7Enigma
Aquarium Advice Addict
Hey everyone,
My tank at work (10gallon dwarf puffer) has a huge anubias plant I've broken into several smaller plants. The tank has been set up for a couple months and it gets weekly 50% water changes. Unfortunately the water here at work has something that kills snails (and so I don't want to chance it with the puffer). Because of this I bring water from home and mix it with distilled water at work here. To avoid lugging 10 gallons every 2 weeks I use a 20% mixture from home (ie 20% water from home, 80% distilled).
Obviously this makes the water pretty soft, but I regularly add small amounts of fertilizer (CSM+B, potassium, nitrAte, calcium, phosphate, magnesium).
The problem is I keep having algae and deficiency issues in the tank. I've been dosing 1ml of Excel to combat the algae (thinking it was possibly a CO2 deficiency since the upper leaves are pretty close to the surface and get the full 17w), but now I'm not sure that is the case.
I chose the anubias since it is basically a decoration (doesn't grow fast enough to require frequent trimming). But now I've begun to see these irregular white splotches on some of the leaves. Some are very smal like a rice grain, while others are larger, but again irregularly shaped. I've seen these before in my higher light, CO2/fert tank at home, but was never able to figure out what is causing it.
I'm thinking its a trace nutrient that is in low supply in my tap water, and made even more sparse due to the 20% mixture in this tank.
I've thought of using Flourish Comprehensive since it has more traces than CSM+B, but wanted to first check whether anyone has seen this before in their tanks (ie, some trace element rarely deficient such as Mn).
Thanks in advance for the help.
My tank at work (10gallon dwarf puffer) has a huge anubias plant I've broken into several smaller plants. The tank has been set up for a couple months and it gets weekly 50% water changes. Unfortunately the water here at work has something that kills snails (and so I don't want to chance it with the puffer). Because of this I bring water from home and mix it with distilled water at work here. To avoid lugging 10 gallons every 2 weeks I use a 20% mixture from home (ie 20% water from home, 80% distilled).
Obviously this makes the water pretty soft, but I regularly add small amounts of fertilizer (CSM+B, potassium, nitrAte, calcium, phosphate, magnesium).
The problem is I keep having algae and deficiency issues in the tank. I've been dosing 1ml of Excel to combat the algae (thinking it was possibly a CO2 deficiency since the upper leaves are pretty close to the surface and get the full 17w), but now I'm not sure that is the case.
I chose the anubias since it is basically a decoration (doesn't grow fast enough to require frequent trimming). But now I've begun to see these irregular white splotches on some of the leaves. Some are very smal like a rice grain, while others are larger, but again irregularly shaped. I've seen these before in my higher light, CO2/fert tank at home, but was never able to figure out what is causing it.
I'm thinking its a trace nutrient that is in low supply in my tap water, and made even more sparse due to the 20% mixture in this tank.
I've thought of using Flourish Comprehensive since it has more traces than CSM+B, but wanted to first check whether anyone has seen this before in their tanks (ie, some trace element rarely deficient such as Mn).
Thanks in advance for the help.
