Algae issue. (New results, and questions - 3/5/07)

[Purrbox]

Plants use fairly small amounts of phosphates, so that combined with the inaccuracy of hobbiest grade test kits (as Hoovercat mentioned) I wouldn't be overly concerned with not seeing a drop in phosphate levels.

 

[Ketso]

More test results and a question or two at the end.

• TANK WATER
  pH = 6.4
  Amonia = 0.25ppm
  NitrIte = 1.0ppm
  NitrAte = 10ppm
  kH = 5dkH 89.5ppm
  gH = 12dgH 214.8ppm
  Phosphates = 1.0ppm
  Co2 = 60ppm

First question:
What is considered too high for Co2? Chuck's Planted Aquarium Calculator has me in the red.

Second question:
How does the general hardness play into all this? (In laymans terms). I was under the impression that it shouldnt change much, if at all.

 

[Purrbox]

Once CO2 levels get over 100ppm your fish would be in danger. If you are using the downloadable calculator, there is a tab where you can change the limits to define what's too low and what's too high. The default values are very conservative.

GH is made up of mainly Calcium and Magnesium. These are nutrients that your plants need to grow. Generally these should be fairly stable, but you could see some change especially if you have a high snail population using the calcium to build their shells. Some rocks and substrates will buffer the GH, causing it to rise. It can also change if your tap water parameters have changed.

 

[Ketso]

Here is a photo of a 6 inch(+/-) section of a blade from my Narrow Leaf Sag. It's not a great photo (cheap camera) but I hope it will suffice. It has an algae growing on it that is black with 1/8" hairs (for lack of a better word) growing on it. Any idea what it is? Would a bleach dip be beneficial? Just cut out the affected blades? Another option?

Not positive but it seems to only be affecting the Narrow Leaf Sag.

 

[Purrbox]

Hard to tell without a closeup, but it definately looks like BBA. I would just remove the affect leaves and let the plant concentrate its effort on growing new algae free leaves.