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Plants at 8.4 PH



  First I would like to thank everyone for all of the
great information on the list.I have been reading it 
the krib and Diana Walstads book. I believe with all
of this information that my tank has to be a success.
  I have several questions that I was hoping everyone
could comment on, all help would be greatly
appreciated.
  First I will give you a description of my system,
then I will list the questions.I would like to thank
all of you in advance for your help.
  Tank size: 120 gal.  /  Lighting: 220 watts cf  / 
Filters: 2-emperor 400's 2- hot magnums 1-eheim 2128 
1-powerhead with a sponge filter on it ( for
circulation )  /  Substrate: Aragonite (Carib sea
seaflor special )20-duplarit balls  /  Contents:
rocks, driftwood, some open floor area for digging,
about 40% of the floor is planted and I have 3-rather
large clumps of java moss in among the rocks  /  Fish:
6-SAE, 2-lake tang. catfish, 1-obliquiden, 3-labs,
7-peacocks, 1-pseudo deep, 1-red empress, ( all fish
are 3" to 6" in length and I will add another 4 or 5
fish gradually )  /  Food: pellets only ( Seachems
spectrum, HBHs african cichlid, brine shrimp pellets
and spirulina pellets )  /  Water: 25% weekly water
changes, NH3/NH4 undetectable, NO2 undetectable, NO3 5
ppm, PH 8.4, GH 4, KH 16, FE .1ppm, PO4 .1ppm,
Silicate 1ppm, Temperature 80 degrees,  /  Algae: some
brown and green grows on the glass, rocks and plants
(the main problem is algae growing on the plant leaves
).  /  Plant growth: some but not enough to keep the
algae off the leaves.
  All of my fish get along, they don't dig up the
plants ( most of them have small pieces of limestone
around the bottom ). Only the obliquiden eats any of
the plants and that is very little.
  QUESTIONS: #1 Since my ph is 8.4 and I have almost
no CO2 but mostly bicarbonate if I allow some surface
agitation will this cause me to lose bicarbonate or
will it be a problem?  #2 Would it benefit me to add
CO2 to this tank at 8.4 ph?  #3 Would it benefit my to
add Seachem excel to this Tank?  #4 If I did add Excel
and I was trying to limit Fe in the water column would
this work against me since it is said to free up FE2
and FE3?  #5 Should I raise the GH, if so how much and
with epsons salt?  #6 I am not sure which method of
fertilization to use( especially since I have what I
think is a high fish load ) or which method to use to
limit nutrients since a lot of the information on the
list is for high light CO2 tanks. Please give me your
input, I can use PMDD, Dupla, Seachem, Jobes whatever
is best. Limit PO4 or FE? I am sure that even the
hardest way can't be that difficult, I would just like
your opinions on a good starting point.  #7 I wasn't
able to find K2SO4 in anything but 50# bags. Any idea
of where to find it in the Houston area?  #8 Is
Seachem K just as good to use as K2SO4?  #9 I like to
use some carbon in my filtration will that cause any
real harm? #10 If I use trace elements without any FE
is there anyway to tell how much PMDD to use?  #11 How
long should it take to drive down NO3?  #12 Any
additional comments or suggestions?     

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