Re: [APD] I give up

[Thomas Barr <tcbiii at yahoo_com>]

First off, do you do water changes weekly or even once every 2 weeks or so on these low tech tanks?
   
  How old is the substrate?
  How much would say the plant biomass is?
   
  Non CO2, non Carbon enriched tanks seldom even get BBA, unless.........you do frequent water changes.
   
  Water changes will bring in large amounts of CO2.
  Later, after a few water changes, the plants are "confused", they were getting very little CO2, and so where the algae, they were using what little was there, and in the KH.
   
  Algae have the upper hand there when you vary the CO2.
  This is why you should NOT do water changes.
  Sounds weird, like folks adding more nutrients to get rid of algae.
   
  From my end, it's hard to teach this and have them unlearn the myths.
  But it works, I've yet o have set up a single non Carbon enriched tank that has had BBA in the last 12 years.
   
  There is more to the non Carbon enriched approach than this, but this is likely why you have the BBA outbreak.
   
  The goal in these low tech lazy tanks, is just that, so keep a balanced fish load, add some Greg Watson's GH builder at about 1/4 teaspoon to a 55 gal once a week, a few mls of traces, even some KNO3/KH2PO4 once a week if the fish load is low.
   
  Feed fish regularly, have some algae eaters etc.
  Add water for evaporation only and prune as needed.
   
  Pack the tank with plants though.
   
  There are a number of ways to do this, but this is the general reason why and how.
  The CO2 thing for the tap water and the folks adding not enough CO2/ or lower than optimal CO2, are reasons why they are plagued with BBA,
   
  Variation in CO2 durning the lighting cycle is why BBA likes to grow.
  BBA is almost exclusively CO2 related.
   
  Some tanks are almost teetering on BBA outbreaks and perhaps they don't clean a filter for way too long, add too much food etc, the balance is barely maintained.
   
  The key and the suggestions I give are geared to make the balance MORE robust and thus less problematic for whatever routine you might have.
   
  You have more wiggle room this way.
  And in your case, even less work by doing fewer water changes.
   
  btw: THERE IS A NICE MIDDLE GROUND SOME HAVE ALLUDED TO: USING EXCEL, MODERATE LOW LIGHT AND WATER CHANGES SAY ONCE A MONTH, PRUNING ONCE A MONTH PERHAPS ETC ALSO. SIMILARLY, LOW LIGHT AND GOOD CO2 IS ALSO A GREAT METHOD, AS WELL AS ONLY HAVING HIGH LIGHT FOR 4 HOURS AND THEN LOW LIGHT THE REMAINDER OF THE LIGHT CYCLE.
   
  You can use the Excel for a while to get rid of the BBA that is there now, then go back to no water changes after things have cleared up if you want, I just trim it all off and start over with good environmental conditions and stay on top of things for 1-4 weeks. Then it mellows out.
   
  It's the same old thing, no secret.
   
  Regards, 
  Tom Barr
   
  www.BarrReport.com


		
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