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By Golly It Might Be Working!!
My new 50 gal has been infected with filamentaceous green algae since the
end of the first week. It's now about the fourth and a half week. It's
heaviliy planted, with 140 W of florescent and compact florescent lighting.
I inject CO2 and add 5 ml TMG a week.
I had also added a couple of doses of Flourish Iron to get iron up to 0.1
mg/l but have not done so for over a week. Initially, I added CaC03 to get
GH and KH up. I now use baking soda and Equilibrium during the two water
changes I've done to keep KH at 4dH and GH at 5dH. pH is 6.6 to 6.8. Since
day 1, ammonia has been 0, and phosphates, nitrite and nitrates have been
below the threshold of readability for the Hagen tests I use.
The plants are growing quite well but the algae has been a problem on the
top half of the tank. My attempts at physical removal have not really be
very effective.
However, last weekend, I added 1/4 tsp. KNO3, resulting in about 5 mg/l on
NO3 in the water. I might be imagining things but two days later there
seems to be less algae strings flowing in current. Something is using up
the NO3 because the test detected less than 5 mg/l. So I added another 1/4
tsp KNO3 to get between 5 to 10 mg/l of N03.
Could it be that Tom Barr and Kathy Randall and the rest of the gurus are
correct and that you need nitrates to help the plants outcompete the algae??
I'm keeping a hopeful eye on things!
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