaves?
b.2. powdery green stuff that looks like coating

for b.1. add K
for b.2 BGA

For fighting BGA, in steps
1. clean up composting material e.g roting leaves, fish poo, and food left over
2. re-cycle the water, good bacteria will eat up BGA (and BGA is actually poisonous to OTTO and SAE)
3. trim your plants, to improve water circulation BGA thrives on slow flowing water with lots of waste, good water flow will actually move the waste material around and hence easier to clean up.
4. clean your filter, BGA thrives also on the waste material inside the filter.

recmd tools
1. use the tank vacuum cleaner, LFS will know (a big tube that connects to a small tube device)
2. increase water acidity, all plants can tolerate ph4 for a short time (a few days) BGA can't stand acidity and BGA actually can change the water to alkali (I normally add 1 cap of white vinegar)

If you follow the SOP, and the BGA still hold strong, then you can resort to use medication (google for antibiotic for BGA, and there is a human antibiotic that you can use and if the clinic do sell to you, it only costs 50 sen per tablet)

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Added on August 14, 2010, 12:41 amhow old?, i like the way you manage the japonica, mine always end up being too dense, did you trim them off time by time or re plant them?

This post has been edited by Monsterjin: Aug 14 2010, 12:41 AM

ottos are great with diatoms, try rearing snail right now east aqua got new stock, get the spiky ones, yesterday they got about 300+ new snails, 50% transferred to mid valley oredi, be quick, they don't last long.

btw, i want fissidens, do you have spare?, I am also looking for mini pelia, you have?, my tank is half dead because of some major transfer from 3 ft to 2 ft and also lightning problem.

becareful with slimes, traditionaly BGA is blue green, I have seen brownish ones too, BGA likes to appear as slimy stuff, and they are very good at photosynthesis hence produces air bubbles.

the best way to fight BGA is prevention, the main source of BGA is too much dead stuff with poor water flow (which is why you get them when the tank is old and the hardware are getting weaker e.g. filter flow rate reduced and plants getting too bushy). Also skimmer is also helpful because skimmer reduces the surface film (which is not water, but by product of free floating BGA, if surface film is a consistent problem you could get BGA, skimmer actually sucks them into the filter and drowns them)

Hence, the tank vacuum till date is the most effective way to clear the dead stuff (cost abt 15 - 30 depending on size), and the best way to clear waste is to add bottom feeders like snails (that is why I mention earlier, those ugly white small snails is good to have them around), and also bacter ball, till date bacter ball is the most effective ones (if u dun mind, we can buy 1 bottle discounted from east aqua and share among us)

Proper macro nutrients dousing can also fight algae, so far I learn from other sifus, adding N prevents BGA, adding K fights spot and dust algae, (that is because certain algae thrives on shortage or surplus of certain nutrients) that is why seachem or ADA is worthwhile.

At this rate, I think I wanna start blogging about this,.... will you guys read it? LOL

This post has been edited by Monsterjin: Aug 14 2010, 07:12 AM

I suspect only lah, if it is BGA, N is good for prevention, not fighting it.

Somesay BGA can die if you put tank in complete darkness for 3 days, but I find this not helpful, my worst out break, I end up using chemicals and re-cycle the tank.

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Added on August 14, 2010, 3:16 pmwhoa! brilliant layout!

This post has been edited by Monsterjin: Aug 14 2010, 03:16 PM

is the slimy thingy looks like soaked sushi seaweed?, if yes, I am 90% sure you have bga. Can you check your ph?, generally bad out break of bga will cause ph to rise.

BGA is actually one type of bacteria that thrives on breaking down waste material, that is why, when the water flow is slow and the waste build up is high, you get them easily. BGA's career started off as free floating bacteria that creates surface film (P1), on it's second stage of life, it becomes aquatic (P2) and start chowing down the waste material. Adding N will prevent P1 to P2 conversion, once you reach P2, it is a different war.

It is actually poisonous, in bright light, they will photosynthesis, and it's cousin is spirulina

I am not too sure how serious is your outbreak, but the following steps have been used in super ultra outbreak, e.g. 80% infected
What you can do is follows

Phase 1
a. clearout as much as those slimy stuff as possible
b. clearout all the waste material

Phase 2. add bacter ball, because the bacteria strain in bacterball do what bga does best but more effective. it will out perform the bga
a. add 1 bacterball per 10G as close as possible to the bga
b. results varies from 1 day to 1 week
concern - none, and tried before in nanotank

Phase 2a (results is either immediate or within days) bga hates acidic water
a. fight with Ph, , either you increase co2 (which will help plants to photosyntesis more to eat up more nutrients and makes water more acidic)
b. add vinegar, it works for my nanotank, at ph 4.5 the bga dissapeared overnight (do it at own risk)
concern - low ph also kills good bacteria

Phase 2b (fight with darkness) bga love light but sensitive to darkness
a. wrap the tank with garbage bag, not even 1 cm of hole is permitted 100% darkness is needed
b. shut off all light
c. leave it for 3 days
concern - light sensitive plants don't like it

Phase 2c (fight with chemicals)
a. get myracyn (so far I have yet to find any shop selling this)
b. get erythromycin (this is a human antibiotic which some doctors or pharmacist might sell to you) half tablet per 10G twice daily, for 5 days
concern - you might create super bga, tried before, it works like magic but ended up replanting after 9 months

Phase 3c - remove the antibiotic
a. add carbon and
b. do a 30% water change twice within 1 week
c. re-cycle the tank (means add new friendly bacteria) - nutrafin have an excellent product for this

Phase 3d (if the tank got taken over)
a. replant

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Added on August 15, 2010, 5:29 pmrecmd you try seachem excel (2x the recmd dose - but some plants can't handle it) and seachem pottasium (K), i think is bba - seachem excel destroys bba

This post has been edited by Monsterjin: Aug 15 2010, 05:32 PM

I suspect your problem is only 1 spot but not the whole tank, right?

