[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
NO3, PO4 additons and Algae
First,
Thanks Tom and Steve for the help (pointing me to the info on what amount of
dosing yields what approximate ppm). For those of you who are a little more
"in the dark", I have had problems with Algae that began with my well
publicized CO2 EOT failure. The death of the fish (and maybe the temporary
drastic change in pH) did something weird to my tank that threw off-balance
the environment allowing green thread algae to get a hold. My accidentally
overdosing with TMG did not help the situation either (oops!).
So now I have had thread (not BBA) algae for the last several weeks. Plant
growth has been minimal and the algae has been doing pretty good (I have a
LOT of light, 220WPC over 55g. 110@5K, 110@6,5K 12 hours/day). So,
after a couple of weeks of pulling light green algae, this week-end I
measured
NO3, Fe and PO4 as a reference.
NO3 was zero, PO4 was zero, and Fe seemed (still) a little high. CO2 is at
2bpm in a Barr-like reactor.
After Tom and Steve pointed me in the right direction:
I raised the tank about 9ppm of NO3 (Via KNO3)
I raised the tank 15ppm (more of a guess from the tables, K2SO4 is not
listed, KCL is. Anyone have this calculated per 1/4 tsp?)
I added about 0.2 PO4.
Here is the current result:
Both the Algae and Plants responded. The Rotala Indica is beginning to grow
again, everything is a little greener. The thread algae also started to grow
a little faster and is a much deeper shade of green. Tom recommended to stay
on top of removing it so I removed as much as I could last night, then
measured NO3, Fe and PO4 again: 0ppm, readable, and 0ppm.
So, I added another 10ppm of NO3, and another 0.2 (and yes Steve, I
understood what you meant by the plants will begin to slow down intake of
PO4 once they are "full") of PO4.
I'll let you all know how this adventure goes.
- Jeff