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Good test kits, green water fix, phosphate limited FYI.
Saw couple of questions out there so thought I'd give my 2 cents to each.
Someone asked about good test kits. I have got the new one by Hagen (well
new in Canada anyways). They all come in a similar boxes but colour coded
depending on the test type with a big 'NEW' sticker. While I can't say how
accurate they are (haven't compared it to a lab test) they are consistant
and are a nice kit. You get a pipet, mixing tube, and chemical bottles.
What I like about them is they don't rip you off on the bottles. Some tests
say use 2 drops of bottle #1 and 5 drops of #2 and the bottles are the same
size... so you end up wasting it. These tests state how may test they will
do and bottles are of diff sizes according to how many drops you use.
Green water. I have always had a reoccuring problem with green water. It
would take a month or a couple of weeks but it always came back. I had 0 PPM
of phosphates, tried diatom filtering until it was crystal clear..
everything. And even if it wasn't pea soup it was slightly cloudy as it
slowly became soup. Well I finally broke down and brought a UV sterilizing
kit. All I can say is WOW. Just WOW. Been 3 days and water is crystal.
Plants still give off tons of bubbles, so no adverse effect so far. You
might be able to get rid of the green water in other (and cheaper, UV is not
cheap) ways but UV sure does work.
I posted a little while ago about my tank (87 gal, 2x175W MH lights, DIY
CO2,) that had a problem with 0 PPM phosphates, creeping up Nitrates and
slow plant growth. My guess was that the 0 P was keeping the plants from
growing and using up the Nitrates. Well after adding P to the water the
growth has gone WAY up and the nitrates dropped. No explosion of algea
growth.
Peter.