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Whistlerskipro

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Good day once again. Iā€™m a new member which I just introduced myself. I live up in Whistler Canada and have little access to any aquarium supplies. IV been running C02 now for about 5 months and my planted aquarium is looking great, however due to the coronavirus outbreak Iā€™m about to deal with a problem. My canister C02 Has just ran out after running for the past several months. Our local hardware store is not refilling metal tanks during this pandemic and Iā€™m wondering how it will effect my plants. Will I all of a sudden start dealing with algie? Black beard algie for one? Fortunately I do have some seachems flourish excel and can get some more through Amazon. Can anyone please tell me if Iā€™m about to deal with a major problem and if anyone has suggestions please let me know what may help. I am running high lighting for about 7 hours daily and my tank is heavenly planted.
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I'm close to you, in Maple Ridge, not that that matters, the advice is still the same.

First, do not ever use Excel in a tank with fish. Excel is glutaraldehyde and water, and glutaraldehyde is a highly toxic disinfectant used in hospitals to disinfect surgical instruments and kill bacteria. Other members have reported burns to their skin if Excel is splashed on their hand. Even at the dose recommended on the label, some plants (Vallisneria is particularly sensitive) will be killed. If you should happen to slightly overdose, this product can kill plants, fish and bacteria. It does not belong in a fish tank. Any additive that will do what it will do, and is known to kill some algae (though Seachem for obvious reasons play this down), is too great a risk. All substances added to the aquarium water get inside the fish by osmosis through every cell; the additives then enter the bloodstream and can be carried to internal organs and the delicate gills. Seachem may say this product is "safe" but they obviously define "safe" differently than I do; just because the fish do not turn belly-up does not mean the product is "safe," and over the long term I suspect the fish will have difficulties.

To the algae/CO2 issue. CO2 as one of 17 nutrients is (or must be) in balance with the rest, and all of them with the light. Intensity is key, assuming proper spectrum, and then duration. I've no idea what the balance now is, but presumably it was good. Without the CO2, you should lower the light/nutrients so they remain in balance with the natural CO2. CO2 is produced primarily in the substrate through the breakdown of organics, and secondarily from respiration of fish, plants and some bacteria species. It will obviously increase during darkness, and then be used during daylight (= when the tank light is on). So you may find lessening the duration of the tank lighting will deal with this, and also be careful not to add too many nutrients (fertilizers). Lessening both to lower the balance should work.
 
You do have a very nice looking aquarium. @Byron is spot on so I would follow his advice. It is a balancing act between light and nutrients. I also have a few nerite snails that help keep and algae under control.
 
I'm close to you, in Maple Ridge, not that that matters, the advice is still the same.

First, do not ever use Excel in a tank with fish. Excel is glutaraldehyde and water, and glutaraldehyde is a highly toxic disinfectant used in hospitals to disinfect surgical instruments and kill bacteria. Other members have reported burns to their skin if Excel is splashed on their hand. Even at the dose recommended on the label, some plants (Vallisneria is particularly sensitive) will be killed. If you should happen to slightly overdose, this product can kill plants, fish and bacteria. It does not belong in a fish tank. Any additive that will do what it will do, and is known to kill some algae (though Seachem for obvious reasons play this down), is too great a risk. All substances added to the aquarium water get inside the fish by osmosis through every cell; the additives then enter the bloodstream and can be carried to internal organs and the delicate gills. Seachem may say this product is "safe" but they obviously define "safe" differently than I do; just because the fish do not turn belly-up does not mean the product is "safe," and over the long term I suspect the fish will have difficulties.

