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Re: algae on slow growing leaves



Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2003 08:44:47 -0400
From: Thomas Barr <tcbiii at earthlink_net>

Not excess. Green spot does great in even super soft RO water with very
little nutrients and fish etc.
Two things often times help encourage GS.
Low PO4 and low CO2.


It's funny you say that as I just kicked up the CO2 levels over the last few weeks, but I'm not adding any PO4. I just now went and tested for PO4. (Forgot that I had a phosphate test kit sitting in the cabinet.) Came out to about 1 mg/L. (Give or take a bit... the Hagen test result colors can be hard to narrow down sometimes.) What sort of number should I be going for on that one? PO4 is just a source of phosphorous, right?


55 gallon
96 watts PC
co2 injection
15ml Flourish per week

Try 2x 7-10mls per week. 20 mls total or more per week, split into 2-3
dosages.


I'm actually doing 3x 5mls of Flourish weekly. Like I've read you (and many others) say a million times, splitting up the doages is better than one big dump at the beginning of the week. :) So you think I should actually up the Flourish a bit, and ditch the Flourish Trace? I'm okay with that... one less thing to deal with. :)


50% water change weekly (Tom Barr method) :)
Epsom Salt after water change

Do you need Mg?(What's your GH?) Do you add K2SO4/KCl or KNO3?


I had seen you recommend Mg (via Epsom Salt) to other folks in some previous posts quite some time ago, so I figured it was a necessary addition. I just now did some searches regarding Mg and GH and they showed that Mg is related to GH. Based on the fact that you asked me what my GH is, I'm guessing that if my GH is high enough then I'm probably not lacking in Mg. :) My GH test kit ran out a while back, but our tap water is pretty hard here and thus my KH and GH were always on the hard side. Does this mean I'm probably okay as far as Mg? Should I possibly stop the Epsom Salt (MgSO4) additions?

As far as K2SO4, I couldn't find any in town so I have not been dosing that. However, I have just started using Seachem Flourish Potassium as that was available at my LFS. K2SO4 is just a source of potassium, right?

As far as KNO3, unfortunately I haven't been regular about dosing it. Wasn't terribly sure how much to use, but based on other posts I was guessing 1/2 teaspoon 2-3 times a week. Since I haven't been regular about it it might indeed be lacking. KNO3 is basically just a source of nitrogen, right?

In conclusion:
From the questions you've been asking me, I'm getting that the three biggies (N, P, K) are what you're after, along with whatever trace element package I want to use. If I can make sure I've got sufficient N, P, and K (along with traces and CO2), I should be okay?


Thanks for your help and input!
-joe