To switch or not to switch? Poll

[TomMessenger]

My 10 liter tank has been running since August now, but there have been continual problems along the way. I'm struggling to get anything out of it.
I'm thinking of starting again in a new nano I've bought as a completely different setup, but the question is do I let the old 10l run it's course for a few more weeks, or do I switch now and run the new one off liquid carbon?

Current:


New:


Tom

[darthpaul]

Whats the new tank? I want one!

[TomMessenger]

It's a Do!aqua 20cm cube. It's a "sub-range" of ADA. Have a look at thegreenmachineonline.co.uk 

[darthpaul]

What light do you have and are you adding filtration?

[TomMessenger]

I'm not sure what to do about lighting. The one on the tank now is the 9w compact fluorescent from the 10 liter, but I'm worried whether that will be too much as I would only use liquid carbon.
Filter will likely be an Azoo hang on job.

[frosties]

I voted no...

Stick with it... but ramp up the CO2 (easycarbo) to dangerous levels... this will shift the algae etc and probably kick start the growth... but only try it for a month or so... then make the decision...

[discusturkguy]

i agree with tony nothing ventured nothing gained so to speak 

[TomMessenger]

Thanks for the votes, but keep em coming! It's 50/50 at the moment with only 2 votes either way.

Tony, I'm blasting in CO2 at 1-2 bps (a rather high amount for a 10 liter) already. Can't really go much higher I don't think. Though I'm starting to wonder whether the high CO2 rate might be harming my biofiltration, therefore giving me slight ammonia buildups, causing Diatoms. Because diatoms aren't a CO2 based algae, but rather appear with excess ammonia. But then even though there's a lot of CO2, there should still be plenty of O2 in the water. CO2 only affects the abilities of haemoglobin to carry 02 as far as I know, and do bacteria have haemoglobin? I don't know, but I wouldn't think so. So that might not be the problem.

The only other cause must be that the plants are struggling and releasing ammonia. The moss is fine, so that leaves hairgrass and HC. The hairgrass was doing OK until I trimmed it, and now there is a lot of dead matter in there. But why did it react badly to trimming? Everyone recommends trimming it harshly to make it grow better. There is plenty of CO2, and plenty of ferts with 2ml TPN+ daily, 1ml extra N, 0.5ml Excel and regular water changes every couple of days. I honestly can't see why it isn't going so well.

[frosties]

Interesting Tom.

For the below - I am assuming that you have used tap water not RO.

I had a discussion once with a well respected member of the industry about brown diatoms. His opinion was that Diatoms are more prevalent with high levels of silicates. So in his personal tanks he also runs a separate silicate filter.
Now having not tried it myself - but I have seen the silicate filters from DOHSE, these are huge and require a dedicated power head. The Silicate filter also removes all phosphates as well...
so you would need the power head - which you would probably have lying around.... some 23mm tubing... again you may have this... but the silicate filter / resin... This currently retails for £30.40 plus P&P

I honestly cannot advise if this would work - and it is an expensive addition to try... but... if it does work you are laughing...

So another way to check this is to purchase RO water... cheap and also has all silicates and phosphates removed.

[TomMessenger]

That's an interesting thought, and yes it is tap. Trouble is, I'm trying to add phosphates, not remove em! I know blue green algae has been blamed on silicates too, but I don't know.

Diatoms are usually attributed to a buildup of NH3 in new systems, though so that was how I was working things.....

[Les]

My vote would be to switch. Although my setup went through a diatom stage - i adjusted the flow of co2 (not increased it), and removed as much by hand as i could and within a week it had disappeared completely. This would have occurred as the ammonia subsided, and my intervention may not have had any real effect hehe

[frosties]

Tom

Try using RO water.... only use 50% mix RO and tap - that may reduce it...

[TomMessenger]

I'm trialling rainwater now rather than RO (cheaper!), with just a bit of tap. My previous successes have been 100% rainwater which comes out around pH 6-6.4 and very low hardness. I'm gonna hold on to switch over tanks for a little while, as I'm still determined to get some decent growth from this HC! I need to sort out the cause of this algae too, as I don't want any at all in the ADA tank.

[discusturkguy]

i tried the same has you tom in respect to rainwater simply because of the same reason no cost, but was put off after reading that rainwater can be more hard work than it worth due to the contaniments ( spelt wrong lol) in the air that it collects, also on the other end of the scale i even collected snow but only the top few inches and tried that also. admitedly i never experienced anything unusual like side effects fish were showing has it never seemed to bother them.

but eventually bought a r.o unit but have now gone back to tap water simply because im on a water meter plus the filters needed changing too often for my liking so ended up has a added cost in the long run. ok two ways of looking at it, it`s a added cost that is benefical in the long run but expensive when you are only getting a ratio of 1 part pure water to 7 parts waste on a good day.

[frosties]

That is the problem with ro water. The wastage!!! However we get something like 4:1 ratio so I am rigging up a collection drum for the waste water. This will be used for the father inlaws tomatoes.
My theory is that the waste water will be full of concentrated nitrates etc which should help these grow!