Hi everyone,
Its been a while since I posted. I have been through some difficult personal events so I'm hoping everyone will be understanding about what I have done to my tank. Anyway.
I haven't lost a fish in about 2 months so I think that maybe my tank does not have fish TB. So, I'm going to try to start again with my plants.
I set up my tank in Sept and had continous algae problems until last week when I finally yanked all my plants, did a 60% water change and super cleaned the tank.
I had brown algae, then hair algae then cyanobacteria. I am going to do water changes and keep the lights off for a few days before replanting.
I would really like to try to do things better this time and would like your help.
In this process I learned a lot with your help. I now have dry ferts and all my water test kits. I am still considering CO2 but I would like to know if you think it would help.
My parameters were:
pH: 7.6
KH: 13
phos: .5 ppm after dosing
nitra: < 5 mg/L after dosing
Lighting: 130W of 6700K
Substrate: eco-complete and getting flourite
9 inches of fish (8 of these are algae eaters)
55 gallon
Fluval 304
I was adding nitrates at the end because the high phosphates needed to be balanced. But, I found that even with regular fert regiment of nitra and potassium with Kents micronutrient I needed a water change every 4 days to hold back the algae. Only the water sprite would grow fast enough to keep from be strangled with algae.
My plan of attack is to buy more plants then last time and only buy fast growing plants. I'm adding Flourite and can test and attempt to balance my ferts.
How do I know if my algae problem could be helped by CO2? Where should I buy my plants? Would a water softener insert in my fluval help?
Thanks!!!
Its been a while since I posted. I have been through some difficult personal events so I'm hoping everyone will be understanding about what I have done to my tank. Anyway.
I haven't lost a fish in about 2 months so I think that maybe my tank does not have fish TB. So, I'm going to try to start again with my plants.
I set up my tank in Sept and had continous algae problems until last week when I finally yanked all my plants, did a 60% water change and super cleaned the tank.
I had brown algae, then hair algae then cyanobacteria. I am going to do water changes and keep the lights off for a few days before replanting.
I would really like to try to do things better this time and would like your help.
In this process I learned a lot with your help. I now have dry ferts and all my water test kits. I am still considering CO2 but I would like to know if you think it would help.
My parameters were:
pH: 7.6
KH: 13
phos: .5 ppm after dosing
nitra: < 5 mg/L after dosing
Lighting: 130W of 6700K
Substrate: eco-complete and getting flourite
9 inches of fish (8 of these are algae eaters)
55 gallon
Fluval 304
I was adding nitrates at the end because the high phosphates needed to be balanced. But, I found that even with regular fert regiment of nitra and potassium with Kents micronutrient I needed a water change every 4 days to hold back the algae. Only the water sprite would grow fast enough to keep from be strangled with algae.
My plan of attack is to buy more plants then last time and only buy fast growing plants. I'm adding Flourite and can test and attempt to balance my ferts.
How do I know if my algae problem could be helped by CO2? Where should I buy my plants? Would a water softener insert in my fluval help?
Thanks!!!