Social Feed

Sorry about the dramatic title but I think this topic deserves something monumental as it has and continues to be a persistent pain in the neck for aquarists of all skill levels. Let’s face it, BBA is a tough algae to get rid of once it settles in. This thread is dedicated to its eradication by showing real life treatments and their effects. The hope is that we, collectively, arrive at a process that works.

This is important because there is just SO MUCH bad information out there. It’s inconsistent and all over the place. It is based on what someone heard or read but not on first hand experience.

For example, I just saw a BBA help question posed in one of the Facebook groups. Within 4 hours, there were 85 comments. People suggesting everything under the sun. Here is a sampling:

• reducing phosphates
• Ottos and amano shrimp
• Siamese Algae Eaters (SAE)
• American Flag Fish
• Hydrogen peroxide
• The One Two Punch
• Algae Fix

And I could continue the list. It’s funny and sad at the same time. Such is a Facebook group. Try to find the diamond in the rough. Not easy for anyone.

So, with this background in mind, I present to you the present state of my aquarium on the left. BBA has taken over and is now firmly entrenched on the plants, the AquaSoil, the circulation pump and even on the internal UV filter in the back. You can just make out on the lower left that it is now also growing as a lawn on the AquaSoil.

Let’s not get lost looking backwards, although some background as to how we got here is important and helpful. The tank was neglected for about two months. It’s an automated tank but the CO2 ran out and the light and fertilizer stayed the same.

Format​

This post is in the form of an article. This means that I will be able to take good discussions from posts below and update the article with them as needed. Feel free to let me know if you feel something from the article merits changing.

Background on BBA - what we know to be true​

To be continued…

The Tonina and Syngonathus continue to grow straight and tall. Based on Dennis’s posts and reading online, it appears that I would have to wait for them to branch out before splitting. But they don’t seem to branch out, anything to be done or just wait?

My confidence in answers obtained by AI is vanishingly small.

I tried several of them last night asking

Does Father Fish teach that water has memory…

All of them asserted no. None of them displayed any uncertainty.

Here is one typical response.



I then proceeded to supply a section of transcript from a video. And asked it to evaluate the transcript.. in essence it agreed that in the video Father Fish was claiming that water has memory.

I asked if going forward if asked if Father Fish taught water has memory would its initial response be different. It stated know because the transcript I provided, had Father fish state it was sort of like memory, not that it was memory…

By golly talk about wiggle room…

The above screenshot was asking the same question this morning and it is the same answer I initially got last night, so A+ for confidently giving incorrect answers consistently.

I then followed up asking if there are any Father Fish videos where be states that water has memory and I got the following reply.



So, the answer you get will be highlydependent on exactly how you ask..

Its like nailing jello to the wall..

I have had similar experiences with AI over many questions in areas that I have deep knowledge base in. I have vanishingly little confidence in its ability to give correct answers with nuance.

Today somebody gave me a brand new never been used wifi enabled toaster oven.

It left me scratching my head wondering why I would want wifi capabilities on a toaster oven..

It works just like a standard toaster oven without using the wifi feature..

So what does wifi get you?

It is specifically a toaster oven to use with the companies meal subscription service.

You buy pre prepared meals, scan the bar code with the oven and it sets the temperature, time and cooking mode…

For this convenience the tv dinners costs between $10-14 each…

In all fairness you do get more food per meal then most store bought frozen dinners. Calorie counts are in the 400 - 800 calorie range with about 35 grams of protein…. Store bought meals are typically around 250-350 calories and 10-15 grams of protein…
But by golly convenience costs….

I seriously doubt I will connect to wifi and download the app, and I know I wont be buying any meals…. But, it is a free toaster oven…

So I'm sitting here trying to create a plant layout for the garden scape and a thought came across my mind; What would ChatGPT do?
I provided the tank size, substrate, (very long) plant list, and aquascaping style and said while you're at it, create an image of the final scape. As you would guess, ChatGPT knows the "rules" for a Dutch scape but doesn't have much of a human artistic touch, so the result is very clinical indeed. It also used synthetic images for many of the plants and therefore is a bit off on leaf shapes and colors. It only took a few minutes though. And to be fair, I didn't go down the list first to balance out plant colors.

This reminds me of the days when computer scientists were trying to program computers to challenge the great chess masters. It took a while but they eventually did it. So how far away are we from AI producing a truly competition worthy aquascape?

Welcome to ScapeCrunch, @Hydrolus!
We would love to get to know you. Please tell us about yourself. What tank do you have?