To the algae/CO2 issue. CO2 as one of 17 nutrients is (or must be) in balance with the rest, and all of them with the light. Intensity is key, assuming proper spectrum, and then duration. I've no idea what the balance now is, but presumably it was good. Without the CO2, you should lower the light/nutrients so they remain in balance with the natural CO2. CO2 is produced primarily in the substrate through the breakdown of organics, and secondarily from respiration of fish, plants and some bacteria species. It will obviously increase during darkness, and then be used during daylight (= when the tank light is on). So you may find lessening the duration of the tank lighting will deal with this, and also be careful not to add too many nutrients (fertilizers). Lessening both to lower the balance should work.
Ok just got home after a walk in the mountains, practicing social distancing. Wow that is some info to take in, not the latter part but on Flurish. Had no idea. I have in the past added a capful to my 75g and had no problems with my fish but still will never take that risk again. As for the second part my perimeters have always been ok however Iā€™m using R/O water up here. Iā€™ll begin by lowering the lighting straight away. As for frets. What about Seachem Equilibrium? I usually add 3/4 of a tbs when I do a 1/3 water change every other week. Appreciate this vital info. Iā€™m sure Iā€™ll be back in this site several times in the near future.
Cheers peter
 
Ok just got home after a walk in the mountains, practicing social distancing. Wow that is some info to take in, not the latter part but on Flurish. Had no idea. I have in the past added a capful to my 75g and had no problems with my fish but still will never take that risk again. As for the second part my perimeters have always been ok however Iā€™m using R/O water up here. Iā€™ll begin by lowering the lighting straight away. As for frets. What about Seachem Equilibrium? I usually add 3/4 of a tbs when I do a 1/3 water change every other week. Appreciate this vital info. Iā€™m sure Iā€™ll be back in this site several times in the near future.
Cheers peter

This needs another explanation, and more questions.

First, can you post your GH for the tank water? Equilibrium is intended for planted tanks to raise the GH which are the "hard" minerals calcium (primarily) and magnesium, plus it has iron, zinc, and a couple others I can't remember, but that doesn't matter. I used this for five years until a marine biologist asked me why, given what is in it and how it impacts fish [I'll come back to this]. However, there are nutrients missing from Equilibrium, and I am curious if you are adding anything else.

My issue with Equilbirum is that I have mostly wild caught very soft water fish species, so keeping the GH as close to zero is beneficial for them. I had a calcium deficiency (this shows up as largish brown blotches on leaves which is ironically an iron excess because the plants take up iron in place of calcium when the latter is insufficient, and use this for their leaf structure. Excess iron kills plants (and everything else) so the plants will slowly worsen and die, as mine were at the time. Equilbrium with calcium and magnesium solved this, and my GH was in the range of 4-6 dGH.

When I had a disease problem in one tank and had to consult one of my online biologist friends, her question and comments got me thinking and I decided to stop Equilibrium and use the Flourish Tabs more frequently, along with the liquid Flourish Comprehensive Supplement (I had been using the latter for years, but the calcium and magnesium is minimal because most people have this in their source water). This worked. Plants were just as thriving, GH remained zero, fish very happy, npow going on for five years. I use the Flourish Tabs as one next to each of the larger sword plants, replaced every three months. Flourish Comprehensive is added once weekly on the day after the water change.

On a related issue, is there a reason you are using RO water? I would assume Whistler water is much like mine, so curious.
 
This needs another explanation, and more questions.

First, can you post your GH for the tank water? Equilibrium is intended for planted tanks to raise the GH which are the "hard" minerals calcium (primarily) and magnesium, plus it has iron, zinc, and a couple others I can't remember, but that doesn't matter. I used this for five years until a marine biologist asked me why, given what is in it and how it impacts fish [I'll come back to this]. However, there are nutrients missing from Equilibrium, and I am curious if you are adding anything else.

My issue with Equilbirum is that I have mostly wild caught very soft water fish species, so keeping the GH as close to zero is beneficial for them. I had a calcium deficiency (this shows up as largish brown blotches on leaves which is ironically an iron excess because the plants take up iron in place of calcium when the latter is insufficient, and use this for their leaf structure. Excess iron kills plants (and everything else) so the plants will slowly worsen and die, as mine were at the time. Equilbrium with calcium and magnesium solved this, and my GH was in the range of 4-6 dGH.

