I have 5 anubias in my cichlid tank but I am unable to keep the leafs green. I always end up with a light brown covering on the leaves. The only thing I add to my tank for the plants in flourish excel. I was adding flourish but it was causing a major algae bloom. My lighting is 2 x T8 marine white lamps (25w each) over a 180 litre tank, I'm also running phosguard phos remover. I'm currently waiting on new test kits so I dont have a nitrate reading till the end of the week
algae build up on plant leafs
- Thread starter cav
- Start date
Couple of things:
That's ~1 wpg, so that's low light. No problems there.
Next issue: How old is the tank? Brown covering plants sounds like diatoms to me. If the tank is new or even newly planted, these could be feeding off silicates in the water. If this is the case, it will eventually run it's course and you'll be fine.
Why are you running phosguard? A lot of us actually add phosphates to planted aquaria. It's not necessarily bad at your light level, but it's unneeded.
That's ~1 wpg, so that's low light. No problems there.
Next issue: How old is the tank? Brown covering plants sounds like diatoms to me. If the tank is new or even newly planted, these could be feeding off silicates in the water. If this is the case, it will eventually run it's course and you'll be fine.
Why are you running phosguard? A lot of us actually add phosphates to planted aquaria. It's not necessarily bad at your light level, but it's unneeded.
the tank is 8 months old, before using the phosguard my phosphates were really high (straight from the tap) and I was getting green algae everywhere. I do 30% water changes every 7 days due to the tank being heavily stocked(to keep down aggression). I run 2 600lph filters, one internal, one external
Its not a marine tank its a cichlid tank, I use the marine whites as I find it shows the colours of the fish better
Try and replace one bulb with either 6,700K or 10,000K. Or depending on what type of hood you have you can somehow maybe add 1 or 2 screwin cf
ok got my readings:
Nitrates 40ppm
Phophate 0.25ppm
Tested my tap water:
Nitrates 40ppm
Phosphate 2.0ppm
How am I supposed to reduce my nitrates when the water I'm using is the same reading as the tank? Would RO water be of use and if so how do I get it to the right PH/trace elements?
Nitrates 40ppm
Phophate 0.25ppm
Tested my tap water:
Nitrates 40ppm
Phosphate 2.0ppm
How am I supposed to reduce my nitrates when the water I'm using is the same reading as the tank? Would RO water be of use and if so how do I get it to the right PH/trace elements?
So, the EPA Human Health Water Quality Criteria upper limit for nitrate in tap water is 10ppm. While this is the EPA limit, there are many communities that have above this level. However, if you have 40 ppm nitrate in your tap water, you should not drink it. If nitrates in your tap water are at this level, you live in a highly polluted area.
My thoughts are: either your test is bad, you aren't doing it correctly, or you should stop drinking your tap water.
If your water really contains 40 ppm of nitrate, you can either go HEAVILY planted, or start using RO/DI water. 3 parts RO/DI to 1 part tap would get you to an ok level.
My thoughts are: either your test is bad, you aren't doing it correctly, or you should stop drinking your tap water.
If your water really contains 40 ppm of nitrate, you can either go HEAVILY planted, or start using RO/DI water. 3 parts RO/DI to 1 part tap would get you to an ok level.