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Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V2 #167



>From: Paul Snuggs <psnuggs at btn_co.uk>
>Date: Thu, 29 Aug 1996 13:00:15 -0700
>Subject: Blue-greens wipe out - HELP Please !
>
>Hi everyone,
>I need some help. I am getting wiped out with blue-green algaes.
>I have a 48" by 20" high by 18" deep tank with a Dennerle CO2 system. I
>am changing so much water (am currently doing 50% twice a week) that I
>am currently using Dennerle fertilizer like there's no tommorrow - which
>is very expensive over here at 12 Fe tablets a week and 100 tabs for
>26ukp... I'm starting college as a mature student at the end of
>September and I need to find a cheaper (as less time consuming) way of
>fertilizing my tank. Does anybody out there know how to make your own
>fertilizer ? Can I use 'human' multi-vitamin tabs - or are the %'s all
>wrong? Does anybody know what the essential vitamins & trace elements
>are needed for good plant growth ? How much of each is needed ? Is
>Sulphate of Iron (cheap here) the same as the chellated Iron needed for
>plants?
>
>Any suggestions (including other net-sources I could look to etc.) would
>be a great help.
>
>Thanks in advance,
>Steve Andrews.

Steve,

I recently fought BGA in a 20 gal tank for about six months. I did many
water changes, as you are doing. I carefully siphoned the aglae off of the
bottom and the plants but each time it grew back. I finally got rid of it
totally with Myracin (an antibotic yes, but Blue Green algae is a bacteria,
not a plant!).

As to fertilizer, plants need CO2 & Fe which are usually deficent to some
degree in an aquaria. The type of iron fertilizer you need depends on the
type of plants you have.

Bog plants like swords need to uptake nutrients via the roots, for those I
suggest laterite clay in the substrate. You can "retro-fit" your substrate
using Dupla Laterite Balls (Duplarit-K). I use them at 1/2 the recommended
dose.

For stemmed plants (true aquatics) such as hygrophilla polysperma, I use
Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Aquarium Plant Stimulant (APS).

Both laterite and APS provide all other "trace". Only CO2 is needed which
can be supplied by the fish ad/or CO2 injection.


- Bill Brady ... Harwood Maryland USA