When I had a disease problem in one tank and had to consult one of my online biologist friends, her question and comments got me thinking and I decided to stop Equilibrium and use the Flourish Tabs more frequently, along with the liquid Flourish Comprehensive Supplement (I had been using the latter for years, but the calcium and magnesium is minimal because most people have this in their source water). This worked. Plants were just as thriving, GH remained zero, fish very happy, npow going on for five years. I use the Flourish Tabs as one next to each of the larger sword plants, replaced every three months. Flourish Comprehensive is added once weekly on the day after the water change.

On a related issue, is there a reason you are using RO water? I would assume Whistler water is much like mine, so curious.

Ok lots of great info to take in once again. Let me start with a big thank you. Iā€™ve really never had anyone to answer some questions so Iā€™ve learnt on my own, but Iā€™m always ready and willing to take any advice. So as for perimeters when I said all were good I was talking about the top 4 plus Iron. So unfortunately I canā€™t tell you my GH which Iā€™m sure is not good. Iā€™m judging everything is ok simply based on not loosing fish and plants looking fairly good. . In my tank I have large Rafael for 6 years now two large angle for 3-4 years 2 Siamese algie eaters plus 4 Cory and 15 tetras in a 75 Gal with two large canister filters. I started using RO water two years ago to battle what I thought at the time was high phos, which I now think were diatoms. Anyways it seemed to work and Iā€™ve been using it ever since. As I said I added C02 5/6 months ago and high lighting. Since then plants have taken off Up to now Iā€™ve not had problems with any algie and as I said the community looks good and healthy. Now one thing I noticed recently is the ph has been kinda low at 6.2 and Iā€™ve brought it to 6.8 with proper Ph. Apart from the equilibrium I do have Flourish tabs in sand substrate, and use capful flourish advanced once a week. Now two weeks ago I noticed a little bit of black beard algie on some wood decorations which I treated with hydrogen peroxide out of the tank. I was lead to believe this was being caused by fluctuating C02 levels and as Iā€™m out of C02 and I can not get any due to hardware store being closed, Iā€™m worried this algie might become a problem. Today I noticed it came back on some java fern which I removed and took a picture for you. It is definitely not a problem now and I want to keep it this way. The one thing Iā€™ve always worried about is feeding. I might be feeding too much. Typically I provide the tank with two frozen blood warms say two/three pleco wafers dozen wardley shrimp pellets during the day and at bedtime Iā€™ll throw in another dozen pellets and maybe another bloodworm for the Rafael. So if you think I donā€™t need RO water and Equilibrium please let me know. Oh besides the fish I also have 4 ADF and 5 large mystery snails and MTS for sand substrate. Now you have a point about our water source. It has to be the same. And I moved to Squamish a year ago. Iā€™ve included a couple of pictures so you can see for yourself the 1 leaf that shows the black beard algie which I hope you can see. I only saw it on this one leaf which I took out, but probably if itā€™s on one leaf itā€™s on others but I just donā€™t see any yet. The other two pictures show what all the plants look like. Any advice would be well received.
 

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Word of caution on your mystery snails, I had 2 golden mystery snails in my 55 gallon tank and they went after my plants. Everything except my java ferns. That is why I suggested the nerite snails. They are not as nice looking as mystery snails but they are more interested in algae than eating plants..
 
Now one thing I noticed recently is the ph has been kinda low at 6.2 and Iā€™ve brought it to 6.8 with proper Ph.

No, bad. Never use these concoctions with fish in the tank. This is just one more chemical getting inside the fish and doing no good, but adding more stress to the fish in dealing with it. I'll add a analogy here...when terrestrial animals including humans breathe, anything in the air is taken into the lungs. Some of this can end up in the bloodstream, but not everything. Fish have a very different issue; everything in the water immediately enter their bloodstream as a liquid. Think of it like injecting this stuff into your veins...not good.

