Once Cyanobacteria appear in the aquarium, if not resolved they might cover everything up and cause disaster. They saffocate the plants thus rotting them down causing low oxygen levels which might cause oxygen dependent organisms in the aquarium to die.

The one way known to work well on removing Cyanobacteria, is to increase NO3 levels and to completly cut off light in the tank for 3-4 days. Cover up the tank so no light at all reaches it but also add oxygen just to be on the safe side. There are also cases where addition of Seachem Excell or EasyCarbo which are both liquid forms of Carbon in parallel with the increase of NO3 levels, cause Cyanobacteria to decrease over a few weeks untill they completely vanish.

Aquatic Scapers Europe

Nano Category Winners:

1st Place – Marcel Dykierek (Germany) – Eternal Unity

2nd Place – Timo Wünsche (Germany) – Sungreen

3rd Place – Siak Wee Yeo (Malaysia) – Summer of Utopia

Standard Category Winners:

1st Place – Michael G. W. Wong (China) – Beauty from Above

2nd Place – Ngo Truong Thinh (Viet Nam) – Peaceful

3rd Place – Piotr Beczynski (Poland) – Time

Congradulations to all!

Once the fish pair up, it can be observed that the male might chase away or brawl with other male Angelfish. This courtship that the fish engage in shows that they are fighting over the female so sooner or later laying of eggs should be expected. Eggs are pretty easy to recognise. They are small white/transparent spots mostly found on flat surfaces like plant leaves. The female lays the eggs in evenly spaced in straight lines and the male follows her behind fertilizing the eggs. Angelfish lay between 40-100 eggs. The fertilized eggs are mostly transparent while the unfertilized ones turn white after approximately 24 hours. It will take around 60 hours for the eggs to hatch and during that time period the fry become more distinguishable from within their eggs. Due to the fact that Angelfish are considered to be good parents, they protect the eggs by chasing away other fish. In addition they keep the eggs clean by placing them into their mouth and then back on the surface where they were laid but also tend to eat the unfertilized eggs. This is very important for the survival of the eggs since they prevent the eggs from becoming fungus infested. If the pair has laid eggs for the first time then they tend to eat all of the eggs. It usually takes a couple of lays to learn and successfully keep their eggs.

The breeder has three choices. The first is to keep the eggs into the tank with the parents and the rest of the fish. This minimizes the chances of survival dramatically since if the eggs are not eaten by other fish then when they hatch the fry will be either eaten by other fish or get sucked into the filter. Very few might be able to survive provided they have enough hiding places which is usually the case in a heavily planted tank.

The second choice is to remove the eggs from the tank if possible and place them into a breeding tank without the parents or any other fish. The risk in this case is that the eggs might be attacked by fungi so the best preventative measure is to add fungicide and make a lot of water changes. Take care when moving the eggs from one tank to another so as not to leave them exposed in air for a long time. A few seconds might be enough to destroy the eggs. Furthermore, low light levels show more successful results.

Finally the most appropriate and successful method is to move the eggs and the parents in a breeding tank together. The breeding tank should have nothing at all apart from an airstone to oxygenate the water. The parents will take care of the eggs and when hatched the fry might prefer to eat from the skin of their parents rather from the fry food you will provide them. Frequent water changes are essential in this case so as to keep the water clean and infectious free. Take special care when removing and adding water not to disturb the eggs.

Once the eggs hatch they will be wiggling around in the tank. Do not feed them until after approximately 5 days where the fry are able to swim around. Then feed them with liquefied fry food or brine shrimp. Do not add too much food to avoid polluting the water and feed approximately 4 to 5 times a day, even though they could survive without food for 12 hours.

The second technique is a lot more accurate but also more expensive. Seachem and EasyLife are two excellent product lines that have all the required nutrients in bottle ready to be dosed separately. Potassium, Nitrogen, Phosphate, Iron, Trace Elements and liquid CO2 are their major products and will cover the nutrient needs of almost all plant types. A dosing regimen suggested by Seachem is displayed below:

