Tank Question!

[cichlidcichlid]

I dosed ferts on saturday all to the recomended levels.

5ppm nitrate
20ppm potassium
2ppm phosphate
and CSB plantex

At the end of the week i got a tank that had this brown algae stuff on the plants and it doesn't come off very easily unless you scrape it off the plants.

There is co2.

I tested the water and it is 0 for everything and water hardness is 124.

It seems to me that whatever grew all over the plants took all the nutrients with it.

I have the light on 13 hours a day and it is a 55watt compact.

Please give me your feedback on what you think went wrong.

[rocker92]

too many ferts IMO.

[phanmc]

What size tank?

Double or triple the nitrate levels and cut back to 8-10 hrs on the lighting.

[steffish]

water hardness is 124.


What ?!?

[cichlidcichlid]

Are you sure that i should dose more of the nitrate?

Also should i keep all of the other meassurements the same?

I hav never had a tank before that got rid of everything that the fish made or i added by the end of the week.

It is either the plants using it or the algae but i never get algae blooms just on the plants.

[phanmc]

5ppm of nitrate is not much, depending on your light and CO2 level that can be gone in a day. I try to maintain a 10-15ppm level between dosings.

20ppm of potassium is fine, overdosing k doesn't negatively impact the tank.

1-2ppm of phosphate is also fine as long as none of the other nutrients are limited.