About the Aquascaper
Ollie has been an avid keeper of tropical fish for many years. He has always loved the look of heavily planted tanks and preferred the look of real plants over plastic ones. So in the past, he had tried to grow some basic plants, but as he has stated “Unfortunately, they just never looked that happy in the tank.” He just needed a little help learning the balance of planted tanks.
2 years ago, after some life changes, he found himself getting back into new ideas of things to add to the tank to change it up a bit. A friend of his introduced him to the world of aquascaping and Ollie was hooked! "The stunning beauty and the idea of trying to provide a more natural habitat for our fish had me intrigued and hooked from that moment".
After some research by reading articles and watching hours and hours of videos, he fell in love with it and was immensely inspired. This was something that he felt he wanted to be a part of.
The Beginning
In the beginning, his plants were really suffering. He started out buying a lot of more demanding plants, because he liked the look of them. Which is very typical.
He started out with the Fluval Aquasky, but thought he would be better off with a Fluval Plant 3.0. How could one go wrong with a light that has “plant” in the title. After a few weeks the plants still didn't look very happy despite blasting them with light, and soon after, algae took over.
Early on in the scape, he had not looked into co2 injection. So he decided it would probably be a good idea to inject Co2 to help with overall plant health. To his disappointment, his plants were unhappy, and algae was taking over.
Then after more research about aquatic plants, even watching videos of osmosis within plant cells under a microscope, everything was leading him to investigating his water chemistry. And to his surprise, he had a GH of 24 degrees, and a KH around 23 degrees. At this point he realized that an RODI filter was a must. The tank is only going to be as clean as the water he put into it. So he invested in a proper RODI unit and was set on making this work. One issue he ran into though, was most of his fish preferred hard water. So he started cutting his tap water with RODI water to gradually lower the GH/KH and not shock his fish. Furthermore, there were some fish that were used to a ph of 8+, so he rehomed some of them for their safety before getting to a GH and KH of 4.
He started to see improvements in plant growth which was a eureka moment! However, algae was still an issue. At this time, he was still processing water changes with a mix of RO and tap water at a ratio of around 10 RODI to 2 parts tap water just to be sure there were still necessary minerals present. Regardless of all of these efforts, like CO2, a “planted tank”, dosing nutrients, running RODI water, his plants were still unhappy, and algae would not subside. It was time to seek help.
The Mentorship and ASG Method
Dealing with Phosphates
Ollie reached out to Kyle, and showed him some pictures of his tank and asked for help. The most "in your face" issue the tank had was stressed plants and string algae. You can read our article on sting algae here. Our immediate response was to check his phosphate level in his tank and tap water. String algae is generally a sign of high poshpates to nitrates. Having macros out of balance can also be a cause of plant stress. Ollie went to test and sure enough, phosphates were through the roof! They were so high that the reading was unreadable with a API test kit.
Removal of Phosphates
At the time, he was and had been dosing TNC Complete. We suggested to stop all fertilizer dosing to starve the algae with the understanding that Ollie had a high CEC substrate which holds nutrients, so the plants would be ok for a few weeks. We also suggested he stopped using tap water all together on water changes as he may be introducing phosphates into his tank from his tap water. So straight RODI it was. One thing with using straight RODI water is that the aquarist needs to keep a very close eye on the tanks GH and KH, so it doesn’t drop too low. But this is what remineralizers are for. If you would like to know more about adjusting your water’s chemistry, or remineralizing your RODI water, check out our water chemistry video below.
Adjusting Water Chemistry
One thing we ran into was that the tanks GH and KH wouldn't ever drop below 5 and 7 degrees. This is a great indication that something in the tank is raising the GH/KH up. Ollie had used some Seiryu stone in his scape, so we think the calcite veins in the stone are raising his GH/KH back up. The white veins, which are calcite is actually calcium carbonate. When in water with a lower PH, the calcium carbonate dissolves. The calcium raises up the water GH, and the carbonate raises up the tanks KH, but also has a more extreme effect on PH. Just something to note, you always need to remineralize your RO water. One should never use straight RO unless they understand the effects of doing so.
Dialing in CO2
While we were going through this reset stage, it was a good opportunity to dial in his Co2 injection rate to ensure he was getting that one point PH drop as we teach, which is the sweet spot of 30ppm. Ollie was pretty much there, but after a few tweaks, mostly on lead times, we were hitting that one point PH drop right before the lights came on, and was able to maintain that drop throughout the photoperiod. Ollie did have a ph pen, but found that he had to recalibrate it too often which made it unreliable. So he switched over to an old fashioned API liquid titration test kit. He now has his co2 come on 1.5 hours before the lights turn on, and the CO2 turns off one hour before the lights go off. If you’d like to know more about dialing in your CO2, check out our video. It covers how to setup a Co2 system, but then how to use the PH method to ensure you’re at that sweet spot of 30ppm. Here is where the tank was after all these adjustments. Not great, but we are headed in the right direction.
