PTCAT (Plant Tank Crisis Action Team) I need your help.
I've got two fully planted tanks, one 36 gallon palnted corner tank in my living room (DIY CO2, 140watts of compact flourescent lighting, flourite/laterite subtrate, lights on from 7-9 w/ a three hour break from 1-3) and it has no problems.
I've also got a 40g breeder (Compressed Co2 with reactor, 150 watts of T5/CF lighting, SMS, lights on from 6-9 w/ a break from 12-3) And it's a gigantic mess. I have hair algae growing like none other all over the place. I've had the Cf lighting turned of for the last couple of days and only had the T5 (40watts) on. The only reason I don't have the lights completely off is the cost of the plants I have in there. The plants in the backround don't seem to have much growth on them but the forground is a mess. I've got 15 large amanos and several cherry shrimp in this tank, there no help. I'm not using any ferts is that my issue? If anything is there a brave soul that would come take a look and tell me what they think?

Loren
(913) 710-0730

Lorenmws wrote:


are you using the Gardner tap water as well? yeah, you need to get control over what's going on in the water column.

what's your test readings for nitrates? phosphates? ph? kh?

Yep, I go out to the well once a week here in Gardner and collect my water for my weekly water change. Whatever we were voted #2 in the country for water quality. I know that doesn't mean anything for a fish tank though.

Nitates-0, PH- 6, Phosphates- ?, GH- ?, KH-?. I don't have test kits for those.

Loren

it's a pretty simple routine once you've got everything you need and most importantly RO filtered water. I started a long time ago finding all the drinking water refilling stations that measured low on an inexpensive tds meter until i was able to afford my own filter. You'll need filtered water even if your water is #2 in the country and Gardners isn't bad, I grew up there. But the point is to have clean water with no impurities for a 50% weekly water change to reset all that you've been dosing throughout each week.

knowing your other test results goes without saying.

from what i understand
nitrates should be kept 5-10ppm
po4 0.5-1.0ppm
potassium 10-20ppm
Iron 0.1-0.3ppm

you test for nitrates and phosphates, the rest you just dose and reset with a weekly water change.

since your injecting compressed co2 with a reactor, this is the relation of kh to ph.

hope this helps,

I don't know anything about high tech plant care, but if you are looking for RO water, I got a kit at Lowes. It's a Whirlpool with a 2 gallon tank. It's set up in my basement. It is meant to go on a sink for drinking water. If you install it near a floor drain, there is basically no plumbing (if we could do it, it's not plumbing). It drains into the floor drain and the water source was a self-tapping deal. Easy. Took about 2 hours to install, DIY. I have an 18 gallon Rubbermaid container under it. I collect my water there. I have all the RO I need. I don't use it on all my tanks.

you don't need RO water. Tap is fine. It's much more important to start with putting things IN the water. RO is nice to have, but has to be reconstituted with a GH booster to replace the Mg and Ca you took out. If your nitrates are reading 0, then yes... you'll have problems. If you have lights and Co2, you NEED ferts. End of story. Your plants cannot grow correctly at those light and carbon levels with just fishwaste to go on. When the plants can't grow right, algae will come in and start using up all the other nutrients that ARE in the water. Figure out how you want to fertilize (what works for your schedule, etc) and you can find either prepackaged ferts to use (pfertz, flourish, etc) or mix your own dry ferts to use depending on what you want in terms of ease, or control.

www.aquariumfertilizers.com

KN03
KH2PO4
K2SO4
a good micro mix
Gh booster
Chelated Fe 10% powder.

order the above from the above website and do some research on how much you need to add for your plants. These will last you a LONG time. Your problems won't be solved immediately, but you'll get a lot further with ferts than without. Or... get one of the mentioned premixed fertilizers and use them per bottle instructions if you don't want to get into doing your own mix. If you decide to go with RO water, make sure to use enough CA, and MG to replace what you took out.

or add some tap water back in and measure GH/KH. A RODI of my own was the thing that finally gave me the freedom to have a (somewhat)algae free

Planted Tank

.

others might be able to monitor all these things in tap water but I find it's much more simplified if you start out with a blank canvas when dealing with dosing ferts. Follow some basic guidlines, keeping an eye on nitrates, phosphates, KH, and pH...

dose nitrates and pottasium day 1

uno dose trace (micro) day 2

wait a day, test

repeat the process then reset everything with a big water change at day 7.

this is just what seems to work best on my schedule and seems to be the least stressful IMO but experiment however want. I've been there using Gardner tap water as well...

I can't stand test kits. That's why I calculate what I'm putting IN the tank and use EI method dosing so I don't have to test anything. 50% WC a week to reset and get rid of any buildup and I'm good to go. If I could start with RO, I might, but I'm in an apartment, and if you know a way to do wc's on a 125 and a 75 with RO in an apartment, let me know lol.

jargonchipmunk wrote:


been there too! good exercise carrying 5g containers of filtered water in each hand up a couple flights of stairs..

not me sir! lol my python to the tap is my trusty steed! If I knew plumbing and had a way to store the 50-100g of water I'd need a WEEK to do those WC's, I'd hook up an RO unit tomorrow, but... not so much As it is, I'm just lucky the apartment splits the water bill throughout all of the tenents in the complex. BWAHAHA everyone's water bill goes up slightly because I'm there.

If you really wanna get crazy, a maxijet in the end of that python coming out of a 55 gallon trashcan works wonders. Who needs closet space, right?

I also found an extra soft toothbrush works wonders to remove the hair algae. Tedious yes, but i brush my plants regularly. You can drill a hole in the bristles and stick a suction hose on it to suck the algae out so it doesn't reattach or run a polishing filter for a couple hours. I have been happy with both methods.

AquaAddict wrote:


genius!

this is the ro/di im using now. It has a di bypass if you just want ro water. Its a decent system but i will say it is overrated. I want to switch the membrane it has now for 2 75gpd filmtec membranes. The 150gpd it has i feel is subpar and only makes around 100gpd .
www.airwaterice.com/c=VVgsUokm8pJFspBVPD..._Dual_TDS_Meter.html
This is the one it replaced and it is a great unit my little brother is now using it with an add on di chamber so we converted it to a 5 stage but it worked awesome out of the box.www.abundantflowwater.com/html/aquarium_filters.html
be sure if you want to run a shut off valve you get a system with an ASOV. On the abundant flow it is a $16 option on the air water ice it is standard.