[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: nutrient problems



Travis, 

"I have a number of plants where the older leaves
become speckled with dots.
I assume it's a nutrient difficiency. Can anyone guess
as to what it may be?"

It looks and sounds like green spot algae.  It also
looks like you have beard, black brush, and staghorn. 
Without knowing more about the tank, it's hard to say
what the problem is.  None of the last three are any
big deal if you know how to get rid of them.  I used
to get beard when I let the macros slip too low.  I
would be interested to know if anybody has had it with
nutrient excess.

How much co2 do you have in there?  Light?  Nutrient
levels?      

"Can I use the KH2PO4 for dosing phosphate instead of
straight PO4?"   

Yes.  That's what I use.  

"Do I have to worry about the excess K?"

No.  Potassium is hard to overdose, and you won't be
using that much of it anyway.  

"For a 29-gallon tank what amount of dry ingredients
should I be adding and at what frequency for the
chemicals I have?"  

That depends on a bunch of things like light and so
on.  Every tank is different.  There are no
set-in-stone dosing amounts, only the recommended
levels.  This has worked well for me:  Make sure your
light and co2 are ok and get some decent test kits. 
Observe over time how much your tank uses (kno3, etc)
and you'll get into a routine where you don't have to
test much.  With observation, you'll also connect
changes in plant growth and the appearance of
different algae types to what you're putting in the
tank, further reducing the need to test.  I only do it
every once in a while or when I want to confirm a
sucpicion that I have (phosphate too low or something
like that).          


"I have backed off dosing so much Fe because of a fuzz
algae problem, maybe I
cut it back too much?"

That's not the first thing I'd suspect.  See above.  


"Also, how does the accumulation of mulm in the tank
effect the alage?"

I'm not sure about that.  Claus Christensen was
talking about how high levels of disolved organics
might help blue-green types, but that's for another
discussion.  I just try to keep the tank from becoming
a mess.  

Cavan 

 


__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now.
http://mailplus.yahoo.com