Need Some Help

stanley

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Ok i recently redone my whole tank because of an algae outbreak and i fancied a change,sripped it down and cleaned the substrate (flourite). T hat was two weeks ago and things arnt going as i would expect groth is slow even though i have some fast growers in there here are my stats...

30g planted

ph 6.8

kh 10

co2 48

4x25w lighting t8

flourite + seachems tabs

Dosing 2ml kno3 daily flourish + pottasium every other day

Is it just to early in the tank or has my flourite ran out a bit its 2 years old, things arnt right and i cant understand why not some of the plants are just rotting away and they hardly ever pearl.
 
Hi Stanley

The flourite wont run out or become depleted not in your lifetime anyway, if you could give a bit better breakdown of your tank stats, do you have readings for nitrate and phosphate, do you dose phosphate?

What type of algae did you have previous to the stripdown?

It sounds to me like you may not be dosing enough ferts for a highlight tank or your CO2 readings may be false due to old or dodgy testkits or a combination of those two things.

What sort of CO2 do you run, is it DIY or pressurised?

Do You run EI as your fert regime or some other variation of this.
 
Hi Stanley

The flourite wont run out or become depleted not in your lifetime anyway, if you could give a bit better breakdown of your tank stats, do you have readings for nitrate and phosphate, do you dose phosphate?

What type of algae did you have previous to the stripdown?

It sounds to me like you may not be dosing enough ferts for a highlight tank or your CO2 readings may be false due to old or dodgy testkits or a combination of those two things.

What sort of CO2 do you run, is it DIY or pressurised?

Do You run EI as your fert regime or some other variation of this.
Thaks for the reply. The algae problem i had was a major bga out break which i couldnt shift it wasnt untill i checked my local tap water that i noticed that it had changed from ...nitrate 10 phos 1 to nitrate 0 phos 5 ! . So thats why im now adding 2ml of kno3 daily and have just put some rowaphos in. The co2 is diy 2x hagen and 1x redsea going through my external filter i took the reading yesterday and the test kits are pretty new so i think there ok.Im thinking maybe the lighting is the problem the bulbs are 3x arcadia original tropical and a life glow all about 7 months old . The plants seem to have everything they need to grow well but arnt the bga has now gone but ive got some bba .
 
Ok you are still not posting your tank stats for nitrate and phosphate?

The bba is probably due to low or flucuating co2 levels in your tank you say you are getting readings of 48ppm for co2 but the algae does not lie, you need to keep your co2 levels at or above 30ppm throughout the photoperiod or bba is usually the end result if they keep dropping below this level.

An overdose of flourish excel will get rid of the bba but it will come back pretty quick if you dont keep the co2 levels stable, if you use the search function in this section for Excel you will find information on overdosing with this product, it gives very good results and it works but you must be careful and follow the instructions, if you need any more help on this just ask.

BGA is usually the result of very low nitrate levels or bottomed out nitrate levels, this is why i asked for your readings just to double check the situation now, dosing 2ml kno3 every other day is probably not enough for this tank, you should also remove the rowaphos more than likely as plants need a source of phosphate also.

I suggest you read the Estimative Index article at the top of this section this will give you a much better idea how to fertilise a highlight co2 injected tank, if you begin to follow the principle of EI and sort out your co2 levels your tank should remain relatively algae free, there are many of us here now running this system with good success.

I would still maintain my initial diagnosis that you are under fertiliseing this tank and along with the flucuating co2 levels this is why your plant growth is stunted and you have algae.
 

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