CO2 usually lowers the pH, so now you are making things even worse for the fish because the CO2 is lowering the pH by creating carbonic acid, then you are adding chemicals to raise it...that is just more stress. And by the way, something else to keep in mind, there are studies now suggesting that diffused CO2 is harmful to fish over time. Since your unit is empty, this might be a good time to consider removing it. Might have to lower the light intensity, that's another issue. But there is more natural CO2 from the organic decomposition than many realize. I'm going to add a photo or two of my 70g tank a few years back when my camera was working better; I think there is fairly good plant growth but I have moderate light, no added CO2, and the Flourish Tabs and Comprehensive.

There is nothing wrong with a low pH if you have soft water species which you do. My tanks run below 5, or in the 5's or low 6's, depending upon the tank. Livebearers would not last in this, nor the soft water (low GH), but soft water fish are designed for such water.

So unfortunately I canā€™t tell you my GH which Iā€™m sure is not good. Iā€™m judging everything is ok simply based on not loosing fish and plants looking fairly good. . In my tank I have large Rafael for 6 years now two large angle for 3-4 years 2 Siamese algie eaters plus 4 Cory and 15 tetras in a 75 Gal with two large canister filters. I started using RO water two years ago to battle what I thought at the time was high phos, which I now think were diatoms. Anyways it seemed to work and Iā€™ve been using it ever since.

When using Equilibrium which increases GH you should have a test kit (the API liquid GH/KH test kit is good) to keep tabs on the GH. It only needs to be at 4 dGH for plants to be OK, and this certainly will not harm the fish here. But the up/down GH is not a good thing long-term, and there is no point having it higher than necessary. For these fish, anything in the 4-8 dGH range is OK but it should be constant.

Now two weeks ago I noticed a little bit of black beard algie on some wood decorations which I treated with hydrogen peroxide out of the tank. I was lead to believe this was being caused by fluctuating C02 levels and as Iā€™m out of C02 and I can not get any due to hardware store being closed, Iā€™m worried this algie might become a problem. Today I noticed it came back on some java fern which I removed and took a picture for you. It is definitely not a problem now and I want to keep it this way.

Algae is caused by an imbalance in the light/nutrient ratio, nothing more. So if things were in balance, and suddenly one nutrient like CO2 is insufficient to maintain that balance, algae will take advantage. BTW, those plants are not Java Fern, they are various sword plants (Echinodorus sp.), all three of them. And the black brush/beard algae is likely being caused by the light intensity which is now greater than the balance was. So as I suggested previously, reducing the light should help. Intensity seems uncontrollable, though floating plants can help with this; duration can be cut back and depending upon everything else might do the trick.

I have battled BBA a few times over the last 25-30 years, and always got it under control by adjusting the balance. Sometimes I had to reduce the light period, some times it was blocking out the increased daylight in summer, sometimes reducing the Flourish liquid, a couple timmes replacing the tubes which were no longer bright enough. All about the balance.

This can go back and forth a bit, as it is essential to ensure every facet is covered.
 

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No, bad. Never use these concoctions with fish in the tank. This is just one more chemical getting inside the fish and doing no good, but adding more stress to the fish in dealing with it. I'll add a analogy here...when terrestrial animals including humans breathe, anything in the air is taken into the lungs. Some of this can end up in the bloodstream, but not everything. Fish have a very different issue; everything in the water immediately enter their bloodstream as a liquid. Think of it like injecting this stuff into your veins...not good.

CO2 usually lowers the pH, so now you are making things even worse for the fish because the CO2 is lowering the pH by creating carbonic acid, then you are adding chemicals to raise it...that is just more stress. And by the way, something else to keep in mind, there are studies now suggesting that diffused CO2 is harmful to fish over time. Since your unit is empty, this might be a good time to consider removing it. Might have to lower the light intensity, that's another issue. But there is more natural CO2 from the organic decomposition than many realize. I'm going to add a photo or two of my 70g tank a few years back when my camera was working better; I think there is fairly good plant growth but I have moderate light, no added CO2, and the Flourish Tabs and Comprehensive.

