staghorn again!!!

[Tener ds]

think i might be winning this war....the staghorn that i removed hasn,t reterned.:woohoo:
i did a water test on the tank,(i know its a waste off time useing a test kit)
but how else am i to know how much nitrates are in my tank.
the test shows 5 mg/L.i thourght it would be lower with the amount of water that i replaced so i tested the stored water i use.well after treating the water with prime and after its been stored 24 hours the test showed the nitrates where just under 5 mg/L,nearly the same as the tanks water....is this right?? should my stored water have nitrates in it after adding prime and been stored 24 hours??

 

[Tener ds]

Hi all, I popped in to my LFS yesterday and got chatting to the guy in there about my staghorn Problem. He said to dose with flourish excel as well as doin wot u told me to do mac,no feeding, small water changes every 2 to3 days. Which I think is slowly working.just thought I'd run this pass u guys to see wot u think. I do have some excel but have not used it for ages.is he talking crap or shall I try it?

 

[phoenix44]

More nutrients + CO2 / excel and it will vanish.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

More nutrients + CO2 / excel and it will vanish.

This will work, but as you add extra nutrients and CO2 you add extra factors in to the equation if things go "wrong", it's easy then to get into a situation of "upping this" and "changing that", without ever getting any stability, particularly if you are changing more than one parameter at a time. I like stability and I'm pretty confident that low tech., low nutrient and no additional CO2 gives you this.

The growth of Staghorn is often triggered by enhanced ammonia levels, so it may be that you have had more organic matter (in the filter?) or something else (dead fish?) that has produced extra ammonia and stimulated its growth. A good thing about Stag horn is that it tend to stay in the same spot in the aquarium and doesn't spread very much. I usually get it only on the older Java Fern Microsorum) leaves. The algal strands can be pulled off, or in bad cases the whole leaf can be removed.

Because of this I'd recommend a manual clean up, filter clean and leaving both Excel and nutrients the same, you may well find that it doesn't re-appear. If it remains a problem, I'd have another manual clean-up, then up the nutrients slightly (probably only N and K (add KNO3)) initially and wait a couple of weeks to see what happens.

cheers Darrel

 

[Tener ds]

well i got up at 12ish,just checked out the tank and ....wow
i had to do a small water change cos of loads of dead staghorn covering the intake to my filter.its dead jim...:woohoo::woohoo:there is still some on a few leaves tho but its less than half that was there 3 weeks ago.
ive been doing wot bob said,no food for 2 weeks,5 % water change every 3 days,and ive been using AmQuel plus in the new water and less the half the standard dose of flourish excel.
so i now know how to control this stuff but i also know the "algae hapens" saying when keeping fish.
so whats the best way to keep the tank looking good?
i think:
minamal ferts
less food
smaller water changes every 2 to 3 days
clean filter spounges every 2 weeks (in old tank water)

any suggestions please.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

ive been doing wot bob said,no food for 2 weeks,5 % water change every 3 days,and ive been using AmQuel plus in the new water and less the half the standard dose of flourish excel.
so i now know how to control this stuff but i also know the "algae hapens" saying when keeping fish.

lovely job.

so whats the best way to keep the tank looking good?
i think:
minamal ferts
less food
smaller water changes every 2 to 3 days
clean filter spounges every 2 weeks (in old tank water)

Sounds good to me, it is pretty much what I do. I use the "Duckweed index" for when to add ferts. If the Duckweed (or Amazon Frogbit) looks very yellow and isn't growing much at all I add some potassium nitrate (KNO3) (enough to give 5ppm K, using the dosing calculator here: <http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/>), usually that perks the floating plants up and they look darker green by the next day, if not I add an "all in one mix", like this one of Johns' <http://www.aquariumplantfood.co.uk/category.php?id_category=25>.

At that point I stop adding anything until the next time the "Duckweed index" tells me its time for some ferts.

cheers Darrel

 

[jessonthenet]

Just replying to what phoenix stated:

I've heard bad things to do with high dosing liquid carbon, such as some plants hate it and deteriorate. Also that it is especially bad for shrimp mainly high doses. It is rumoured to stop breeding.

Was recommended the same fix with excel for BBA but went against using it and removed affected leaves instead.

How much of that is true?


Also had staghorn once but only every affected my dwarf crypts. How come it only affects the slowest growing plants?

 

[Tener ds]

This Duckweed, don't think I've seen it in my LFS.got any spare? Is it a floater plant?

 

[jessonthenet]

duckweed aka elodea or egeria densa?

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

got any spare? Is it a floater plant?

It is a floater, "Duckweed" in this instance is Lema minor, although I've also grown L. trisucula, L. gibba and Spirodela polyrhiza in the past. It is usually considered a weed plant, but I quite like it.

