Preventing double mistakes?

[Scott1980]

Hey folks,

I just spent a couple of hours scrubbing my tank to death, because of an out of control algae. Hair, slimy, on glass, you name it I had it. There was even algae rooting itself into the gravel. It's a 20 Gallon High with a AH supply 55 Watts on top. That puts me right at 2.75 wpg. I'm running all low light plants. I'm not using ferts. I run a DIY CO2 out of a 1.8 Liter bottle. Anyway I just scrubbed my tank to death, just so it looked reasonalbe again. What can I do to keep this problem from occuring again? I don't have a testing kit of nitrates/ phosphates etc. If it's recommended, I'll cough up the money for it right now. Anyhow, the other questions is, How long should I leave my light on per day? What kind of algae eaters will fit into a 20 gallon that won't screw up the bio load. Thanks, hoping to learn something from this. I really really don't want to use chemicals.

 

[czcz]

Do you have kH and pH tests to know CO2 ppm? What are the measurements? At high light planted NO3 and PO4 tests will only help, especially since you have lots of different types of algae causing issues. Chuck Gadd has good reference: http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_algae.htm -- from hair (is it BBA?) and slimy (BGA?) it appears you have a certain NO3 related problem, so you'll probably need to start dosing macros (Chuck Gadd's site has lots of indicator references, if you haven't read through it already) so plants outcompete algae. Dosing K, NO3, etc isn't really using chemicals imo, but adding nutrients plants need.

Consider otocinclus, algae eating shrimp, nerite snails for crew. There is a hair algae thread below this one that should help, too.

(No experience with nerite, but want one. ime otos plus cherry and amano shrimp are a great crew for all but hair algae, which I try to keep in check with malkore/travis's recommended 10-15:1 NO3 : PO4 ratio.)

 

[Scott1980]

I read that article you posted, very interesting. I actaully re read it about 4 times. I took a few measurements. I tested my Nitrate/Nitrites with the Juncle Test Strips which were really hard to read since for Nitrate the options were 0 ppm or 20 ppm. I guessed it to be 5 ppm - 10 ppm, but it was really hard to read. My PH which was done with some brand I can't remember came out as 6.6. I'm going to try and take the water to a lfs this weekend and see if they'll give it a more extensive reading. Can you re clarify how I measure my CO2?

 

[SteveM]

Can you re clarify how I measure my CO2?

http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_co2chart.htm

 

[BASSNMAN]

Phosphates are often the culprit. Get a test kit.