Dosing Schedule

[Fishyfanatic]

I'm having issues with algae. Black/Hair/Green Spot/Diatoms/Everything. Driving me crazy. I've changed my dosing regimine by reducing the amount of Phosphate additions and increasing the Nitrate addition. I performed a 50% water change on Sunday and it started to look better. Last night it was back again full fledged. Right now my time is limited due to other obligations so I'm only home for a few hours each day. Next week I should have more time to tackle this but right now I don't.

This morning I didn't dose (it was scheduled to be the Nitrate, Phosphate, etc dosage) because my Phosphate are way too high. My Nitrates are also high at 40 ppm. Would it be bad to skip dosing this solution for a few days until my levels reduce? I would keep dosing the other solution (I'm at work so I don't have the ferts in front of me to look at the exact name but it's the green stuff that has to be refrigerated). I could do another water change tonight if need be.

What would you do?

 

[JDogg]

do you have a dead fish? i get the feeling something is decaying...

how much light do you have and size of tank? (the 55?)

are you injecting any CO2?

what exactly and how much are you dosing per week?

 

[Fishyfanatic]

No dead fish. They are all accounted for.

I have 2.7 wpg of CF with pressurized CO2.

My dosing schedule looks like this:
Monday, Wednesday, Friday: 10 ml CSM+B (250 ml of hot water mixed with 1 tablespoon mixture)
Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday: 10 ml Monopotassium Phosphate+Potassium Sulfate mixture (250 ml of hot water mixed with 1 teaspoon phosphate and 1 tablespoon sulfate). I also add 1 teaspoon Potassium Nitrate. I had to up the Potassium Nitrate dosage to 1 teaspoon because my Nitrates were reading below 5 ppm when I was only dosing 1/2 teaspoon.

Wanted to add: I upped the bubble count last week to around 3 to 4 bps. It was at 2 bps. It was recommended to me from other members that I increase the count.

 

[Purrbox]

Do you have test results for your KH and pH? You're dosing looks good, so I'd like to ensure that your CO2 is where it needs to be before messing with the dosing.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

pH is down to 6.6 and KH is 14. Wow, that puts my CO2 at 105.499 ppm. That's a LOT higher than the 30ppm that I was told to aim for. Isn't this a result of increasing the bubble count?

I just looked at the tank (just got home from work) and the black algae seems to be subsiding. It's not AS MUCH as it was before, but it's still there. Now it looks like black plastic has been melted onto my rock structures. Is that normal? I took out a rock and put it in scalding hot water in the sink. I'm hoping that this may help "kill off" the algae.

The hair algae is still going strong though.

Here are some pics of the tank. Believe it or not, the black algae is not as bad as it was. 8O



Today my shrimp decided to come out from hiding. He has been in the driftwood for the past few weeks. Yesterday I pulled out the shell that he molted. Today he took a leap out of a hole in the driftwood as soon as I brought out the camera. I missed the little guy.



You can see the hair algae on the driftwood and the green algae on the glass.

 

[Purrbox]

Refresh my memory. Wasn't there some question as to the accuracy of the KH/pH relationship of your tank before you added the Pressurized CO2? If not, at over 100ppm it would be likely that your fish would be showing signs of stress. What is the rested pH (all CO2 gassed out) of the tank water?

It's a good idea to go ahead and leave the molted shell in the tank. The shrimp will eat if given the chance and it's good for their diet.

One other thing to keep in mind that you need to give each change you make to the tank at least 2-3 weeks to see what the effect is going to be. It takes some time for the plants and algae to react and show signs of their reaction to changes.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

After 24 hours the pH reads 8.8. That's as high as the test kit reads. I put the result numbers into the formula on this site and it gave me the 100 ppm reading. Is that not accurate?

I already took the shell out of the tank. At first I thought it was the actual shrimp so I tossed it. Then as I looked at it in the trash I realized it was just the molted shell. I had never seen a molt before so I didn't realize it REALLY looked like the shrimp. I had read before that you should leave the molt in the tank, had I known thats wht it was I would have left it.

The hair algae isn't getting any better, in fact it's getting worse. But I'll leave it the way things are for another week or so. But that doesn't really answer my initial question. Is it ok to skip the Phosphate/Nitrate/Sulfate mixture until the leaves get lower? I realize that I could just do a 50% water change but I am unsure how that will affect the other ferts already in the tank. If I DO go ahead and do a change, should I do one again on Sunday?

 

[Fishyfanatic]

I take it no one has an answer?

 

[rich311k]

Well if your PH went to 8.8 sitting out assuming your KH remained the same then the CO2 dropped to about 1 ppm. This is a good sign your CO2 readings are fairly accurate. The part that is confusing is with a ppm of over a 100 your plants should be going insane and your fish should not be happy looking.

Something is going on here that is eluding us. Was the 8.8 reading from the tap or from old tank water that was left out over night.

 

[Purrbox]

It can be okay to skip dosing for a few days to allow nutrient levels to come down if your testkits are accurate. You just want to make sure that you don't accidentally let the levels go too low (bottom out), or your algae will get even worse quickly. If your doing EI, it might be a better idea just to go ahead a do a waterchange and resume dosing. You could treat this waterchange as your waterchange day or as an extra waterchange, whichever is easiest for you.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Rich, I set out a cup of water for 24 hours and tested the pH. I also checked an established tank and they were both 8.8. The fish appear fine. ALL the plants are pearling. You should see the algae. It is like a field of bubbles. I didn't get a chance to look at the tank today. The lights are already off for the night and I hate to bother the fish so I'll check it in the morning.

I didn't dose today either. An emergency came up in the wee hours of the morning so I didn't get a chance to dose before leaving. I'll resume tomorrow after checking the levels and doing a water change if need be.