There is nothing wrong with a low pH if you have soft water species which you do. My tanks run below 5, or in the 5's or low 6's, depending upon the tank. Livebearers would not last in this, nor the soft water (low GH), but soft water fish are designed for such water.



When using Equilibrium which increases GH you should have a test kit (the API liquid GH/KH test kit is good) to keep tabs on the GH. It only needs to be at 4 dGH for plants to be OK, and this certainly will not harm the fish here. But the up/down GH is not a good thing long-term, and there is no point having it higher than necessary. For these fish, anything in the 4-8 dGH range is OK but it should be constant.



Algae is caused by an imbalance in the light/nutrient ratio, nothing more. So if things were in balance, and suddenly one nutrient like CO2 is insufficient to maintain that balance, algae will take advantage. BTW, those plants are not Java Fern, they are various sword plants (Echinodorus sp.), all three of them. And the black brush/beard algae is likely being caused by the light intensity which is now greater than the balance was. So as I suggested previously, reducing the light should help. Intensity seems uncontrollable, though floating plants can help with this; duration can be cut back and depending upon everything else might do the trick.

I have battled BBA a few times over the last 25-30 years, and always got it under control by adjusting the balance. Sometimes I had to reduce the light period, some times it was blocking out the increased daylight in summer, sometimes reducing the Flourish liquid, a couple timmes replacing the tubes which were no longer bright enough. All about the balance.

This can go back and forth a bit, as it is essential to ensure every facet is covered.
Good morning and thank you. Thanks for all of this vital information. You have given me a lot to think about. I will go over all of this and hope to put it use and see the results over time. Your tank definitely will inspire me put you input into action. Thanks and stay safe.
 
There are 2 things you can do to compensate for no CO2 until you can get your bottle refilled.

  1. If you have a air pump and air stone. This will add some CO2 which can help prevent zero CO2.
  2. If you don't have a air pump try adjusting the water outflow from the filter. The more surface agitation you get the the better. If you can arrange the outflow so that the water falls though the air and into the tank. This will drag air into the tank in for form a bubbles that will be pushed the by the water into the tank. The more bubbles you get the more stable CO2 a d O2 levels will be in the tank.
Simple aeration of the water will put more CO2 into the water than most people realize. So the more bubbles of air you get into the tank the better and the smaller the bubbles the better.

After you do that you probably will have to adjust your light brightness to prevent the plants from consuming all the CO2 in the tank. in my RO water tank if CO2 flow is insufficient PH will increase. I suspect your tank will do the same. When CO2 levels are stable the PH is stable. So measure the water PH just before the lights come on. then monitor the pH thought the day. if the PH is stable you are fine. If the PH starts to increase you either need to increase tank aeration or dime the lightsto slow the plant growth rate.

Once your get your CO2 tank is refilled I would also buy a second tank and get it filled. That way in the future you will have a backup tank available. Another thing you can due is to use less CO2 by using it more efficiently. The current guidelines for determining how much CO2 you have in the water is to use a drop checker or adjust the CO2 for a 1 point PH drop. Both of these methods result in more CO2 int the tank than is in the air. Additionally drop checkers cannot detect CO2 consentrations at atmospheric levels.

One methode of getting CO2 in a tank is called the inverted bottle method. In this method a bottle is place in the tank upside down without air in it. The the bottle is filled with CO2 from a hose about once or twice a day. CO2 will then flow from the bottle to the water and then eventually out to the air. This method Keeps CO2 levels in equilibrium with the air. and in my limited experience with it you end up using a lot less CO2. This method also eliminates the possibility of getting to much CO2 in the tank and killing the fish (which has happpened to a lot of people including myself).

The loss of CO2 could cause algae but my experience with BBA is that it is more common in Tanks with CO2 injections. I strongly believe BBAit is cased by a imbalance of CO2 to O2. If you have too much organic waste in the substrate or filter bacteria will feed on the organics and O2 and increase CO2. Or a nutrient deficiency in your water could slow plant growth leading to a O2 drop and trigger BBA.

