Co2 And Po4

[LittleMissDynamite]

Ok,i understand the nitrogen cycle and have had my main tank set up since March.I did the fishless cycle and took a lot of advice from my lfs.I now test my water with a liquid test kit and do a 20 percent water change every ten days.I add filter aid and decholrinater to the water before adding it to the tank.I have found someone to rehome the hundreds of baby mollies and baby guppies i ended up with.I got a molly with what i thought was pop eye a few weeks back.I have since lost two female mollies and two female guppies (all adults) the babies seem fine.My water tests are okay.PH7.6 amonia)0.25ppm, nitrite and nitrate are zero.My tap water tests exactly the same.I have noticed a horrid black bush algea growing on the edges of my plants and research suggests fluctuating co2 levels or high PO4 levels cause this.Could someone explain this to me and how to test it.Would it cause fish loss or were the adult fish i bought in may just old,or exhausted from having too many babies?My tank is an Aqua one 550 and i have an aditional air stone in it to give water movment and oxygen.The tank is heavily planted and the plants grow very fast and need a "haircut" every ten days or so too.Advice and information very much apreciated,thankyou

 

[hanny93]

your ammonia is too high and i imagine your nitrate test kit is out of date if it is showing 0.

whatis your stocking in the tank?

c02 test kits are very expensive and you dont really need one to be honest.

 

[LittleMissDynamite]

your ammonia is too high and i imagine your nitrate test kit is out of date if it is showing 0.

whatis your stocking in the tank?

c02 test kits are very expensive and you dont really need one to be honest.

 

[LittleMissDynamite]

I am using the ApI Freshwater test kit that i bought in march.Unfortunatley i can not find a use by date on the box.I will take the water to the lps and get them to check my results.It appears to me that my tap water actualy contains amonia but i will ask them to check this too.My tank is overstocked due to the large numbers of fry i have in there but i am rehoming these as they get to a reasonable size.I have 3 danios,3 corys,i bristlenose,i blue gourami,2 clown loaches.4 harlequins and four cardinals in there with two adult mollies and 2 adult guppies.The fish are all small at the moment and i have been advised on thirty six inches of fish to my 65 litre tank.I know the plec and clowns will grow quite large but i am already looking at bigger and better tanks.
My problem is horrible unsightly black bush algea growing on some of my plants.It suggests that this is caused by fluctating co2 levels or high phospate levels.i can not find anywhere that explains to me what the phospate is,where it comes from and how to test for it.The same goes for the fluctuating co2.Some say do more water changes,some say dont do water changes,some say just pull up the affected plants,which i will do anyway.
Thankyou very kindly for taking time to reply and any advice is gratefully recieved

 

[coldcazzie]

High phosphate doesn't cause algae so you can rule that out straight away.

What plants do you have?

 

[RadaR]

Black Brush Algae is most certainly from low/unstable CO2. Nothing to do with phosphate.
Phosphate will come from fish waste and uneaten fish food. You can also find it in tapwater because all the water companies add orthophosphate to the water supply for "the control of plumbosolvency".
Proper CO2 probes are very expensive. The only person I know to use one is Tom Barr and that's because it's part of his job
If you're not injecting CO2 then there's no real point in measuring it. It wont be high at all.

You'll get BBA when the CO2 levels in the water are too low/unstable in relation to the amount of light that the tank is recieveing. So there's two options. Address the CO2 or decrease the light intensity. It might be worth mentioning that lights dont need to be on for more than 8hours.
I've often seen tanks with decent lighting infested by BBA because of the airpump that was running. Airpumps cause surface agitation which drives off CO2. Do we need to run them in planted tanks? Nope. So that's one cause of action so far.
I see the 550 is 100litres and has 22W of compact t5 light. It's not a massive amount so I would be tempted to stop the airpump, remove as much BBA as you can and then wait and see how things develop.
It might be worth only doing water changes after the lights have gone out for the day. Tap water has more CO2 dissolved in it than your tank water. The sudden change in CO2 is too much for the plants and they arent quick enough to adapt to the change. Algae on the other hand is far more adaptive than vascular plants and will raise it's ugly head. However if the tap water is added at night then the algae cant do anything about it because they need light in order to do anything.

 

[LittleMissDynamite]

Black Brush Algae is most certainly from low/unstable CO2. Nothing to do with phosphate.
Phosphate will come from fish waste and uneaten fish food. You can also find it in tapwater because all the water companies add orthophosphate to the water supply for "the control of plumbosolvency".
Proper CO2 probes are very expensive. The only person I know to use one is Tom Barr and that's because it's part of his job
If you're not injecting CO2 then there's no real point in measuring it. It wont be high at all.

You'll get BBA when the CO2 levels in the water are too low/unstable in relation to the amount of light that the tank is recieveing. So there's two options. Address the CO2 or decrease the light intensity. It might be worth mentioning that lights dont need to be on for more than 8hours.
I've often seen tanks with decent lighting infested by BBA because of the airpump that was running. Airpumps cause surface agitation which drives off CO2. Do we need to run them in planted tanks? Nope. So that's one cause of action so far.
I see the 550 is 100litres and has 22W of compact t5 light. It's not a massive amount so I would be tempted to stop the airpump, remove as much BBA as you can and then wait and see how things develop.
It might be worth only doing water changes after the lights have gone out for the day. Tap water has more CO2 dissolved in it than your tank water. The sudden change in CO2 is too much for the plants and they arent quick enough to adapt to the change. Algae on the other hand is far more adaptive than vascular plants and will raise it's ugly head. However if the tap water is added at night then the algae cant do anything about it because they need light in order to do anything.

 

[LittleMissDynamite]

Thankyou very much Radar.Very informative and understood.I have moved the tank a little so it is out of direct sunlight;I have added a timer to the light socket and reduced the amount of time the lights are on and i have removed the amazon sword that was infected with bba and another plant that i dont know the name of.I have now turned the airpump off and will see what happens.I now understand about co2 and phospate.Very helpfull.thankyou.