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Re: Algae Hair, Proper PH 6.5
Patrick Wichert wote:
<<I guess another question is how do I get rid of
Alage Hair? I'ts making my plants look bad. My lights are on for about
10-12
hours, I use DIY CO2, I've added propper PH 6.5 to keep the ph steady.
>>
When I first started my aquarium I went through the beginner's obsession
of lowering PH with all kinds of products, and tried Aquarium
Pharmaceuticals Proper PH 6.5. Soon afterwards I got green water,
followed by black hair algae. The problem is that Proper PH 6.5 (and
Proper PH 7.0) is a phosphate based buffer (they don't tell you that in
the package), which contributes to excess phosphates which are food for
algae. My recommendation to you is to stop using Proper PH and make
several water changes to remove the phosphate buffers. My experience
with black hair algae was that it disappeared after I removed all traces
of phosphate buffers and started injecting CO2 (DIY).
If you inject CO2 and you know your water's KH, you do not need any of
those commercial pH buffers. In my experience, a KH of 3 dKH (achieved
by adding 1/4 tsp baking soda to each 5 gal R/O water) and CO2 injection
of one bubble a second keeps my tank's pH between 6.8 and 7.0.
--
Guillermo Vega-Toro
guillermo_vegatoro at stercomm_com