[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

RE: Aquatic Plants Digest V4 #1477



> Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2001 01:15:18 EST
> From: D0NxD0N at aol_com
> Subject: Re: PH Problems?

>>> Notice how low your kH is. Did you know that the CarboPlus 
>>> lowers kH? What's

>> I did NOT know that actually!"
> 
> Yup. The plus part in the CarboPlus name is for its ability 
> to lower kH.

Ahhh, so I'll consider THAT a bad thing (and I was wondering why my KH was lowering even in the absence of a water change!)
 
>> So if I need to raise KH, is that the right thing to use, or 
>> is there 
>> something better? (perhaps just occassional TAPWATER use for a water 
>> change?). "

> I use Baking Soda in my tank because of my tapwater's almost 
> RO-like quality. 
> If I don't add baking soda w/ every water change then I 
> immediately see 
> changes in the leaves of my Ammannia. It starts to bend in 
> weird directions 
> and if left that way the leaves will start to curl from the 
> edges. My H. 
> polysperma will also start to turn white at the top of the 
> plant and start to 
> develop curly leaves.

One of the people who wrote me said that baking soda will put sodium into the tank. Is this "negligible" or something to be concerned about with Discus? 

 
>> Is 2.336 watts per gallon "okay"? "

> It's ok if your lighting, CO2 and nutrients are balanced. 
> Heh, you could have 
> 5 watts/gallon and it would be ok if your plants were growing 
> well and you 
> didn't have any algae problems.

Awesome! I put in all the nutrients yesterday and it seems like the "bga takeover" halted for the moment and some of my stem plants turned bionic.. 
 

> "I've got: TMGFlourishFlourish IronFlourish PotassiumI 
> suspect I should use 
> EITHER TMG or Flourish, but either way dose the IRON and 
> Potassium, no? 
> "
> 
> You're right. Be careful w/ dosing on the Fe. Hair algae 
> blooms have resulted 
> from too much Fe in the water column. I dose Fe fairly 
> heavily in my tank 
> (about .25 ml each day) but that's because my plants tell me 
> they need it. My 
> H. difformis will start to yellow if Fe is not added.

I'll make sure to measure my Fe. I've got lots of hair algae eatin critters, so I hope that'll stay in check (it sure beats bga! Lol). 


>> "Ahh, so use tapwater instead to keep KH high (this will 
>> increase hardness & 
>> phospate too), right? "
 
> Ummm... talk to someone like Tom Barr who has very hard 
> water, phosphates in 
> his tapwater and has a virtually algae free system. I don't have any 
> experience w/ hard water so hopefully someone will chime in who does.

Kewl, I'll look forward to any forthcoming comments. :)
 
>> "About 45 days.. It's full of efisubstrat ONLY. I generally 
>> mess with each 
>> filter every 60 days (but never at the same time). The 
>> Fluval404 gets clogged 
>> a lot tho, but I don't "change it out" when that happens.. I 
>> just rinse the 
>> pads. "

> The reason I asked you how long its been since you did 
> maintenance is because 
> I've gotten BGA in the past when I neglected to do 
> maintenance on my filters. 
> Once I cleaned out my filter and used Maracyn to kill off the 
> BGA I never had 
> that plague again.

Hopefully the additional nutrients will fix the job. I'm wonderin if I shouldn't try a halfdose of erythromycin anyways so long as I watch my biological filtration.. 

Thanks again!

Gregory

--------------------------------------- 
     http://www.myfishbox.com
--------------------------------------- 


-- This email has been scanned for viruses before being sent.