Need Help: Newb with a 60 Gallon Planted Tank

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eiketsuburu

eiketsuburu

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Sep 8, 2008
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31
Corona
Hello every one
I am from SoCal new to the forum and a newb to a planted tank. I recently with the help of a close friend who had somewhat of an experience with a planted thank, started a planted tank of my own on Oct 2 of this year.
Everything seem to be fine for the first two weeks and I gone through NTS, even had a few algae blooms that we dealt with, now I have a tank that seem to be going through a bacterial bloom, the water is cloudy, and from forum reading I am guessing it’s a bloom, this where I need the help, am I correct or is there another cause to this? and how to i fix this?.
Also my plants are no longer green, they started to turn somewhat yellow about 2 weeks ago, I have used Seachem Flourish Tabs hoping it’s a nutrient issue, but it does not seem to help, this the second of my problem, i will post some picture of the tank below.
And the last is, me being newb to a planted tank and are trying to figure out what is the best way of using my CO2, at the current time I am using 5-6 bubble per second, and I regularly read PPM and can’t figure out how to figure out what is my current PPM in tank and should I be upping my CO2 or dropping it.
I guess I need a lot of help and suggestion from a lot of the old timers on the forum. Any suggestions and help anyone can provide would be much appreciated, but just don’t tell me to stop trying, I am really addicted and just have no idea how I should better my tank.
Thank you from SoCal.


Here is some spec from the tank:
60 gallon – 15 x 17 x 48 inches
Seachem Fluorite Black (bottom layer) / Seachem Fluorite Black Sand (top layer)
Rena Filstar XP 3 - using Filstar Bio-Chem Stars & Seachem Matrix
2 x Hagen Glo T5 HO Double 48
4 x Hagen T5 HO Life-Glo Fluorescent Bulbs
Sumo CO2 Regulator with 5 lb CO2 tank
Generic CO2 Reactor
Visi-Therm Stealth 250W

Plants:
Glossostigma
Helianthus Callitrichoides
Java Lace Fern
Java Fern
Needle Leaf Java Fern
Marimo Balls

Water Test Results and Info:
Water Temperature: 80-84F (depending on time of the day, tank is not in direct sunlight)
GH - 10
KG - 10
PH - 7
NO2 – 0
NO3 – 0

This is my Flickr Link, i am not sure if the fourm allow, if it does not please let me konw, and i will take it off.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiketsuburu/sets/72157609564836332/
 
it seems as though your plants have a serious nutrient deficiency. youre gonna have to start regular dosing of your macro and micro nutrients, especially with the co2 levels youre running. do a google search for estimative index or EI dosing. this is the easiest and cheapest way to dose your tank.

forget trying to measure your co2 using any graphs, charts or tables. get a drop checker, fill it with 4dkh solution and thats all youll need. when the drop checker turns green, you know you have the optimum co2 levels which are approx 30ppm

another thing, you lighting levels are through the roof. you didnt post the watts, but im assuming you have 324w of T5 lighting. on that tank, you should only be running two of those T5 bulbs for about 8 hours MAX!
 
jcardona1;2448400; said:
it seems as though your plants have a serious nutrient deficiency. youre gonna have to start regular dosing of your macro and micro nutrients, especially with the co2 levels youre running. do a google search for estimative index or EI dosing. this is the easiest and cheapest way to dose your tank.

forget trying to measure your co2 using any graphs, charts or tables. get a drop checker, fill it with 4dkh solution and thats all youll need. when the drop checker turns green, you know you have the optimum co2 levels which are approx 30ppm

another thing, you lighting levels are through the roof. you didnt post the watts, but im assuming you have 324w of T5 lighting. on that tank, you should only be running two of those T5 bulbs for about 8 hours MAX!
Click to expand...

I will start dosing starting today based on the EI chart from SeaChem since most of the nutrient I have are form them. I will also try to get a drop checker this weekend, by the way, from what read from different forums about the checker, once it’s in and if I had to make adjustments it will take 2-3 days before the checker react to the change, is that correct?
About PPM how do I figure out what I have? I seem to read that everywhere, and the only time I can really figure out PPM is from the test strips, is there a post anywhere that can teach me about this?
I am running 2 x Hagen Glo T5 HO Double 48 lights and 4 x Hagen T5 HO Life-Glo Fluorescent Bulbs, so it’s a total of 208w (4 x 52w) for my size tank it’s about 3.46w per gallon.
 
so you have ALL of the nutrients from Seachem? this is the expensive way, but it will work. just make sure you cover your nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and the trace minerals. these are fine, but its a lot more expensive. somebody did the actual math, and it costs 44x more to dose with seachem per week than it would if you were using bulk dry fertilizers.

as for the drop checker, no it doesnt take that long. you will see a color change in 1~2 hours. what are you trying to figure out in ppm? your co2? the old way of doing this is via a co2 chart where you measure your ph and kh, then that will give you your co2 reading. only problem is, this is NOT accurate. there are several factors in your tank that can change your kh readings, such as substrate, rocks, driftwood etc. because of these inaccurate kh readings, your co2 will be measured wrong. this is what a co2 chart looks like:

pH_KH_Chart.jpg


as i mentioned, the best way is to use a drop checker and fill it with 4dkh solution. using this solution, your kh is known and set at 4 degrees. if you look at chart, the optimum levels of co2 are reached when you have a ph of 6.6, and you know your kh is 4 in the drop checker. this will turn your drop checker a deep green color which means you have 30ppm. i turn my co2 up a little more until it turns a lime green color. so far the fish dont have any problems with this.

and yes, your lighting levels are very very high. when using T5 lighting, you cant really go by the traditional wpg rules. 3wpg of T5 lighting is way too much, youre gonna run into problems. i would suggest staying under 2wpg when using T5s.

lemme know if you have any other questions :)
 
Thanks for the info. I will start dosing when i get home with my seachem stuff. I will for sure look into the dry stuff. but it seem like alot of test required for the dry, where seachem is already planed out foryou and all you do is run it on the clock. or am i being a total newb on this again?
 
nope, the whole point of estimative index is that you dont have to test. you just make sure that you have enough nutrients through the week, then you reset everything with a big water change. the stuff by seachem is identical. only difference is they mix it with water and put in a pretty bottle. i just scoop the right amount, toss it into the tank, and walk away. couldnt be simpler and plants are doing great.

here's are the recommended dosing guidelines. just follow this and youll be good :)
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/water-parameters/21944-_dosing-regimes_.html
 
WoW that works for me, i guess i will be getting my self some dry stuff right before my seachem go empty. Thanks for you help, I will follow what you said and hope i can repost with some good news soon.
 
no problem. good luck with everything!
 
By the way, you answer the yellow HC part for me very well. Want to take a stab at the cloudy water? I have no clue after 5 weeks, what else can it be other then bio bloom. and if it is a bloom how do i fix it? or well it just go away. Thanks.
 
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