What's your setup?

Just did.

Wanna join me for blackout routine to get rid of algae? Hehe.

I think it could be your intense light.

I got this blackout treatment from Tom Barr. He is a popular guy in planted tank. He has done a lot of research in planted tank. I think he invented EI dosing.

Basically:

Day 1, clean, trim leaf with algae and do a 50% WC. Dose excel, switch off co2, no fertz, and 0% light, cover it with blanket/rubbish bin plastic.
Day 2, black out
Day 3, black out, You can feed during blackout but some fish might not able to see it.
Day 4, WC 50-70%, light on for 3 days, heavy dose of co2 and dose fertz.
Day 5, light on, fertz
Day 6, light on, fertz
Day 7, Repeat day 1 - day 7.

Usually need 2 cycle, can be more. That'd kill algae effectively. I'm doing it for the first time, so maybe you can wait to see my result first, I use it to get rid of my green dust algae, those stick on glass.

some ppl said some of their plants melted during this treatment but it does kill algae.

Green dust algae. The one stick on glass. I'm having an outbreak. Some said let it stay for 2-3 weeks for the full life cycle and it will go away, but I don't think I can stand looking at it for 2-3 weeks, so I try the blackout method instead.

Did that for a few weeks, it sticks back after a few hours. I can't do a massive WC because I have quite many shrimp in it. Based on my experience, if I did 80-90% WC, some of my shrimp will die. So, enough is enough.

Yes, that's what I called GDA outbreak. GDA is different from other algae, its zoospores float in the water column, so if you clean the glass and don't do water change, it will stick back to the glass. It's an endless cleaning.

For my situation, it's pretty bad, I can see it forms within hours and within 2-3 days, the glass is green. Well, there's some green spot algae anyway, so it's good to try the almighty blackout method, that's the whole fun of planted tank isn't it? haha

Yeah, I'll post update. It's Green dust algae, it's different from green spot and green water.

- I'm using EI, so I dose the amount based on the size of my tank
- I do it in the morning, just in time for photosynthesis
- I pour it away from the filter in flow pipe, doesn't matter I guess.
- Wherever I pour, fish will swim to that area, they all still pretty lively, so I guess it's fine.

I like these two:

- Alive Aquarium in NSK Kuchai Lama (reasonable price)
- 88 pet mart in pandan indah (everything is more expensive)

They normally restock on Wednesday, best time to visit is after wed.

Ok, some updates re the blackout method.

Light on! It's very obvious that Green Spot Algae on my Hygrophila Pinnadifida are all gone! That's good. For Green dust algae, I'll need to wait for maybe a few hours to days.

The water is crystal clear! fish are happy to see me, shrimps are okay (I only lost one on the first day of blackout, probably due to large WC).

Side effect, I can see a stem of ludwigia is melting, a small patch of my MC is browning, well that can be fixed, so it doesn't bother me, all I want is get rid of those stubborn GDA.

So, light's on day for the next 3 days, if GDA doesn't return, then I won't do another cycle of blackout. I'm dose the EI regime, heavy dose of CO2 (4 bubbles) and 8hours of light.





This post has been edited by artsyfarty: Jan 14 2016, 09:30 AM

The one I had is green dust algae which stick on glass, and green spot algae that sticks on leaves. So far, both are gone. but for GDA, I usually get it in a few hours, if it doesn't come back for 2-3 days, I'll declare victory

Thanks! You should try blackout! That's Limnophila sp vietnam, it's a very easy to grow plant. The one on the left hand side use to be very dense, I did a heavy trim. When I started, I only have a few stems, now it's growing to my whole tank.

I bought some from http://www.lelong.com.my/, a shop named Aquacult and also algaefarmer.

This post has been edited by artsyfarty: Jan 20 2016, 11:56 PM

It's not a shrimp, it's crayfish.

Not sure, I never had one before.

That brought back my childhood memories, gone are those days my friend.

Speaking of Cherry shrimps, just spotted a female RCS holding eggs under its belly yesterday night, they are populating in my planted tank

yeah man, hopefully it will hatch!

@davido, what plants do you have in your tank?

This post has been edited by artsyfarty: Jan 26 2016, 11:06 PM

No ideas what plant is that. Do you find buce hard to grow? Thinking of getting one, pretty pricey though.

Wait, you will be here until 8th? That's before CNY.
Usually you can buy it from NSK kuchai lama Alive aquarium and they don't have it there, try Pandan Indah 88 Pets.