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Flourite or Laterite in Planted Discus tank?
I am currently running a moderately planted (mostly fast growers-
Hygrophyla, Bacopa, Rotala sp.) 90 gallon discus tank (six -2.5 to 4.5 inch
fish) with bottled CO2 (2 bubble per second) and four T12 Chromas (2 50's /2
75's) bulbs over top of glass lids. I feed only spirulina flake and cichlid
pellets. I originally wanted to keep things simple (ie. infrequent dosing of
nutrients and weekly water changes, however I don't seem to be able to keep
spot algae under control ( i.e. goal= less than weekly scraping). I have
been adding about 1/8 tsp of Na-biphosphate to keep phosphorus up a little
(it has helped keep algae lower). However, every time I dose trace
(Originally PMDD), and more recently TMG (5 ml per 20 gallon water change)
the algae seems to grow better. I have thought about supplementing the
gravel with either laterite (probably balls) or changing half the plain
gravel substrate and adding flourite. I have been trying to adopt Tom
Barr's approach with limitted success, Am I on the right track, any
suggestions?
Cheers,
Cory Williamson
in Snowy Prince George, BC
7800 Thompson Drive
Prince George, BC V2N 5N5
E-mail: cswilliamson at telus_net
Phone: 250-964-3973