In regards to GH boosters they are needed in RO water tanks. Plants and animals need calcium and magnesium which are ht only 2 elements the GH test detects. Most fertilizers don't have calcium and those that do have it simple don't have enough for plants. Plants need more magnesium that Phosphate (Phosphorous) and more calcium is needed than magnesium. The only nutrients that plants need more of than Ca and MG are Nitrogen or Potassium. So the macro nutrients plants need are N, K, Ca, Mg, P, S, and CL. S is sulfur and Cl is chlorine. Most people and manufactured fertlizers use Potassium nitrate and potassium phosphate. So that takes care of NPK nutrients but then you can get a Ca, Mg, S, and Cl deficiency. In my RO tanks I mix my own GH booster consisting of Magnesium sulfate, and calcium chloride. for each part of Mg in it there are 3 parts Ca. This recipe insures I have enough Ca, Mg, S, and Cl for my plants. These are safe for fish and plants. and many people use them. Don't mix potassium nitrate or potassium phosphate with Calcium. Doing so willl cause a chemical reaction that will probably cause calcium phosphate to settle to the bottom of the bottle.

Equilibrium is more of a traditional recipe that in addition to Ca, Mg, and S also includes Potassium, iron sulfate and Manganese sulfate. Most fertilize have enough potassium so your GH booster doesn't need it. Any good fertilizer is going to have iron and magnesium. So there is no need for the additional K, Fe, and Mn. Additionally unlike plants animals need sodium to live. In fact not having Sodium in a tank and too much potassium in the tank can be fatal to animals.

I can dose my Gh booster to very low levels (1 or 2 degrees) but at that low level is it is possible to run out of C, Mg, S, or Cl. So I prefer to maintain about 3 degrees but it is not necessary keep it at exactly 3 degrees. If you are concerned about having too much you can treat it as a fertilizer and dose only the amount need for 1 week.
 
There are 2 things you can do to compensate for no CO2 until you can get your bottle refilled.

  1. If you have a air pump and air stone. This will add some CO2 which can help prevent zero CO2.
  2. If you don't have a air pump try adjusting the water outflow from the filter. The more surface agitation you get the the better. If you can arrange the outflow so that the water falls though the air and into the tank. This will drag air into the tank in for form a bubbles that will be pushed the by the water into the tank. The more bubbles you get the more stable CO2 a d O2 levels will be in the tank.
Simple aeration of the water will put more CO2 into the water than most people realize. So the more bubbles of air you get into the tank the better and the smaller the bubbles the better.

After you do that you probably will have to adjust your light brightness to prevent the plants from consuming all the CO2 in the tank. in my RO water tank if CO2 flow is insufficient PH will increase. I suspect your tank will do the same. When CO2 levels are stable the PH is stable. So measure the water PH just before the lights come on. then monitor the pH thought the day. if the PH is stable you are fine. If the PH starts to increase you either need to increase tank aeration or dime the lightsto slow the plant growth rate.

Once your get your CO2 tank is refilled I would also buy a second tank and get it filled. That way in the future you will have a backup tank available. Another thing you can due is to use less CO2 by using it more efficiently. The current guidelines for determining how much CO2 you have in the water is to use a drop checker or adjust the CO2 for a 1 point PH drop. Both of these methods result in more CO2 int the tank than is in the air. Additionally drop checkers cannot detect CO2 consentrations at atmospheric levels.

One methode of getting CO2 in a tank is called the inverted bottle method. In this method a bottle is place in the tank upside down without air in it. The the bottle is filled with CO2 from a hose about once or twice a day. CO2 will then flow from the bottle to the water and then eventually out to the air. This method Keeps CO2 levels in equilibrium with the air. and in my limited experience with it you end up using a lot less CO2. This method also eliminates the possibility of getting to much CO2 in the tank and killing the fish (which has happpened to a lot of people including myself).

