Hair algae problem.

mbsqw1d · Jul 30, 2020

utahfish said:
RO water is the only thing i know of sorry.
There was another poster i cant remember who and he had really high nitrates in his tap water and came up with a way to recharge his nitrazorb but not sure if the same would apply for phosphates. Sorry maybe somebody knows the poster im referring to i cant remember who it was.

Was abbeysdad

Reducing Nitrate Without Water Changes

Byron · Jul 30, 2020

Tropical Tony said:
haha makes sense. I’ve got fluorish comprehensive and flourish potassium should I dose these for now?

The Flourish Comprehensive Supplement is fine, I use that [I cannot get the TNC Lite, though I may look into mail ordering next time I need more FC]. The Potassium probably won't hurt, I was talked into adding this a few years back so I got a bottle, but I never saw any benefit (nor detriment). But so far as I am aware, an excess of potassium is not a problem, as would be an excess of some other nutrients (iron, nitrate, copper, zinc for example).

seangee · Jul 30, 2020

Byron said:
though I may look into mail ordering next time I need more FC].

Not sure if you are aware but it is 5X more diluted. Dosage is 5ml per 50l instead of 1 as with Seachem. That may make it less viable if you need to factor in shipping costs. If you don't have shipping costs its a bit easier in the small tanks

Byron · Jul 30, 2020

seangee said:
Not sure if you are aware but it is 5X more diluted. Dosage is 5ml per 50l instead of 1 as with Seachem. That may make it less viable if you need to factor in shipping costs. If you don't have shipping costs its a bit easier in the small tanks

Thanks Sean. It is something to think about. The nitrate and phosphorus in Flourish is very minimal and has caused no issues, so it is not likely worth the fuss.

utahfish · Jul 30, 2020

Byron said:
The Flourish Comprehensive Supplement is fine, I use that [I cannot get the TNC Lite, though I may look into mail ordering next time I need more FC]. The Potassium probably won't hurt, I was talked into adding this a few years back so I got a bottle, but I never saw any benefit (nor detriment). But so far as I am aware, an excess of potassium is not a problem, as would be an excess of some other nutrients (iron, nitrate, copper, zinc for example).

All the research ive read suggest excess potassium has zero effect on algae growth. Tomm Barr has said their are 2 nutrients most tanks are insufficient in, one of them was potassium as most water municipalities dont add potassium to water.
Ive been adding potassium in the form of k2s04 for years and never had any adverse effects from it to plants or fish or in contributing to algae growth.

Essjay · Jul 31, 2020

seangee said:
Not sure if you are aware but it is 5X more diluted. Dosage is 5ml per 50l instead of 1 as with Seachem. That may make it less viable if you need to factor in shipping costs. If you don't have shipping costs its a bit easier in the small tanks

I have just looked at prices on Ebay. The same size bottle of Flourish comprehensive treats 5 times more litres than TNC Lite, but it costs around 1.5 times more than TNC Lite rather than 5 times.

Is TNC Lite worth the extra cost? Or should I stick with Flourish?

seangee · Jul 31, 2020

Do you use it up before the use by?
I bought the TNC when nobody had stock of Flourish. Can't really notice any difference in performance. I do like the dosage chamber. I use a syringe anyway but the seachem bottle was a bit of a pain once the level started dropping.

mbsqw1d · Jul 31, 2020

essjay said:
I have just looked at prices on Ebay. The same size bottle of Flourish comprehensive treats 5 times more litres than TNC Lite, but it costs around 1.5 times more than TNC Lite rather than 5 times.

Is TNC Lite worth the extra cost? Or should I stick with Flourish?

I seem to remember @SuperColey1 recommending TNC but I can't find evidence of this when searching the forum.. so i mustve dreamt it :dunno:

If theres not much between them, then I'm happy to support a British product at least

Byron · Jul 31, 2020

essjay said:
Is TNC Lite worth the extra cost? Or should I stick with Flourish?

I'm not in the UK so haven't used TNC Lite. But the thing I like about it is that it does not contain nitrate or phosphorus. There is no need to ever be adding these two nutrients in a low-tech or natural method planted tank because there is always going to be ammonia/ammonium (nitrogen source) and more than enough phosphorus from fish foods. I didn't think phosphorus was included in Flourish Comp, but it is now mentioned. But it is minimal, and I use so little, I doubt it is worth the fussing with air mail and such for me. If I could get it locally, I would take a closer look. Nitrate in all my tanks has for over ten years now tested in the 0 to 5 ppm colour so I don't have much if any nitrate issue to worry about even with FC's nitrate.

Essjay · Jul 31, 2020

My tap nitrate and tank nitrate are both between 0 and 5, with the tap nitrate being slightly nearer the zero colour than the tank nitrate. So the nitrate in Flourish Comp is not adding much.