TL;DR: Problems with algae? Turn down lighting intensity Sometimes there is wisdom online if you know where to find it and then actually listen to it. Clive at UKAPS for example advises against the “photon cannon” approach of blasting your aquarium with too much light. Too much light causes problematic algae. Lately I haven’t been […]
Read more →Tag: Algae Control
The Shrimphaus gets some light brown coloured algae-like material growing on the glass which needs periodic scraping off. It won’t just rub off casually, but it comes off using a credit card blank relatively easily. It does seem to happen more in regions of higher lighting. It isn’t super unsightly, and doesn’t happen fast enough […]
Read more →Some collected wisdom from experiences with the downfall and subsequent rebuild of the low-tech open-topped Shrimphaus aquarium… Open topped tanks should be made from glass, not acrylic Open topped tanks will experience water evaporation. As that happens, mineral deposits will be left behind at the receding waterline. These mineral deposits can be easily scraped off […]
Read more →After three weeks of treating the Shrimphaus with Tetra AlguMin in an attempt at chemical control of black beard algae, I can confidently report that monolinuron, the active ingredient in AlguMin, has absolutely no effect whatsoever on black beard algae (BBA, black brush algae). The algae is as healthy and bushy as ever, does not […]
Read more →Black beard algae (BBA, brush algae) used to be a bit of a nuisance in the Fireplace Aquarium, but since switching to a high phosphate, estimative index dosing regimen, BBA and really all forms of algae have been pretty much a non-issue. Tanks need to sort their own equilibrium, and what works for the high-tech CO2-injected […]
Read more →Appropriate aquarium lighting is critical to the success of a live-planted tank. The Fireplace Aquarium uses a 15W Kessil A80 Tuna Sun LED light which has both lighting intensity and colour programmed with a Kessil Spectal Controller. This gives a pretty reasonable blend of time on and time off. The plants and animals seem happy. […]
Read more →The newly planted vallis seemed to be doing poorly with the leaves suffering structural damage and since vallis is thought to be sensitive to damage from liquid carbon I stopped the daily dosing of EasyCarbo. Stopping the daily liquid carbon is something I had been thinking about doing anyway, on the grounds that with injected […]
Read more →Use of liquid carbon in an aquarium “Liquid CO2” or “liquid carbon” is a liquid (naturally) that is advertised to provide a usable and growth-impactful source of carbon to submerged plants. Although it’s hard to get definitive component analysis, liquid carbon is inevitably either glutaraldehyde, or a derivative form of glutaraldehyde e.g. a cyclised stabilised […]
Read more →About every three weeks or so I have to give the algae a good scrapedown with a credit card blank. It involves getting essentially my whole arm into the tank with some complicated manoevering to get through the narrow access at the top of the aquarium. It takes a pretty good hour to get things […]
Read more →We put the clocks back to British Standard Time last weekend, but I haven’t yet reset the timers on the lighting and CO2 for the aquarium. I have been limiting the time on for the lights to 6 hours per day to combat green spot algae which means it’s tricky to actually get to see […]
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