Hello, starting up a journal for the second tank. It's totally for my fiance because she wants a betta fish, it's definitely not just a thinly veiled excuse to get a 2nd tank going. No way.

Originally this was planned on being a low tech tank. However I ended up receiving some money from family, so I decided to upgrade it to more of a mid tech.

Equipment:

• UNS 45U rimless tank
• Oase 100 Filtosmart Thermo, with an extra valve stop
• Chihiros WRGB Slim, set to roughly 33% overall power
• A poppy lily pipe and an inlet skimmer
• CO2Art Regulator & Solenoid

Plants:

• Anubia broadleaf
• Anubia (no clue what other kinds, small ones)
• Various Crypts of various types and sizes (I'll dig later in my email receipts to find the types)
• Creeping Jenny
• Limnophilia Heterophylia
• Hygrophila Angustifolia
• Red Root Floaters

Fertilizing:

• 1 pump of APT 3 daily
• Root tabs from Aquarium Co-Op

I wanted to make this a sort of island-ish setup, where the main focus would be the elephant stones and the large anubias. I knew that my other tank would be right next to this one, so I focused the stems on that side since they would be getting the higher light. I did have some challenges getting the stones and aquasoil into a proper shape, and fitting the huge anubias was an obstacle.

Overall I think it's in a good state, starting to get a few diatoms but not much, and I just added the CO2 today, so the tank is officially fully setup. Now, just waiting to cycle and mature a bit before I add in some shrimps, and then a month later, the betta.



Also, if anyone has advice on the placement of the Poppy Pipe + CO2 diffuser, that is appreciated. Part of the problem is that the Poppy doesn't send water in a straight current, it's just a flurry around it, so I cant just place it on the opposite side of the diffuser like I normally would. Where I have it now, it forms a current that manages to draw some of the CO2 bubbles in, but not all.

Final ask, if anyone has better fertilizer recommendations that is appreciated, specifically how much APT3 would be appropriate for this. So far I've been doing 1 pump/day.

I started my first tank as an adult about a year ago, and have posted updates on it in my other journal , the Beginner Scaper Journal. I had intended the other journal to be a journey for this new tank but there were so many variables and many questions about the other set up that i thought it would best to start this new journal.

I am going to hold on to my beginner/amateur flair to the post since I think this is such a great hobby and want newcomers to know that everyone started as an amateur

Tank Inspiration
Dennis Wong's planted tanks. If you guys don't know who this is, I have already served a good purpose by introducing you to the founder of the 2Hr aquarist. He has a scientific horticulturist approach to planted tank that resonates well to my scientific mind. He is one of the few that I have read and listened to who mentions the different schools of thoughts when it comes to managing planted tanks and does not stick with a single approach.

Anyways a long winded rambling to say that everyone should read through the 2hr aquarist website. His products are all called APT (Advanced planted tank), and i think that is what his company was called before. His current display tanks are all planted tanks, which are beautiful mostly without hardscape but with lush plant growth and do not follow the rules of Dutch scaping. To anyone who wants to understand his philosophy more, i would recommend in addition to the website watch some videos where he has been interviewed.

I wanted to re-create this type of tank, but obviously as a beginner/amateur. I am hoping to learn more about growing plants with my ultimate goal to advance to a next scape which might be more nature style where i can take the knowledge from growing plants and now incorporate hardscape to it.

Equipment
Tank
- Waterbox mini 25

• 60 cm x 40 cm x 40 cm
• 90 liters or 24 gallons
• This is a big upgrade from my 29 gallon standard tank. The silicone work is flawless.
• It does come with a leveling mat.
• It is deeper and slightly taller than a 60P or UNS 60U. I thought it would be useful to have more depth.
• Background - Thanks to @Jeff Miotke suggestion

Stand

• Waterbox stand - Black
• The main contention is that it does not come with side holes like some of the other expensive stands do.
• It just comes with opening in the back, so getting the tubing out is messy.
• The door attachment is a soft close but it needs to be leveled which can be finicky
• I did add a magnetic holder for tools and will add some light as well at some point.
• It does come with leveling foot holders.
• It is nicely built other wise.
• I wish it came with a pull out like the Oase stands but guess would be very expensive.
• Overall Ok, but nothing to highly recommend about.

Filter

• Oase Biomaster 350 thermo
• Replaced the biological media with Seachem Matrix
• Replaced one of the foams with Seachem Matrix as well.
• Steel lily pipes from GLA with extension. I think many of liked this company. But I personally would not buy anything again from them. They had quality control issues with this. One of the holders were metal and other acrylic and they would not send me another metal one. These are not the cheapest especially and you also have to buy extension separately. These are made by a chinese company and not made by GLA.
• I used to have glass lily pipes but got tired of cleaning them.