If you'd like to learn the PH drop method and how to dial in your CO2 to the sweet spot of 30ppm, watch the video below...
Adjusting Lighting and PAR Values
Next we needed to look at his lighting, and get that spectrum dialed in. Despite Ollie’s endless efforts, he was not able to find any information on the “best setting for the Fluval 3.0”. There were a lot of suggestions out there, but they were all different. So Ollie was at a loss. We suggested that he use the values outlined in our article on the Fluval 3.0. In a study posted by both the University of Michigan’s agriculture department, and in another study by the University of Utah, plants love warm light, around the 660nm wave length. This wavelength stimulates plant mass, and more plants mass means more surface areas for photosynthesis. Furthermore, these two studies found that more than 10% of blue in the lights spectrum can actually reduce plant mass, so we need to be confinesent of not having our cooler lighting channels up too high. So Ollie followed our suggestions with adjusting his spectrum, and avoided long ramp up and down times, which he had been doing. Simply have the light come on for 8 hours, then turn off with the shortest ramp possible. Its that easy. Also, since Ollie was running CO2, we could max out the PAR of his light, which sits around 110PAR at full blast, at 12”. If one is not running Co2, they would not want to max out this light as it would be too much, which would stimulate algae. You’d want to be closer to 80PAR or less. If you have a Fluval 3.0 light and would like to learn how to dial it in, read our article on here. If you have an WRGB light, and would like to learn how to dial that in, read out article on adjusting your lighting spectrum here.
What About Filtration?
I hope by now you know that filtration is part of the the 5 pillars and we needed to make sure this was setup properly. When asked, we found that Ollie's aquarium is around 60 gallons, and he opted to run 2 external canister filters to try and hit that 10x turn over, and optimize circulation. One filter runs around 370GPH, while the second is 264GPH. He stacked the trays in both filters with crushed lava rock for biological filtration, and has sponges for pre-filters on both canisters for his mechanical filtration. So at a glance Ollie was good to go in the filtration department, so no changes were needed.
If you want to know more about how to set up filtration properly, watch the video below.
And Now We Wait
Now that we’ve made a lot of changes to the tank, we just needed time for the plants to adjust to their new environment. Know that when we make changes to a planted tank, the old plant mass is going to be unhappy, but that is normal. The old plant mass was trying to grow in a different environment, so when we drastically change said environment, we need to give the plants time to adjust. The new growth will tell us if the plant is happy in its new environment. So focus on the new growth and trim out the old growth.
Back to Adding Nutrients
After some time we were able to see a great reduction in string or filamentous algae. Again, this was due to starving out the algae by reducing the phosphates in the water column. This took about 6 weeks to accomplish. But as we teach, we need to focus on keeping the plants happy and not algae, so it was time to start feeding the plants again. It was during this time that we realized that Ollie did not have a high CEC substrate, or at least we don’t think it is. This was something that Ollie didn’t research enough which is totally understandable. There are SO many different opinions out there, and many substrate manufacturers make claims that are just straight up not true. Looking at you Flourite and EcoComplete, with your super low CECs.
Aquasoils have a very high CEC (cation exchange capacity), which allow liquid fertilizers to be absorbed into them providing a steady source of nutrients for your root feeding plants. And again, the liquid fertilizers in the water column also feed your water column plants like floaters, mosses and epiphytes tucked into our hardscape. An inert substrate just simply doesn't work like that. Something to really bear in mind when first starting out. If you’d like to learn more about the 1-2 punch of an aquasoils and a holistic fertilizer, check out our providing nutrients video below.
To work around Ollie's inert substrate, we had him use root tabs for the root feeding plants, and TNC Complete for the water column plants. This approach is not as effective and efficient at delivering nutrients sustainably, but we were trying to prevent Ollie from ripping up his aquascape and starting over. So root tabs it was!
We did give Ollie a list of salts for him to buy so he could use the EI method, but for some reason, when dosing the EI method in his tank, the algae would come back. He thinks it was more to do with the fact that he didn't have a digital scale that were accurate enough, and therefore it was throwing off the ratios. But hey, if root tabs and TNC Complete were working for him, we shall listen to the tank and go with the flow. The important thing is that his plants are receiving nutrients at the root, and the mosses, floaters and epiphytes are receiving nutrients for the water column. And with these changes being made, we need to give the plants more time to adjust to the changes we’ve made.