You can use any floater, Amazon Frogbit (Limnobium) or Water Lettuce (Pistia) will also give you the same response. Salvinia doesn't work quite so well, as it doesn't go pale, but you can still use it.

I'll get a photo tomorrow to show what I mean. I've got plenty spare of all of these.

cheers Darrel

 

[jessonthenet]

pmsl

Well wikipedia states duckweed as Lemnaoideae and refers to them as duckweeds.

Can't beat wikipedia, lol.

 

[Tener ds]

Hi all,
It is a floater, "Duckweed" in this instance is Lema minor, although I've also grown L. trisucula, L. gibba and Spirodela polyrhiza in the past. It is usually considered a weed plant, but I quite like it.

You can use any floater, Amazon Frogbit (Limnobium) or Water Lettuce (Pistia) will also give you the same response. Salvinia doesn't work quite so well, as it doesn't go pale, but you can still use it.

I'll get a photo tomorrow to show what I mean. I've got plenty spare of all of these.

cheers Darrel

Cool, I'll have some duck weed if u won't to lose some.
Ill check ur photos out tomorrow, cheers

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
I've scanned some nutrient deficient floaters for the "Duckweed index". Lemna minor didn't show up very well, so I've used the other 3. All these plants have been grown in reasonably good light, so these are nutrient effects rather than lack of light (which could cause similar symptoms). If this was lack of light, the plants would be pale green, but look much more stretched and spindly.

This is Amazon Frogbit Limnobium.

I usually feed the plants when they reach the size and colour of the one in the bottom right hand corner. I've actually just added some potassium nitrate (KNO3) to the tank where this one came from, and you can see the newest leaf is a bit larger and darker. If you leave them without any fertiliser they will end up like the small plant in the centre. At this point growth has really stopped and they will dwindle away and die unless they receive some instant TLC.
The large plant in the bottom left was grown in high light/medium nutrients but subsequently has been both cold and starved, and has suffered some chilling damage to the leaf edges. A real well grown Limnobium plant would be a much more glossy, dark green and at least twice as chunky as this one.

This is Floating Fern, Salvinia. Again I feed when the leaflets have reached the size of those in the bottom right.

This is Nile Cabbage, Pistia. Again the plant on the right is at the stage of requiring feeding. The general paleness is probably lack of nitrogen (N), but the darker veins indicate that it is deficient in iron (Fe) and/or magnesium (Mg) as well.

cheers Darrel

 

[Tener ds]

cool,if u have some Amazon Frogbit Limnobium spare ill have some if ok.

 

[jessonthenet]

Not trying to go against anyone here but have had that salvinia natans not sure which salvinia is in the photo but what a pain in an aquarium.

Great in ponds but takes over in aquariums to the point of blocking out the light. You put your arm in your tank and take with you half the plants too, lol.

Great for shrimp and taking up nitrates etc but practicality reasons a pain and can become a pest.

Not sure if the other floating plants are that bad.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

cool,if u have some Amazon Frogbit Limnobium spare ill have some if ok.

PM your address and I'll post some.

Salvinia natans not sure which salvinia is in the photo

probably S. auriculata, but S. natans is very similar (S. natans has a longer leaf, that stays flat on the water.

Great in ponds but takes over in aquariums to the point of blocking out the light. You put your arm in your tank and take with you half the plants too, lol.

Yes, it is a good grower. When my garden pond was newer I used to let it spread all over the water surface in the summer. But it is easy to control, you just throw some away every week. Here it is on my shrimp tank in the lab.

cheers Darrel

 

[jessonthenet]

Yes, very nice.

 

[Tener ds]

pm,d u mate.thats a nice little tank there.

 

[Doodles]

Not trying to go against anyone here but have had that salvinia natans not sure which salvinia is in the photo but what a pain in an aquarium.

Great in ponds but takes over in aquariums to the point of blocking out the light. You put your arm in your tank and take with you half the plants too, lol.

Great for shrimp and taking up nitrates etc but practicality reasons a pain and can become a pest.

Not sure if the other floating plants are that bad.

I have natans floating in my 180 litre tank. Im amazed at how quickly it multiplies, however the benefits of having it far outweigh the pest side of it. It only takes a minute every water change to scoop half of it out. I have had no spot algae at all since having floating plants which is a pain to scrape off the front glass and takes longer to remove.

 

[Tener ds]

hi all,well ive just done my monday water change and had a good look around the tank,
no staghorn any there.i,m over the moon :woohoo::woohoo:.Going from a tank that i thourght would need to be stripped and re-started to a very very good looking planted aquarium.Even the plants that were chopped down cos of the staghorn are growing now to :yes:
So big big thanks to bob,darrel and all that helped and gave good advise to get rid of this stuff.:thumbup::thumbup:
cheers guys.