Skimmer

• I read many people commenting that using a skimmer attached to the inflow or outflow might be a pain to adjust, so ended up getting the Oase Crystal skim

CO2

• Fzone Co2 inline diffuser
• These work great and this is the second one that i have gotten. Trouble free but might need to replace parts of it if it gets clogged. Important thing is that it can be opened to clean.
• I have a Fzone dual stage regulator
  • Cheapest that i could find and works very well - highly recommend

Water

• I use RO water and remineralize it with APT Sky to a GH of around 4. Use the calculator on APT webpage.
• My goals are to have a low KH, and GH of around 4 - 5.

Substrate

• APT feast about 12 Liters
• You can read about my experience cycling it here using Dark Start (sort of)
• I did not want Aquasoil in the front of the tank and wanted a thin lining of gravel so used a gravel from Carribsea, and some smooth lava stones to separate them. More about this later but i don't really like the way it turned out.

Lighting

• Chihiros WRGB II - 10th anniv edition - 60 cm.

Plant List (Links provided to their care on the 2 hr Aquarist website if interested)

Background

• Left - Rotala blood red
• Middle - Rotala Tulunadensis (From Burr Aqua)
• Right - Alteranthera Reineckii Rosaefolia

Midground

• Left - Blyxa Joponica
• Middle - Ludwigea Arcuata, Pogostemon Decannensis, Rotala Florida, Staurogyne Repens
• Right - Syngonathus Belem/Macrocaulon(From Burr Aqua)

Foreground

• Left - Lobelia cardinalis mini
• Middle/Right - S.Repens and Montecarlo
• Still to come - Eleocharis Aricularis mini (in the place where the stones are)

Misc

• Clump of Hydrocortyle Tripartita to absorb nitrogen - Trust me you do not want this plant for any other reason, will take over your tank and get everything into a tangled mess.

Fish List (Preliminary)

• 4 Rasbora espei
• 2 Otos
• Will be adding more from my prior tank

Maintenance Parameters

• Lighting - 30% - 8 am - 3 pm
• Co2 - 40 ppm by Hanna co2 kit, 5 am - 3 pm
• Fertilizer - APT 1 - Still not settled on a routine but the recommended dose for daily dosing would be about 2.3 ml and i do about 2-3 ml every 3 days.
• Water changes 75% every 3 - 4 days, will make it weekly in the next couple of weeks

Photos
photo 1 - Day 11
Photo 2 - Day 20
Photo 3 - Day 21 - Current - Testing - Ammonia 0, Nitrate about 10 on API kit - Changed filter outlet location to get reduced current
Photo 4 - Day 21 - Side view

Thanks for reading so far!

There has been some good growth, some expected filamentous algae/diatmos and some melting, all expected hopefully this would not get too bad.
The Rotala blood red, Florida and Ludwigea arcuata are doing great. Both the florida and Arcuata seems to do much better on the aquasoil than on my prior intert substrate.
Blyxa melted a little but getting better, the Tulunadensis is struggling. The rest holding stable.
Interesting observation - The Rotala blood red, started putting out lot of roots and side shoots which i think is mainly because the plant was being pushed by the current to almost bend sideways and I believe it is thinking that it close the surface and doing its thing. With the changed filter outlet location I am hoping that it will be more erect and when i cut and replant there will be less roots. 2hr aquarist has written about this as well, but i think the bending sideways leading to rooting is not mentioned.

I am not liking the layout as much as i thought i would. Have been discussing with BurrAqua and have some suggestions but still thinking about this. Thoughts and suggestions welcome. Hopefully lot of people with (@Burr740 , @Dennis Wong @Art @techman81 @Pepere @Unexpected @Naturescapes_Rocco @Jeff Miotke @BenB @DutchMuch ) and without experience will follow and share this tank journey with me.

This is a great forum and i have tagged people that i am familiar with on the forum who have answered my questions and helped.

This is the future home for the announcements when someone obtains an achievement badge. Let the games begin!

Same camera settings, with a tiny bit of ambient light.



Under week aqua a430


Couple of close-ups:
Fluval 4.0


Twinstar S V


Although Fluval 4.0 is spectrum tunable, it does not have enough red diodes to balance out its spectrum curves and tends to be red deficient.

Twinstar has spectrum curves similar to Netlea/Chihiros/Week aqua, much easier to tune to a range of attractive visual colors.
In short, while Twinstar has improved in the last couple of generations to match the chinese LEDs, while Fluval has not.