Seachem Equilibrium and Algae

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tackful

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Mar 15, 2007
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Hope I'm not asking too many questions, but this is such an interesting hobby with so much to learn. Here's my latest:
On two occasions I have used Seachem Equilibrium, and within a day or two the algae seemed to double. Got green water the first time I used it. Could this mean that the Equilibrium boosted macro nutrient uptake and perhaps caused some other imbalance or insufficiency? I'm unable to make sense of it. Parameters are: N 10, P 1.0, Fe .8, kh 3, gh 4, pressurized c02, 55 watt cf bulb, 29 gallons.
Thinking of trying plaster of paris and epsom salt instead. Something is definitely missing in my water, according to what the wisteria and Rotala Macranda are telling me. Thanks.
 

dundadundun

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Jan 21, 2009
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S.E. PA
i think n p and gh could come up some. higher dosing all around would probably be good.
 

tackful

AC Members
Mar 15, 2007
637
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Sausalito, CA
It's a fine green dust which easily comes off of the glass, rocks, and driftwood, although not so easily off of the plants. I'm pretty confident about my co2; drop checker shows green to pale green, and when I once bumped it up from the current rate of about 3 bubbles/sec, all the fish headed for the surface.
As for raising gh, I believe that would be Mg (Epsom Salt), correct? Also, I seem to find a lot of discussion about raising gh (Barr's GH Booster, etc.), but not so much concern about kh. Why is this? Thanks.
 

dundadundun

;sup' dog? ;woof and a wwwoof!
Jan 21, 2009
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S.E. PA
gh is plant food while kh is a buffer. kh really just determines ph and how adding things to your tank will effect ph.

calcium is the other nutrient mostly related to gh. barr's gh booster also contains some potassium. so, yeah magnesium sulfate can be a big part of the equation. calcium chloride too.
 

plantbrain

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Apr 27, 2001
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Davis, CA
www.BarrReport.com
Never be confident of CO2 if you have plant growth issues or algae.

The only time I've had GDA stick around was with some slight CO2 issues.
I have 5 tanks and had a slight issues with one of them(the solenoid was sticking for the 1st 1-2 hours, then would click on.........to add CO2).

When CO2 was addressed, the GDA vanished. I've also been able to kill it off using less light + just leaving it be for 3-4 weeks, till it sloughs off on it's own, then I wipe it off, and clean good.

Nutrients are easy to rule as a limiting factor for plants.
Add them based on volume weight etc, do water change to prevent runnign out or too much.

Easy, done.
Next issue: light, PC/T5's are a lot more light than we think/assume, PAR light meters tell us this. Without testing light, it's a huge unknown variable that we cannot use to help us or compare.

This leaves mostly CO2/Current etc.
there's always a few folks who cannot fix this issue though, but no method is 100% for everyone either, not because of the method, rather, there are folks for many reasons, fail to get the balance right, we know the method works well, because we plenty of examples where it has.

But there's 1001 unknown ways to mess a method up, so our reference is not the messed up tank, rather, the nice algae examples.



Regards,
Tom Barr
 

plantbrain

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Apr 27, 2001
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Davis, CA
www.BarrReport.com
Never be confident of CO2 if you have plant growth issues or algae.

But there's 1001 unknown ways to mess a method up, so our reference is not the messed up tank, rather, the nice algae examples.

Regards,
Tom Barr
The last line after the last comma should read "the nice clean planted tank examples without algae"

Sorry about that

Regards,
Tom Barr
 
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