Don't cut your Co2, at 6 is OK, bga will only make things more alkali, the way you should handle this is as follows,

a. try to maintain the photosynthesis level as consistent as possible, you can have more but not less

b. work on elements that the algae don't like (bga hates acidity)

c. work on removing the algae

If your condition is only on 1 sellected area, item "a" is very important, and if it is only 1 small area, I suggest that you do some sacrifices, because my method is meant for major outbreak (just like carpet bombing), e.g. you are on a streak of busy projects and the tank was left unattended or etc.

well, I am out of clorox at the moment, otherwise I am OK, btw, there is another method which I have never used before because it is expensive, use the ADA anti bacterial solution (will check out the name later), anyone have rm 90 to experiment?

I think "thumb tacks" (jk), should do the inflow pipe i.e. the Eheim tongkat, and also the Eheim outlet pipe

it is more economical to reload a 3L tank, I could have sold you my 3L tank with all in at the same price if you negotiated with me because it is sitting in my cabinet doing nothing

I suggest you start planting, since most of the stuff you already have. I recmd the following check list

a. light - E27 6.5k philips 18W or 23 W will do
b. cooling fan - you must because 1 ft tank heats up pretty fast

Recmd plants (medium size and easy to handle)
a. ricia or glosco
b. blixia japonica

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Added on August 18, 2010, 12:23 pmYou can custom made it, East aqua do accept custom orders

This post has been edited by Monsterjin: Aug 18 2010, 12:23 PM

please do that, that will be better

lol mine so bright oso no algae out break

I got ricia, 1 big clump, for exchange or FOC (self pick up) - rrp is rm 10

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Added on August 20, 2010, 10:10 ameven 1 surviving algae spore is enough to wreck havoc if you have bad maintainance, the followings is a bad chemical for algae

a. waste management
b. poor management of good bacteria
c. old lighting (or unsuitable lighting)
d. bad nutrient management
e. infrequent algae removal

good maintainance -> good photosynthesis -> good environment -> good algae management

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Added on August 20, 2010, 10:11 amhow's yer tank now? din log in for 2 days ord

This post has been edited by Monsterjin: Aug 20 2010, 10:11 AM

If you don't mind paying you can request for Ajiya tempered glass, very transparent and durable glass. Otherwise, you can get some common aquarium makers (you will have to track them down via yellow pages)

yes you are correct, different lighting condition will change the colour of the plants, ironicaly, different manufacturer have different light spectrum output due to the inner coating and manufacturing process. I have seen the results differs from cheap strange brand to good brands.

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Added on August 21, 2010, 11:32 amI totally agree with you on this, the only challenge is to get a casing that is suitable.

I could have gotten somebody to fabricate for me, but end up the cost is very close to the ones in the fish shop, if there is anyway we can make it ourselves I am all in for it.

My experience is that T8 ballast is very easy to find, T5 now is easy but T5 24W for HO bulbs is quite hard to find, PL ballast so far is difficult to find.

IMHO, a few hundred is too overpriced

This post has been edited by Monsterjin: Aug 21 2010, 11:32 AM

otto dun eat all type of algae, for hairy like ones, you are best settled by shrimps

I rcmd your filter inflow and outflow to be located as, in flow on left, out flow on right (the head tilt 45% to the left) or vice versa, inflow and outflow having put close together is disadvantagous for the over all water flow

for 1 ft tank, water condition tend to fluctuate like mad, unless you are in air cond room. Unless you can get temperature and water quality consistent, you are in for a big headache. My first tank was a 1 ft too, the temp was going from 28 - 32 C, when I get cooling fans, I was getting 25 - 27 C, then only I have a smooth planting experience.

about plant keep comming out, do you use tweezers? one trick that I use is put some stones next to the plant (small ones),

This post has been edited by Monsterjin: Aug 24 2010, 06:18 AM

experiment on LED, I have read a lot on LED for planted tanks, so far, has anyone gotten their hands on LED lights for planted tanks?, I am seriously curious if the light is good enough for plants, this is probably the most worthy DIY project

Bulbs used, e27 normal philips for nanotank - 12 - 18 mths and t5 HO for 2 ft and 3ft - 12 mths if branded

How you know?, algae outbreak

ikea east aqua and 88marine in aman suria got sell similar ones, I am fortunate enough to have tried out this re-sun and also the ones sold in ikea and 88marine, and you will love the ones in ikea/88. it costs rm 140 (about that lah). currently I stopped scaping 1 ft tank, the small canister is being used as an auxilary filter in my 3 ft tank