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[APD] Re: BGA advice



"From: "Martin Gorjup" <martingorjup at blueyonder_co.uk>
Subject: [APD] BGA advice 
To: <aquatic-plants at actwin_com>

Tom,
Firstly thanks for your time and help.
You say
?KNO3 KNO3, KNO3 and KNO3?
Is this assuming the water is Potassium and Nitrate poor?  If not, mines
about 45mgl out of the tap, then adding KNO3 is unnecessary?"

It assumes the NO3 measurement is actually correct and assumes it is inorganic bioavailable.
KNO3 is both.
You can still be limited in respect to K+, add K2SO4 and see if you have a rapid decline in NO3.
PO4 seems fine, again, assuming the measurement is correct.
 You can make a ref sample to see if the test kit is accurate.

Then again, adding an extra 1ppm of PO4 and 10ppm of NO3 is not going hurt either:)

So you can try a few things to see what the issue is. 
It's not as simple when you look at other situations, but the root cause is rather simple in aquariums and consistent.

What often is not consistent are measurements, routines, other issues like cleaning fliters, only having a few plants, substrate issue(use of soil), tank age etc.

These can be addressed fairly easily. 
But often I go after the main issues first and then rule out the rest one by one. 

If you think BGA is caused by high NO3, add some to see if it does. 
You have nothing to lose in doing so????
What's another 5-10ppm
Then if that has an effect, the chnces are good it was K+ limited if the NO3 checks out.
If not..........then NO3. Or the form of N measured(DIN vs DON).

I hope you do not drink that tap water, you'll need viagra:-)
 
?Green spot algae suggest high PO4 levels etc...........?
Again my tap PO4 is about 2.5mgl and I have some green spot but nothing
to worry about.  Are there any particular species that suck up more PO4
than others?  Or any other idea for reducing PO4 (not rainwater please)"

Plants. Quite effective. 
Adding a load of plants and not douing a water change for 2 weeks will drop these levels way down, then doing small 25% water changes 1-2x a week will add the nutrients back.

All you'll do is add CO2, K2SO4, and traces.
This assumes the GH/KH are in good shape.......... 
 
?BBA=> CO2?  I keep my co2 at about 25+ mgl but have staghorn algae.  I
keep picking but it keeps coming back.  Any connection with high PO4 /
NO3?"

Okay, now I'm getting a clear picture of what your tank is going through and where it's been in the recent past.
Something was messed up awhile back, you eithe rdid a large scale up rooting of the substrate, a fish died/rotted, the CO2 went off for awhile, you added Jobes sticks to the substrate, anything that added some urea/NH4 to the tank for awhile, then the algae bloomed. 

Now you need to remove the algae that's there.
Scrubl, clean, fluff, preen, prune, clean filter, lightly vacuum gravel's top 1/2", clean equipment good.
Doa  large water change, 50%.
Make sure the CO2 is high, 25-30ppm for the entire photoperoid.
Add K2SO4, there are mail order places in the UK for that.
Check Tropicalfishcentre website for local folks in the UK.
Add traces.

If you have BGA, try the blackout, antiobiotics are not an option there w/o prescriptions.
You have done some major things to your tank with all these algae growing, it's not just the BGA, you have a community of algae doing well qnd there are some rather major issues going on here. 
 
So clean and take care of the tank, add some cheap easy to grow plants for now if you need more plant biomass.
Stop moving plants around and disturbing them if have been. Dose the K+, Traces, GH perhaps...CO2.

If you do 25% water changes weekly, this will add, assuming the measurements are correct, about 12ppm of NO3 and .65ppm of PO4. You could stand to add more PO4 actually, which is a plausible reason for some green spot algae. No BBA seems like good CO2.

Regards, 
Tom Barr  
  
"Regards Martin"


 


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