[APD] dry dosing & algae

["Steve" <steve_wilsonii at fishpalace_org>]

I have a comment and a question or just food for
thought. I have been dry dosing my tank since
November and with great results, but near the end
of January I started getting this dusty looking
green algae on my glass but only where the metal
halides are focused. Plant growth is still great,
but I have been trying to figure out how to get
rid of or reduce this algae. The day after I clean
it off it starts to come back, even after a water
change  when the tank is on its best behavior.

I have read here on APD that adding more PO4 will
reduce spot algae in a similar set-up. I stared
adding more PO4 but didn't see any drastic
difference in 2 weeks, be it good or bad. So I
decided to do that mega dosing and I dosed 2X the
suggested amounts of everyting after a water
change, while planning to do another water change
the next day. Since all was good and I saw no
algae I was able to go until the end of the second
day before seeing any traces of algae on the
glass. I dosed again since it was time and the
algae did not get worse until day two.

My test kits are cheap and are telling me that my
nitrate and phosphate levels are way over the
recomended target range for a planted tank.

Tank specs are as follows:
75 gallon, Flourite/Onyx sand substrate,
pressurized CO2 @ 48mg/l.
I was dosing by the gram, but the scoop (1/4 tsp)
I was using made it quite simple for me to
eyeball, since it was always the same amount of
scoops per nutrient.

3.5g KNO3 = 3 scoops
4g K2SO4 = 4 scoops
and PO4 was enema, but now it's just 1/2 scoop
KH2PO4.
and the 15ml Plantex CSM trace mix solution

Well now I have doubled all of the above mentioned
quantities and the algae still appears on the
glass, just much slower. I have no other algae to
speak of (KNOCK ON WOOD). I was thinking CO2 but
the PH/KH chart says my CO2 is up there although
the fish are fine. Is there something that can
throw that chart off?  Is there one particular
nutrient that I have added in the 2X dosing that
is obviously still out of balance? The thing that
gets me is that for over two months the tank was
great without any algae and great plant growth.
Without changing anything, I start this green
glass thing that is only subdued by really dumping
in all kinds of nutrients. Any thoughts or
comments would be appreciated and sorry for the
lengthy post.

Steve


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