Ph Dropping During The Day

[Squirrelbuddies]

Things were going well up until a week or so ago when I forgot to close the blinds one day...

1. Algae -- not completely out of hand yet, but it's there (on the glass and a few plants)
2. Hazey water -- it's almost like the haze is a LOT of very fine bubbles
3. pH is dropping during the day. I have two Nutra Fin units for CO2. pH dropped to 6.4 at midday yesterday. I run an airstone at night and it rises up to 6.6-6.8 by lights on in the AM. (Fish not liking it much at 6.4)
4. Difficulty in keeping the nitrate above 5.0ppm and phosphate above 0.25ppm
5. One java fern has developed this brown rot at the base of the leaves and the aponogeton has large brown spots along with translucent spots.

I removed one of the nutra fins last night so only one is running (approx 1 bubble every 3 seconds). pH reading was 6.8 before lights on and 6.6 after the lights being on for 10 hours. (fish look better now.)

I use liquid ferts (Seachem). I've been dosing 3ml KNO3 and 5ml PO4 every other day - but due to the low readings, I've been trying to gradually increase the dosage. Trace is dosed on the off days at 10ml.

The vallis is growing like crazy (I trim between 8-12 inches every week -- it's the color of rhubarb) and the glosso is doing very well, too.

Tank stats:
38 US gallons
Lighting - 2 WPG, 8000k bulbs
Substrate - fine gravel with laterite
KH 4
GH 4
Temp 77F

Sorry for the very long post -- but there's lots going on and I think it's getting away from me. I really need help before things get too out of hand.

 

[zig]

What sort of algae are you getting, can you describe it?

Dont know about the tiny bubbles, are you sure its not the plants pearling?


I run my ph lower than 6.4 and my fish dont mind at all, Try running the airstone for only a couple of hours at nightime instead of all night long and then the ph swing wont be so big, a couple of hours is probably enough.

You need to dose more nitrate and phosphate, but you realise this, what are you using to dose right now, are you using dry or store bought liquid fertilisers? Ok just read the post correctly and you are dosing Seachem fertilisers, you are the second person in the last day or so having difficulty getting higher readings using these fertilisers, i would recommend you purchase KNO3 (potassium nitrate) for nitrate and KH2PO4 (mono potassium phosphate) for phosphate and K2SO4 (potassium sulphate) for potassium from gregwatson.com, heres the link Greg Watson using these fertilisers will enable you to reach the required levels and save you a lot of money, within a couple of months you will have paid for the fertilisers from Greg with the money you have saved and you will still have an enourmous amount of fertiliser leftover to do you for possibly another couple of years.

Not sure about Java ferns some people have difficulty with them, they are not as easy to grow as can be made out, i had trouble with mine in a low light tank, but the same fern has taken off in my highlight tank, but my best bet would be that its lacking nitrate, ferns are nitrate hogs so maybe its just being under fed.

So thats what i would recommend, buy the Dry ferts from Greg and start dosing those, you are going to have to keep a close eye on the CO2 levels, nearly all algae in planted tanks using DIY CO2 are related to CO2 issues.

Thats it i think.

 

[Squirrelbuddies]

The algae is the soft, green type. It wipes off easily.

The water actually looks "foggy" this afternoon. I don't think it's the plants pearling as the pearling bubbles are a lot bigger.

I'll run the airstone for only 2-3 hours at night instead of 8.

And, definitely, I'll order up the dry ferts from Greg Watson this afternoon!

Thanks so much for your help!