Starting with ferts & existing algae

[jevousdeteste]

After battling various forms of algae, I finally purchased ferts from gregwatson.com. I bought KNO3, KH2PO4, K2SO4, and Plantex CSM+B. I bought them, however, not really being aware of how/when to dose. Right now my 10 gal looks like this:

Here’s the set-up:
10 gal (up for 8 or 9 months)
Penguin 200B Biowheel
pH: 7.4
NO3: 10ppm
Lighting: 2-15w CF screw-in bulbs
Plants: wisteria, dwarf sag, aponogeton undulata, aponogeton crispus
Fish: platy fry & snails

I’m not sure what’s required to keep this tank algae free. I don’t have KH, GH, or phosphate test kits, unfortunately. I had a DIY CO2 set-up for a while, but I didn’t have a way to monitor the amount of CO2 it was producing.

So basically, I’m desperate for advice regarding ferts, removing the algae, maintaining the tank. Anything, really. I was thinking about using the EI method, but I’m not sure if this is a good idea unless I get the algae taken care of, meaning that I don’t know if ferts will help unless I remove the existing algae.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Looks pretty bad there. If it were me, before starting ferts, I'd probably do 2 things, manually clean as much of the algae by hand as possible. Do a 50% PWC and then do a 5 day blackout, followed by another 50% PWC. Then you will be ready to start from the beginning.

 

[Peyton]

You also really need some test kits (kh,gh, and phosphates) and co2. I bet your phosphate levels are too high. You also need to test kh and gh so you can figure co2 levels. As far as a dosing schedule i use the following in a 20gal (so you could cut your doses in half),

sun, tue, thur 7ml csm+b
sat, mon, wed 1/2 tsp k2so4, 1ml kh2po4, n is supplied by bioload
fri 50% water change.

 

[7Enigma]

I agree with Lonewolf on this one. I have been battling a host of different algae species the past month or so since I got back from vacation and in hindsight would have rather just done a blackout to begin with (I'll probably start a blackout this weekend).

The problem with a tank like yours (and mine) is that the algae is already established and will enjoy all the extra nutrients you will begin to dose (especially the CSM+B for the iron). The purpose of fert dosing is so that in a tank where you have healthy plants and little to no algae, the plants will out compete the algae. Once the algae is covering the leaves and in the water, its a very difficult task to rid the tank.

 

[Purrbox]

With 3WPG over that tank you are bit over medium light. If the lights are spirals, then you're probably just under medium light due to restrike. At this lighting level you probably don't need to worry about CO2 unless you want too, and a full complement of ferts probably won't be necessary unless you choose to use CO2. Mainly you'll be looking at CSM+B once a week after waterchanges along with dosing 10-20ppm Potassium at the same time. Test kits for Nitrates and Phosphates will tell you if you're getting close to bottoming out and should start dosing them as well.

 

[jevousdeteste]

Thanks for all of your help and suggestions!

I'm probably going to do a blackout before I start with my dosing regimen. It would be nice to get this under control so I can actually enjoy looking at the tank.

 

[7Enigma]

Good for you. I'm still trying to nurse my tank back to health (after saying I was going to black out the tank this past weekend), my excuse was I just made a new batch of CO2. I promise I'll black out the tank when this batch starts to peter out.