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Re: Varying algae from hell
All,
I'm going to try responding to everyone at once (thanks for the bunches of
replies, everyone!), so please pardon if this is a little long.
> The trick here is to add Nitrate (use your potassium nitrate) so you
> actually get a small but consistent reading of nitrate. That allows your
> plants to have nitrogen, and out compete the BGA and other algaes for the
> little phosphorus there is.
> Mark P.
I've been trying that in the form of KNO3, however, the only result I'm
seeing is that I'm now growing hair algae on top of the slime!
> Justin, seems like your nutrients are unbalanced. Those algae like
> to take over when the plants are struggling, and they struggle when
> the nutrient levels are as low as you stated. I'd start off by tossing
> in a little K2SO4 to get the K levels up, add some KNO3 to get the
> NO3 around 5-10ppm, and maybe a little KH2PO4. You might can
> skip the K2SO4 if you use enough KNO3. All that bright light is
> causing the plants to strip your water. Monitor the levels and keep
> them up. Everything should level back out.
I've been working on that. I added some extra potassium to the KNO3 I've
been using, per the rations in the PMDD recipie, so I'm not sure that's the
problem. I may mix some up seperate and add that as even more extra to see
if it has any effect
> Is your reef tank in the same room? (light spill from a 20000k?)
Nope. Reef is in my room, plant tank is downstairs in the living room.
Good connection though-I wouldn't have thought of that if someone else had
posted my question.
> Sounds good to me:)The P will help. GH of 20 is fine. I got a GH of 24. I
> don't play with it or RO/DI no nothing. I add it right into my tank with
> some Amquel/prime and your done. I have soft water fish. They are doing
> quite well. My plants are doing super.
Sorry, should also have mentioned that I went to RO/DI to get rid of the
buffer Denver city water adds. I could run tap water in the tank at 30ppm
of CO2 and not get the pH below 7.5. Not bad, but not where I wanted it.
That, and I was planning a salt tank, which our tap water is horrible for,
due to the phosphate problems. Maybe I just got spoiled by Seattle water.
BTW, could someone send me about 200 gallons of that? Water here tastes off
after having lived on Seattle water for 18 years...:-)
> Try overfeeding then. Fish food is good fertilizer(adds some N and P). You
> do good maintenance and all, sounds like.
I've been concerned about hair algae, but I may give that a shot. Anyone
know why my tank would have made such a sudden switch from one algae to the
other?
> Get a good test kit and see. Quit guessing. NO3 was zero which is not
good.
My understanding is that even if a tank has zero measurable nitrate, it may
not be nitrate limited. Additions of KNO3 seemed to exacerbate the hair
algae problem, rather than add to plant growth. Am I wrong in this?
As always, help is greatly appreciated, and thanks,
Justin Collins, in slightly less frustrated Littleton, CO.