phosphate results

[patagonia]

so i purchased the phosphate test kit...they didnt have the seachem one at big als so i got the aquarium pharmaceutical one...i just tested the tank and i got
phosphate 0.5ppm
nitrate 5ppm

i do have a lot of algae growing...the color? you name it i have them all... ...theres a dark brown one growing only of the edges of some leaves of the anubias nana...then theres a light green one on top of the gravel and then and hopefully last type is spot green algae...i also purchased seachem nitrogen...what would you guys do??? i changed the water last sunday...but my nitrates never go above 5 ppm so should i go ahead and dose some? thanks!!!

 

[rich311k]

How much light and do you have co2? Dosing nitrates to ten and phosphates to one might not be a bad idea. What are your other test results?

 

[patagonia]

i have 40watts of light and no i dont have co2...my other test results are
ammonia 0ppm
nitrite 0ppm
pH 7.6
nitrate 5ppm
phosphate 0.5pp.
oh no! i have to dose phosphates as well? gotta go back to the store tomorrow then...

 

[rich311k]

You shouldn't need co2. I would try the 10 to 1 nitrate phosphate ratio. Do you dose any traces at all?

 

[patagonia]

oh oh...i think i better go tomorrow and buy the whole seachem line of ferts no i dont dose trace because if im not mistaken the sticky says you shouldnt need it in a low light tank...but im not sure now...i have seachem iron and excel...but i rarely use them...when i started adding iron i got algae all over the place...and with excel the plants seem to be the same with or without it...im so confused! i appreciate you help so much rich311k...

 

[rich311k]

I dont think you should add traces. I asked because that could have been adding excess nutrients. I would add a touch of nitrogen to get your level to ten. Leave the phophate alone for the moment. That stuff can cause problems if you do not need it. Excel is supposed to help with hair algae so you may want to go back to it. I would not add iron if I were you. You should also cut off as much algae covered leaves as you can.

 

[patagonia]

ok...so ill be doing a lot of "tank gardening" tomorrow then! ill try to get my nitrates up to 10ppm and see what happens...im also waiting to get a new light i ordered online...its a 55w PC so i hope that helps a little bit too...so once i get the nitrates up to 10ppm do i test every day and if they go down re dose to keep them at 10ppm? this fertilizing thing is worse than math let me tell ya... thanks again rick311k

 

[rich311k]

Yes try an maintain 10. You dont have to overboard about it (I am but I am nuts), but check every few days. With that new light you will need co2.

 

[patagonia]

i thought if you go over 2wpg then you need co2...the light is 55watts and the tank is 29gal...so that gives me 1.89 wpg no??? im terrible with numbers though

 

[rich311k]

You are right my math was wrong My apologies.

 

[patagonia]

seachem flourish nitrogen

so im about to do my weekly water change and as rich311k suggested remove all the leaves that are cover with algae...that will leave me with pretty much a bare tank :? ...hopefully they will grow back...i am also going to start dosing seachem flourish nitrogen....i always have 5ppm nitrates...never go above...so im going to try to get them to 10ppm...i used leon-huang's doser and according to that 8mL of seachems nitrogen will give me 5ppm...add the 5ppm that are already in the tank and that will give me 10ppm....right ???? now 8mL seems like a lot to me...am i doing something wrong? its a 29gal tank...and if the 8mL are indeed correct do i add them all at once or over a few days period??? Thank yooou!

 

[ringfinger]

I have also wondered about this. It takes about 20ml of Flourish Potassium to get a decent dose of 10ppm! I think it's just that the Flourish products are not very potent, and are best suited for small aquariums(10 gallon or less).

 

[czcz]

You can add 5ppm at once: it is a relatively small amount. Flourish nitrogen has a low concentration of nutrients, and if you want to save money while buying locally, consider dry KNO3 from a nursery/hydroponics store or as Greenlight or Grant's stump remover from a home improvement store. With regular nitrate dosing (>20ppm/wk) it is also an excellent source of potassium.

Did you have BBA and do you use CO2?

 

[patagonia]

plant problem with pics

i took some pics since its better than trying to describe whats going on...

 

[patagonia]

no i dont use co2 since i have 40watts of light in a 29gal tank...the anubias nana has this really dark brown algae growing on the edges of its leaves...its just flat and only on the edges...i posted some pics in another topic since i didnt know how to attach them in this post with my reply... :?

 

[dskidmore]

Is this part of another discussion thread? Could you provide a link here to the other thread?

 

[czcz]

Suggest you don't ruthlessly prune yet, but do remove those older dying leaves. I think you should move forward with your plan of a dosing to 10ppm NO3 and 1ppm PO4 as you are near bottom on both and Seachem's mix gives K as well, then see what happens. Anubias can be an algae magnet due to its slow growth, and PO4 should help green spot issues. The stuff on the edges looks like fuzz algae to me and keeping your plants growing can beat it. A few of the plants may simply need more light. What is the plant with all the holes?

 

[Tiffi]

So is your problem the black beard algae on the plants? Could you link it to the other thread (if one exists) or provide a little more information (tank size, lightwattage, if CO2 supplemented, what fertilizers, water parameters, etc?

 

[patagonia]

the one with the holes is Echinodorus palaefolius var. latifolius...its grows fine but then when the new leaf reaches a certain height is starts developing these holes...i believe its a medium light plant but my husband got them for me as a present so i just kept them...ill be getting a new light tomorrow...55watts...so i hope they start to improve with more light and fertz...

 

[patagonia]

sorry guys..the other thread is "seachem fluorish nitrogen" and "phosphates results" maybe an advisor can merge the three together