[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: Algae Growth
Alex R. wrote:
> That's the thing. My plants are not growing that well.
Sorry to butt in, but just what is it that they aren't doing? Are there
symptoms? For example, compared to previous conditions, are they light
colored, thin stemmed, dropping older leaves, or something else?
> My tap
> water has 7 KH, 10 GH. My tank water has 5 KH, 8 GH.
Hey, how do you get GH in your aquarium that's lower than GH in your tap
water? Oh, and with 10 GH out of the tank you probably don't need to
add any form of magnesium. The magnesium is already there.
In hard water phosphate can precipitate and become unavailable to
plants. The actual rate at which that happens depends on details in
your tank. I seem to recall a while back that Tom Barr reported some
phosphate levels in his *hard* water tanks and showed that the
concentration dropped quickly after the phosphorus was originally added
-- possibly too quickly to be accounted for by plant use alone.
> I remove the algae physically every 2-3 days. As for herbivores, I
> specifically avoid putting any new animals into my tank.
What drudgery! You will have better success if you use all of your
tools -- herbivores, I mean. Amano shrimp are elegent (sort of) but it
takes a lot of shrimp before they're effective. And they're expensive.
Roger Miller