Brown Algae

[Rob5]

Thanks BigbruiserAl

I was just going by the lfs advice but obviously i should start listening to the members on here

Im guessing prime is some sort of water conditioner?

 

[BigbruiserAl]

Thats the problem with lfs, think of the money they are raking in off you using RO. Whats your tank size and what fish are keeping btw?

Yeah mate should last a while 5ml treats 200l

http/www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/Prime.html Best to get on flebay cheapest.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, Prime is a water conditioner and is used by many of us to treat our tap water during the weekend water change (getting ready to do mine today, sigh.)

I agree with BBA that you probably should ease your way back toward tap water and then stick with that as your baseline water. It gets very old very fast to try and constantly work with "doctored" water. There is extra expense or work at every water change and the need to lay away emergency water since water changes are your main safety valve for fish problems. Only those who are truly pushed into it by necessity should go the doctored route.

For the OP (original poster) and the other member asking about brown algae I can add a voice of personal experience that any longer term brown algae (aka diatom) problem will almost certainly yield to shortened photo periods (length of time you leave your tank lights on or your timers turn the lights on.) It is good that you have dropped to a few hours and if that does not solve the problem you can keep shortening, say, a half hour at a time with a couple of weeks to see what change that brings about (yes, you must be very patient and give it time before you know.) Of course you do want a good working biofilter in operation such that your ammonia levels show zero with tested with non-expired liquid-reagent testing kits. Light plus ammonia is the trigger for algae spores! But lighting time is nearly always the answer for this.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Rob5]

Thanks guys....tap water i shall be going too

And Al i have a 125l tank with 12 neon tetras and 4 panda cories at the moment

 

[BigbruiserAl]

Thanks guys....tap water i shall be going too

And Al i have a 125l tank with 12 neon tetras and 4 panda cories at the moment

Great that bottle of prime will prob out live your fish lol, and yeah then RO is 100% not needed for those fish i keep both in exellent conditon with 100% tap water. Let us know how it goes

 

[Rob5]

Been on Ebay and ordered some prime ready for the next water changes Lol

Can I use tap water for my next water change or should I slowly add it with RO water, as in 20% water change using 80% RO with 20% tap water?

 

[guppi]

I would go steady and just wean the fish off the ro water to your local water, 3/4 of ro to 1/4 tap water at first. Ph of your tap water will be different I would guess.

 

[BigbruiserAl]

You dont have to mix it out side the tank if thats what you mean, so if your whole tank at the mo is 100% RO do have ever much chnage you normally do but make sure 20% of is tap water, then next week maye 40% etc

 

[Rob5]

Thanks guys will do that at the next water change.

The reason i used the RO water originally is because the tap water in my area has a Gh of 110 and the pH is about 8.0....so by adding the tap water will i have to adjust the Gh and pH chemically?

Sorry about all the questions, i cannot remember having all these water issues 20 odd years ago!!! lol

 

[BigbruiserAl]

best thing is fill a pint glass with tap water leave alone for 24hr and do a full series of test that will give you better idea of what tank water will level out to

 

[ian]

Most tropical fish will do OK tap water...i'm also in the same boat as you, my GH from the tap is 26, PH 7.9 and TDS of 600. I wanted to start to keep more soft water fish like blue rams, green neons and the like. I also opted for RO, that said my RO is re mineralised. There are some advantages to using RO (other than the cost). There is obviously a better fish selection (normally more colourful), the next biggie is the water clarity, with RO the TDS remains really low, around 50-100 with rematerialised. That said, looking at the fish you keep you may be able to get away with tap water.

 

[Rob5]

Cheers mate, will do that....thanks for your help

Thanks for that ianho