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nitrates, phosphates, algae and CO2
Ok, I am in need of help again please.
As a refresher the tank is a 92 gallon, MH, Dupla cables, Flourite/plain
substrate mix with laterite, CO2 injection, ottos, SAE's, Amano shrimp,
snails, soft water. I was severely nitrate and phosphate limited.
As per Tom's recommendations, did a small water change and added stump
remover to up my nitrates which were 0.
Day 1 - added 1 tsp stump remover plus 20 ml of TMG.
Day 2 - nitrates were still low so I added another 1/4 teaspoon stump
remover.
Day 3 - added 10 ml of TMG. I haven't added phosphate because it won't
arrive until tomorrow. That being said my parameters today are:
GH 3 (I added Equilibrium to get this back up to 4)
KH 4
Nitrite .01
Nitrates 3 (I added 1/4 tsp SR tonight)
Phosphate .07
I now have some nitrates( I am still working on getting it up to 5) and am
phosphate limited, right? There was green spot on glass before but now it
is getting worse and getting on plants and driftwood. My driftwood is now a
solid dark green color and the thread algae with knots is more widespread.
The UV is still on. I thought phosphate excesses caused green spot,
although it was there with virtually no phosphates. Several of the plants
are pearling (is that cool or what, never had that before!) but I am worried
if everything will go crazy when I add the phosphate. I am still upping my
nitrate slowly to hit the recommended 5-10 ppm (thank goodness for the
archives or I would not have known that mg/L was PPM). With the increased
algae, do I just continue to hit it slowly with SR and start phosphate
addition tomorrow, throw in some more frogbit and stems or what? I am at
about 35-40% stems.
On a related note, my CO2 is still dropping to 6.4 at night yet it is set at
6.9 on controller. The CO2 is fed into an Eheim canister filter. Will the
canister accumulate that much CO2 throughout the day? I have slowed the
bubble rate down, sped it up, doesn't matter. I thought with the
controller it wouldn't drop much at night. I am being diligent to maintain
my GH and KH at 4 and have been testing every day to every other day to hold
it there. It maintains the pH at 6.8-6.9 during the day and doesn't run
continuously, I hear the solenoid open periodically and have visually
checked. I don't know if this is normal but don't think it is related to
the aforementioned problem. However, I just wanted to give all the facts...
Thanks as always, I would have never started a high tech tank if were not
for ya'll! I am sure you'll be thrilled when I hush about this also so
thanks for your patience!
Daphne