The loss of CO2 could cause algae but my experience with BBA is that it is more common in Tanks with CO2 injections. I strongly believe BBAit is cased by a imbalance of CO2 to O2. If you have too much organic waste in the substrate or filter bacteria will feed on the organics and O2 and increase CO2. Or a nutrient deficiency in your water could slow plant growth leading to a O2 drop and trigger BBA.

In regards to GH boosters they are needed in RO water tanks. Plants and animals need calcium and magnesium which are ht only 2 elements the GH test detects. Most fertilizers don't have calcium and those that do have it simple don't have enough for plants. Plants need more magnesium that Phosphate (Phosphorous) and more calcium is needed than magnesium. The only nutrients that plants need more of than Ca and MG are Nitrogen or Potassium. So the macro nutrients plants need are N, K, Ca, Mg, P, S, and CL. S is sulfur and Cl is chlorine. Most people and manufactured fertlizers use Potassium nitrate and potassium phosphate. So that takes care of NPK nutrients but then you can get a Ca, Mg, S, and Cl deficiency. In my RO tanks I mix my own GH booster consisting of Magnesium sulfate, and calcium chloride. for each part of Mg in it there are 3 parts Ca. This recipe insures I have enough Ca, Mg, S, and Cl for my plants. These are safe for fish and plants. and many people use them. Don't mix potassium nitrate or potassium phosphate with Calcium. Doing so willl cause a chemical reaction that will probably cause calcium phosphate to settle to the bottom of the bottle.

Equilibrium is more of a traditional recipe that in addition to Ca, Mg, and S also includes Potassium, iron sulfate and Manganese sulfate. Most fertilize have enough potassium so your GH booster doesn't need it. Any good fertilizer is going to have iron and magnesium. So there is no need for the additional K, Fe, and Mn. Additionally unlike plants animals need sodium to live. In fact not having Sodium in a tank and too much potassium in the tank can be fatal to animals.

I can dose my Gh booster to very low levels (1 or 2 degrees) but at that low level is it is possible to run out of C, Mg, S, or Cl. So I prefer to maintain about 3 degrees but it is not necessary keep it at exactly 3 degrees. If you are concerned about having too much you can treat it as a fertilizer and dose only the amount need for 1 week.
Good day all hope everyone is safe. Just getting back on the last couple of posts. First I ordered Gh Kh from Amazon should get it by weeks end. I did have this test kit but must have misplaced in last move. As for the mystery snails, I must be lucky as to date 3 months the 7 snails have left all my plants alone. Fingers crossed and will monitor. Luckily I have two canister filters and one of them give a very strong return definitely with strong aeration so Iā€™m lucky here. Took a Ph test this morning before light went on at it read 6.4. I have cut lighting requirements down by 3 hours. Will monitor. I really donā€™t think organic waste is a problem. I have a white sand substrate and between mystery snails MTS and wave maker on 4 times a day substrate looks pretty good.Now Iā€™m thinking twice about returning to C02. Main reason is though I have 7 different types of plants growing I found out after putting in the C02 Iā€™m really limited as to what I can grow with sand substrate and Seachem Florish tabs. I also think Iā€™m going to give the RO water a miss for a while. Though I have the RO system installed in my home, fact that one of you doesnā€™t run it and most likely have the same water source Iā€™ll bet my reason for switching to RO water was a misdiagnosed algie/diatoms condition. With not then using Equilibrium and relying on a good fert Iā€™ll re-evaluate things in a month or so. Listen folks great forum got some real help here. Sure Iā€™ll be back with questions in the near future. For now everyone letā€™s be strong over the next couple of weeks. Having such a great hobby luckily for us staying in isnā€™t such a hard thing. Letā€™s just spread the word stay in and if we have to go out keep our distance. And to anyone that is dealing with/ or will be dealing witha tragedy because because of Covid-19 my thought and heart go out to you. Cheers everyone.
 

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