I must have one shoe off.

[Booswalia]

I can't seem to get my tank balanced.

I've been testing pH, N03, and phosphates twice a day for a couple of weeks now. Everything tested well, but the algae just kept coming.

I had trimmed so much off my plants that I was afraid I wouldn't have anything left soon. (And just getting plants here can be a challenge, so I don't want to lose all of them)

So, what I did was took everything out of the tank and did the 19:1 water:bleach dip and an 80% water change with a good scrubbing.

It looks much better now and I haven't seen any algae for 3 days. This does not, however, tell me what I'm doing wrong.

I'm waiting now to get results back from my water test. I suspect that I have high nitrates and high phosphates. I do trust my phosphate kit, but my Seachems N03 kit won't read my water properly and I just don't trust the Hagen kit.

Okay.....here's the question.

How do you know when your tank is balanced?

[djlen]

When you have a minimum of algae(your not likely to get rid of all of it) and your plants and fish are happy. The fish are easy to read. The plants are a learned experience. Look for nice green, full leaves, or pink/red where applicable.
Your tank is relatively 'young' if I remember correctly. Algae is more prone to be a problem until it matures and everything gets established.
What kind of algae are you experiencing?
CO2? If so, do you know your ppm?
Are you dosing N, K, P and Traces?
I use Aquarium Pharmaceuticals for pH and Nitrates and Hagen for PO4 and am very satisfied with them. I'm not sure that they are perfectly accurate, but they give me a reading that I can then judge an elevation or decline in the element in question. That's, IMO, as important as knowing the 'exact' reading. If something reads low, I dose. If not I leave it alone.
I've got a lot of wood in my tanks so my pH reading is out the window. I know what shade of light green has to occur for my plants and fish to be happy. If it gets a bit higher I increase CO2.
If it gets a bit more yellow I cut the CO2 back a bit. I use this as an example, because with pressurized I rarely have to adjust the CO2 for months at a time.
Len

[perrito_blanco]

Get some Otos dood! They'll make short work of your algae. One per 10 gallons of water will do it. Or some Ancistrus.

[Booswalia]

[QUOTE]Look for nice green, full leaves, or pink/red where applicable.

I guess this is where I fail to "get it". It takes a few weeks to see results, in the mean time I could be totally wrong in my dosing and end up with the algae again. (It was staghorn and bba).

Right now my plants look a little pale, but I think that's because of the bleaching.

The fish seem happy though. :)

I am dosing N,P,K and traces, but I'm dosing the nitrates blindly.

Seachem's send me a replacement for my test kit and it shows 0 nitrates. Hagen shows about 10. (The Seachem's test will probably never work for me again though, since I used that stump remover with the "extra" ingredient. Arrghhgh!)

Guess I'll have to wait to get my water test back and then just take an educated guess on the nitrates.

[Skittyfish]

Boos-- I seem to have more algae if my hood/glass top is dirty. I don't know why, maybe it cuts down on light, but algae seems to clear up more when I take care of the cleaning.

And I really feel for you, since I cam back from my vacation it has been a real battle to get my tank back the way it was. Good luck.

[djlen]

I've never used SeaChem's kit but the AP kit consists of two re-agent bottles. The second bottle MUST be shaken for at least 30 seconds or I'll get no reading. If your SeaChem kit has two re-agents try shaking thoroughly and see if it makes a difference.
Failing that working, just dose the KNO3 once a week after your water change until you get a kit that gives you a reading. I go through a ton of PO4, but rarely need to dose KNO3 at mid week.

Water changes will eventually take care of that 'extra ingredient' over time.

My plants don't pale at all when I bleach them(45 secs. for stems, and 90 to 2 mins. for Anubias). Are you dosing any Iron other than in your Trace Mix? You're using Flourish for Traces, right? If not, what?

I think I lose a bunch of light if I go too long without cleaning my hood. It seems to load up very quickly.

It's a learning process with plants. Nobody 'gets it' in a month or even a series of months. Combine that with the newness of your tank, and you'll be tweaking things for a bit.
You'll learn......
Len

[Booswalia]

Thanks. I certainly am learning.

As for my glass top. I almost want it to be a little dirty. I have over 4 watts per gallon on this puppy but it's either that or 2. I'd like to have around 3 watts per gallon, but that's not possible, so I figured......let the glass get a little foggy. Do you think that would cause problems?

I've been using Seachems Trace for Iron since my CO2 situation. I had been over doing the Iron for a while and cut back for a week or two. Perhaps I'll add a couple of mls of Iron again.

It looks to me like the bleach may have harmed my Vals a bit. They seem to be melting at the tips. The roots are probably still good though. I kept them out of the bleach.

Other than the Vals things are looking better. My Ludwigia is starting to grow again and it's looking very healthy.

Guess I'll just have wait now and see what develops.

[djlen]

For what it's worth, I only add Iron now when I see a need for it in the leaves of certain plants. I figure they get enough Iron in my Trace mix, cause they don't often show much need.
Len