Yup, you're right. Do you want one, I have one that need to be adopted because I'll be revamping the tank soon.

NSK, Alive Aquarium, open till 930pm.

I have a 2ft high tech tank with rotala, ludwigia and Limnophila vietnam. Oh boy, they really grow like there's no tomorrow. Now, I want to do a revamp with slow grow plants such as mosses, hairgrass, anubias and bucep.

Regarding Water Change, it really depending on how you dose your nutrient, if you dose a lot (like me, using EI dosing), you will need a weekly water change around 20-40% water change to reset the water parameters, otherwise algae will take over, shrimp will not live due to high nitrate and ammonia level.

If I decided to be lazy this week, I'd dose lightly and I can skip WC for 2 weeks Big tank = Large water volume = Do WC less often. Nano tank, you need to change it very often because the water parameters change very quick due to small water volume.

For algae, you need to keep your plant healthy, algae is like diseases, healthy plant will have greater immunity to algae. A lot of algae issues are caused by CO2 though, eg high light, low CO2. The key is find a balance between Light, CO2 and Nutrient. If all else failed, do a black out!

There's a regime for starting a tank too.

Anyway, welcome to planted tank, there's so much things you can read in the internet, and you will learn even more when you actually started a tank

SAE, It can get quite territorial once grow up, I can see it in my tank. from what I've read. Juvenile SAE is good for algae, not adult, they steal fish food. The best is Otocinclus, they mind their own business.

Hi Blizzardcarl92,

Here's the calculator:
http://www.aquariumcalculators.com/aquariu...timative-index/
http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/EI.htm

Here's where I bought the ingredients:
http://www.lelong.com.my/Merchant/Default....rID=algaefarmer

I saw someone sell it in lowyat too, probably cheaper as well. I bought KH2PO4, KNO3 mid last year, and I think it can last for another few years. Chelated Trace Element can last for a year, it's more expensive than the first two. My tank is 2ft, so if you have bigger tank it will finish quicker.

If you followed the dosing regime, you will need to do a 50% water at the end to reset the water parameter. EI dosing is good for tank with a lot of plants otherwise your excess nutrient will feed the algae. I'd say do not dose the full dosage when you just started the tank. Usually you don't dose any fertz at all for 2 weeks at the beginning because the soil itself is nutrient rich and your plant is still adapting.

I don't think the regime is strict, you can adjust it based on your own tank. For example, I don't dose as much, just once a week after 30% of water change. Have fun.

When was the last time you did your tank maintenance?

Most effective and cheap method is - do a black out routine. First, clean all the hair algae as much as possible, do a WC, then cover it with black rubbish black, pitch black for 3 days, off CO2, filter continue to run, feed if needed, no need to dose fertz. After 3 days, do cleaning and WC, turn the light on for 3 days (6-7 hours each day), turn on CO2, dose nutrient.

Depend on your tank, you can repeat this 2 - 3 times. The only side effect - some of your plants might not cope well and melt, but so far it works like magic to me. Black out is a process to starve algae, and usually plant's endurance without light is stronger than algae.

This post has been edited by artsyfarty: May 25 2016, 01:20 PM

Wah 4 days! I had hair algae outbreak before and the blackout method solved it.

Light is algae's best friend when you have excess nutrient

Do you use CO2?

Do you have livestocks in the tank? Maybe do a large WC?

Here's a good video from dennis wong about algae control:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDdpUe4Olcg


This post has been edited by artsyfarty: Jun 3 2016, 10:13 AM

Agreed. The cheapest solution just ensure you clean it thoroughly.

I used to do that now I don't because I switch to inline diffuser which is far better in my opinion. Less one equipment to clean during WC.

This post has been edited by artsyfarty: Jun 5 2016, 03:42 PM

It's called Riccia fuitan, another type of moss.

Did you get your HC from someone else tank

I have that, came along with christmas moss I bought and it grew into a ball, looks really good when it pearls. The thing is, it will never root into anything, I did a mistake when I decided to trim it, all the cut leaves float all over the tank, it has been a few months and I'm still trying to remove all of it bit by bit because it's growing all over the tank!

And, because it will never get rooted, the bottom bit can rot after a while. So, looking at your HC, if you don't remove it now, when it grows and pearls, it might pull your HC out of the soil just like the Pixar cartoon UP.

So, based on my experience, you should remove all of it from HC now.

hahaha, I'm glad I'm not the only one I just pulled out approx the same amount 2 hours ago.

Assassin Snail, they say. But I usually remove it by sucking them out with tube.

Haha. Good try.

Haha. Good try.

What's the size of your tank?

They will do just fine. Both of my tanks temperates are around 29 without fan.

Finally restarted my 2ft tank, got a bucket of christmas and fissiden mosses left.

The previous 2ft was my first planted tank, after numerous experiments with plants and fighting algaes, this time I'll be using sands, wood and rocks. Here's what I have, pretty satisfied with the result so far.



Pretty excited, going to tie the woods with the christmas and US fissiden mosses. Hairgrass around the edge. Staurogyne repens here and there. Anubias nana pettite and bucep (small leaves species) scatter on the rock in mid to right hand side). Echinodorus tenellus and Hydrocotyle tripartita in the background. Gonna spend a bomb for this.

More low light to mid light plants this time, sick of trimming fast grow plants and carpet.

This post has been edited by artsyfarty: Jul 3 2016, 10:35 PM

Some updates for my rescaped 2ft tank.

I have got all the plants I wanted in the tank now, except I haven't decided which bucep to get yet. It will be planted on top right of the main wood.

I need to ensure I have not brought any pest snails from my previous tank, so I actually bleach my mosses according to davido's method. But I think I left it without light for too long, it was yellowish/browning when it first attached to the wood, but thankfully, I can see they're coming back to life with new growth. But, I still can see 1 or 2 snails almost everyday, to keep them under control, I find and destroy the snail whenever I can.

Water is a bit yellowish due to the wood and sand, pretty sure it will go away after 1-2 months. I can see diatoms everywhere, but it's normal for new tank, I believe it will go away once water is stable. Still doing manual clean up when I couldn't stand it.

All plants have started growing except crypts melted quite a few leaves, seems to be struggling. I have put some cherries shrimps, otto and a nerite snail. Need to get 2 or 3 more nerite snails as I found them very good at controlling green dust algae on glass and keep the glass clean. They did a great job in my nano tank, it was so clean that I don't need to brush the glass during WC (I hated that cleaning glass with toothbrush chore).

This tank is aiming to be low maintenance, medium light. So far, am quite happy with the overall result especially the anubias nana pettite. and can't wait for the mosses to recover 100%.





This post has been edited by artsyfarty: Jul 17 2016, 08:24 PM

I see, decided to cut all the leaves and see how it goes.


Anyway, I have some extra equipments for sale - T5 light and skimmers (large and small), link at below.

Do you have a photo of your cherry barb?