Seachem Planted Aquarium Dosing Chart

It won’t always be necessary to dose your aquarium with each of the products in the Flourish line, but as an example, we have developed one possible dosing regimen using all of our plant products. This is by no means the only way to dose your aquarium; it is merely a suggestion. Your dosing regimen will depend greatly on a variety of factors, including lighting, initial water quality, how heavily stocked your aquarium is, substrate selection, and types of plants; so don’t be surprised if getting the results you want takes a little experimentation.
Day of the Week Product Dose
Day 1
Flourish 1 cap per 60 US gallons (240 L)
Flourish Excel 1 cap (5 ml) per 10 US gallons (40 L)
Flourish Iron 1 cap (5 ml) per 50 US gallons (200 L)
Flourish Phosphorus 1/2 cap per 40 US gallons (160L)
Flourish Nitrogen 1/2 cap per 40 US gallons (160 L)
Day 2
Flourish Trace 1 cap (5 ml) per 20 US gallons (80 L)
Flourish Excel 1 cap (5 ml) per 50 US gallons (200 L)
Flourish Iron 1 cap (5 ml) per 50 US gallons (200 L)
Day 3
Flourish Potassium 1 cap (5 ml) per 30 US gallons (120 L)
Flourish Excel 1 cap (5 ml) per 50 US gallons (200 L)
Flourish Iron 1 cap (5 ml) per 50 US gallons (200 L)
Day 4
Flourish Trace 1 cap (5 ml) per 20 US gallons (80 L)
Flourish Excel 1 cap (5 ml) per 50 US gallons (200 L)
Flourish Iron 1 cap (5 ml) per 50 US gallons (200 L)
Flourish Phosphorus 1/2 cap per 40 US gallons (160L)
Flourish Nitrogen 1/2 cap per 40 US gallons (160 L)Day 4
Day 5
Flourish Potassium 1 cap (5 ml) per 30 US gallons (120 L)
Flourish Excel 1 cap (5 ml) per 50 US gallons (200 L)
Flourish Iron 1 cap (5 ml) per 50 US gallons (200 L)
Day 6
Flourish 1 cap per 60 US gallons (240 L)
Flourish Excel 1 cap (5 ml) per 50 US gallons (40 L)
Flourish Iron 1 cap (5 ml) per 50 US gallons (200 L)Day 6
Day 7
Prime Use 1 ml per 10 US gallons (40 L) to dechlorinate water
Alkaline Buffer Use as necessary to establish desired pH and KH
Acid Buffer Use with Alkaline Buffer as necessary to establish desired pH
Equilibrium Use as necessary to establish desired GH

Therefore to follow the above regimen, one must be dedicated enough to dose the aquarium everyday but also to make observations that will indicate the need to modify the dosage or regimen.

The third technique is called the Estimative Index and it has been developed by many aquarium hobbyists over the years. This is basically based on the same principal as the above technique with the only difference that the nutrients like Potassium, Nitrate etc are dosed from solutions that are prepared from dry fertilizers and water. Because the preparation of these solutions is a rough estimate of the nutrient concentrations in each solution, the dosing is made is such a way to ensure that a high quantity of these nutrients is maintained in the aquarium. By the end of each week a 50% water change is made and all the nutrient levels in the tank are essential reset thus eliminating any chance of very high or very low nutrient levels which will cause any unwanted results like iron poisoning or algae outbursts. Before continuing to a deeper explanation of the Estimative Index a quick summary will make things clearer. Specific dry fertilizers are bought from flower shops. These fertilizers are then dissolved in certain concentrations with water so as to be able to estimate the amount of each nutrient being added to the aquarium per mL of each solution so as to establish the wanted levels per nutrient.

What are our target levels?
K 5-30 ppm
N 5 ppm

Where are the above nutrients found?
KNO3
K2SO4

Now using Chuck’s Planted Aquarium Calculator the solution to be mixed can be calculated. How many grams of dry fertilizer are required in X ml of water in order to produce a solution where each ml added in the aquarium will increase the targeted nutrient by Y ppm up to the desired level. Take a look at the following example:

We would like to have Nitrate levels of 5 ppm in a 40 gallon tank. Using Chuck’s Planted Aquarium Calculator we can see that when we set the “Tank Size” to 40 gallons and the “Amount of water to mix with” to 250 ml then by adding 61.5 g of KNO3 we get 1 ppm of Nitrate per 1 ml of the solution. Therefore by adding 5 ml of the solution we establish 5 ppm of Nitrate in our 40 gallon tank. The same can be carried out for the rest of the nutrients but make sure that when calculating Potassium (K) you take into consideration the Potassium added by KNO3. It is thus suggested to add first the KNO3 solution, calculate how much K has been added by that solution and top up the tank to the desired level of Potassium by adding K2SO4 solution.