If you are interested in learning more about the EI method, what it is and how you can get into customizing your own nutrients, watch the video below.
Staying the course
Now its not always as simple as a few tweaks and “Bob’s your uncle”. He still ran into a few issues after these adjustments. Ollie had a heat wave go through his area which gave him a really bad algae bloom, which turned his water really green. This entire water column looked like a giant bowl of pea soup! The heatwave in his area made it really difficult for Ollie to keep the temperature of his tank down. So he ended up getting a UV sterilizer which in 7 days completely killed off the algae suspended in the water column, which gives a tank that iconic green look. After that the tank was crystal clear. Just know that running UV long term is not good to do in a planted aquarium. UV light can render heavy metals we dose, like iron and copper useless. It is perfectly fine to run it until your algae bloom subsides, but you’ll want to turn it off after that.
He also had some algae here and there that was coming back and was having to manually scrub the wood and rocks regularly. He admitted that this was probably his fault for not having enough patience. He kept playing around with lights because he kept seeing algae, so he’d turn it down again, thinking that perhaps it is in fact too much. He would slow down on the TNC and try stopping it altogether again, but by this time, the root tabs would have also been depleted.
Then, one day something clicked for Ollie. There is this stigma attached to high light causing algae. Yes, too much PAR can be an issue. But again, we need to focus on our plants and not the algae. If we take care of the plants, THEY will take care of the algae for us. Ollie was starting to understand the balance by thinking of his system like an engine. The light is the gas pedal, and fertilizer and co2 are the fuel. The plants could be seen as the engine itself. If you floor the gas pedal with no fuel, it's not going anywhere. We need to make sure that each of the 5 pillars, lighting, nutrients, CO2, filtration and water chemistry are all working in harmony. This can take time to balance, but patience is absolute key. We also need to commit to the changes, following the ASG method, and give the plants time to adjust to these changes.
So Ollie added more root tabs and starting dosing TNC Complete again. He also stopped messing with his lights and adjusted the spectrum back to the original setting that we suggested. Now where he was seeing string algae all over his driftwood, his driftwood was staying clean throughout the week. The plants in the tank were happy and thriving, thus beating out the algae he was battling.
Recap
Ollie reached out because he had a LOT of filamental algae and needed help. It was chocking out his plants. Filamental algae is a sign that phosphates are not in line with nitrates. We teach to use the Redfield Ratio, which is 1ppm of phosphates to every 10ppm of nitrates. This ratio will help keep filimental algae at bay. We had him stop dosing all fertilizers and run straight remineralized RODI for a few weeks to starve out the filimental algae. We need nutrients in the tank, but wanted to get rid of the algae first before starting nutrients back up again. Since he started using RODI water, we also wanted to make sure he was able to lower the mineral content, GH/KH in the tank, down to a GH and KH of 4 degrees. This is what is optimal for plant growth and nutrient uptake. Next we wanted to do a systems check on the rest of Ollie's system. With the lighting we made sure his spectrum was dialed in by maxing out all the of warm channels, and reducing all the cooler channels. We also made sure that he was not going over 120PAR. His light is able to output 110PAR at max settings, so he was good there. Again, if you’re not running CO2, you won’t want to push your PAR further than 80PAR. We then focused on his CO2 by ensuring it was able to hit a one point PH drop and keep it there throughout the duration of the photoperiod. That is pretty easy to dial in with a simple API PH test kit. And with all of system being where they needed to be, Ollie simply needed to stay the course to allow the plants to adjust to this new environment. Again, this is the hard part, the tank is going to look worse before it gets better. The old growth is going to start to dye off, and even get some algae on it, maybe some holes or the leafs will start dissolving. This again is due to the old growth being developed in poor water quality, and now that all the systems are dialed in and where they need to be, that plant mass needs to dye off and the new growth can be happy and flourish!
Overall, Ollie went from this...
... to this, using the ASG method...
Conclusion
If you need support, or some questions answered, check out the support section of our website if you sign up for a free profile on ASG. We also have an ASG form in which you can ask questions about each of the 5 pillars. So please feel free to reach out and we can help you dial your tank in. Lastly, we have a free ASG checklist which helps you to go through your aquarium systematically and make sure you are hitting all your points.
We want to thank you for reading this article. Until next time, later scapers!
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