The Cookie Crew

Do you know what Matt, I think you might have already once given the advice that I should have paid closer attention to:  when you said about going back to what I used to do...  (I think it was you...  and others agreed too)

I've been trying to swat up as much as possible on the whole algae issue and am starting to think that I've gone about trying to deal with it with over enthusiastic haste, leading to actually going further off track instead of getting back on track... 

I'm sure this is all about balance...  balance between photoperiod and nutrients...  What I suspect is that I have been giving the tank too much light...  I did increase the photoperiod to 8 hours at one point, while over dosing with fertiliser but perhaps significantly not adding carbon at that point - rightly or wrongly, I think the plants simply weren't "ready" for all this extra stuff, especially without the carbon, and this is likely to be the root cause (pardon the pun there)... 

Because the bulk of the plants I have fall into the "easy" or "medium" category, I'd wager that the 8 hours of tank lights combined with being in a fairly bright room has just been plain too much and this is where that original advice of going back to what I used to do is starting to look golden now...  My current plan is to reduce the nutrients back to around half recommended daily dose, keep up with a small amount of carbon and finally work those tank lights back down to the six hours per day that I used to do when the tank looked healthier...  In the meantime, I am going to start having a go at the black algae with some hydrogen peroxide... 

The algae looks like miniature BBA almost, either because it is just starting and isn't out of control yet, or possibly because it's not actually BBA at all, just looks somewhat like it...?  It appears on the slow growing Bucephalandra and Anubias, plus on some Echinodorus leaves - but not on the bogwood, which is somewhat odd...?

Now down to 6h 15m of tank lighting and will drop to 6 hours straight in a couple of days...  Also reduced the nutrients to 1ml per day each of TNC Complete and Carbon...  I'm hoping that dropping the carbon completely will be viable soon too... 

Anyways, off that drama for a moment now...  Ended up being very late to bed last night, sat up chatting with a friend that's visiting Cookie Towers long into the night...  I was telling him about how I never see the Nerite snail since putting him in, or at best the occasional brief glance, kinda thing...  Interestingly though, there is now about 8mm to 10mm of that algae where the sand and tank glass meet that has vanished and it looks to coincide with the addition of the Nerite snail, albeit a few days or so since adding him, and it looks like he is doing exactly what I hoped he would - but never that you can see him doing it, perhaps doing it over night etc...  So, while talking about this and it being around 3:30am at the time, we went to have a look to see if he does come out of hiding in the dark, and low & behold, there he was cruising around the sand area of the substrate...!!!  That's the first time since popping him in the tank that I've ever seen him actually on the substrate...!!!  Little blighter is fast though...!!!  In a race between him and a Rabbit snail, my money would have to go on the Nerite...  lolol...   

Just looked in the tank about 5 mins ago...  he's out on another substrate mission...!!!

Still can't get over how fast he is, especially compared to the Hopalong Cassidy motion of the Rabbits & Faunus snails...   

Water test today and hoping for at least some nitrates, on the grounds that my current problem set appears to revolve around nitrogen deficiency (probably potassium too?)...  The plan to switch back to the macro containing TNC Complete is under the microscope here... 

Results:  pH 7.5   ammonia - 0     nitrite - 0     nitrates - 5

So, it would appear that the TNC Complete has been helping with the nitrogen deficiency at least some - probably also with the possible potassium deficiency... 

Various plants, stem plants in particular, now growing like they're on steroids, since starting to add the TNC Carbon - this leads me to thinking that the lesson here for my set up is clearly that if you're gonna add a ton of fertilisers, then they need balancing out with carbon in order to be effective... 

The overall problem set in the tank has distinctly shifted now...  Stem plants looking vibrant and healthy and the unidentified filamentous algae has eased off too...  However, I have the newer problem of this miniature BBA looking stuff, and it has spread through the tank fairly quickly...  I have tried spraying (under water) a couple of experimental areas with hydrogen peroxide, but there's no reaction to this, whereas I would have expected BBA to start bubbling some...  Either way, the algae is definitely black, it just doesn't quite look like BBA (yet?) or behave like BBA when treated with the HP...  Perhaps it's something else maybe...? 

Going forward, the aim now is to try and get back to that low tech minimalist intervention approach by a shortened photoperiod and this new thinking on which fertiliser to use etc...  Aim to strike the right balance with that short photoperiod and low but consistent levels of fertilisers and hopefully cut the liquid carbon out completely... 

Definitely feeling a little more positive about it all today, although the battle lines are re-drawn with this new black stuff now... 

Still, all the animal occupants are looking super healthy and happy etc and there's even the (don't laugh  ) excitement of finally seeing the Black Helmet Nerite snail out & about...  Some other positive news is that several of my female Amano shrimp are berried at the moment - for the first time...     I do know that they won't have surviving bairns of course, but am curious as to what will actually happen with those eggs...?

Do you know if the eggs actually hatch at all Sue...?

I have seen my female Amano's carrying eggs but I've never seen what happens to them. I'm just presuming they get 'snapped' up by the fish.

Doesn't tell the full story, but interesting all the same: 

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qZpawgRi-A" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qZpawgRi-A</a>

That's fantastic...  Hope I get to see something like that... 

That's a very good point Helen, and reassuring that under the right circumstances BBA can just go by itself etc...  Although, I am trying to slowly work it back out of the routine completely now and get back towards that whole "low tech" approach as much as possible...  I should try and get a couple of photos and see what you guys think, because I'm not 100% certain that it is BBA...  One of the Amano shrimp was busy pecking away at it yesterday, albeit on the Anubias which happens to be one of the two trial areas where I sprayed with hydrogen peroxide...  Not sure how relevant that might be in this case as there was no visible reaction to being sprayed with the HP, no fizzing nor any change of colour etc...

Does it appear hard of soft?