Specially, what ppm's and which nutrients help algae when "too much"?
How much is too much?
Regards,
Tom Barr
Algae growing on plants = dying plants
- Thread starter Unislash
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Specially, what ppm's and which nutrients help algae when "too much"?
How much is too much?
Regards,
Tom Barr
Wow! You guys are awesome. 8 posts in 9 hours (overnight, even--well, here at least).
So, what I've collected from all of your replies:
1) Reduce light hours to 10 hours a day. RustyRay, thank you for your thought-out advice here.
2) Use root tabs.
3) Cut my plants back a bit to promote growth. I do bonsai as well, and doing this certainly works with them. Thanks Kashta
That cracked me up... but yeah, stem plants need a good trimming now and then. And I can't think of a better time to cut them down than when they get covered with algae... lmao.
Everything that grows goes through growth spurts when it's all going well and periods of little growth when it makes us wonder if they're dying. Over time, it's easier to get a feel for this.... the goal being to keep them at a stage of "vigorous" growth.
Those are really good questions!
milfoil is a weed that grows wild around here, and its actually illegal to transport it from one water source to another. I got some from a lake and cleaned it up and put it in my aquarium, and managed to kill it. it turned brown and hard, like dried out pine needles, and melted. every other plant in that tank was growing beautifully.
plants need;
carbon (taken care of with excel... but should be dosed daily for best results)
N - nitrates
P - phosphates
K - potassium
GH - calcium and magnesium
FE - iron
Micros - molybdenum, zinc, copper, manganese, etc., etc. ...
LIGHT
if anything is missing, the plants don't do so well. when plants don't do well the result is algae and/or a mess of plants in your tank that need to be cleaned up.
your lighting period is a little long... but not alarming in a non-co2 tank (i have one that runs longer with barely any movement in the water with no speakable algae). however... reducing that a bit should allow some wiggle room for adjustments.
i think you're probably running low on a couple ferts or carbon due to sporadic use of excel.
i would (one change at a time)
1. lower that lighting period to 8-10 hours
2. increase excel dosage to daily to keep that more stable
3. start a complete dosing regimen and eliminate ferts that are not necessary
N can be tested. if it's high, dosing shouldn't be necessary.
p can be tested. same deal
k... a little tougher... if you're not dosing n+p you probably will need k dosing anyway
fe... i wouldn't dose that separately unless i had a reason to suspect i need the extra
micros... safe to say this is one i probably would dose
gh... test it and dose accordingly anything in the low range could use a small dose of gh booster during w/c's... most folks don't seem to need this but my tanks certainly appreciate it
carbon (taken care of with excel... but should be dosed daily for best results)
N - nitrates
P - phosphates
K - potassium
GH - calcium and magnesium
FE - iron
Micros - molybdenum, zinc, copper, manganese, etc., etc. ...
LIGHT
if anything is missing, the plants don't do so well. when plants don't do well the result is algae and/or a mess of plants in your tank that need to be cleaned up.
your lighting period is a little long... but not alarming in a non-co2 tank (i have one that runs longer with barely any movement in the water with no speakable algae). however... reducing that a bit should allow some wiggle room for adjustments.
i think you're probably running low on a couple ferts or carbon due to sporadic use of excel.
i would (one change at a time)
1. lower that lighting period to 8-10 hours
2. increase excel dosage to daily to keep that more stable
3. start a complete dosing regimen and eliminate ferts that are not necessary
N can be tested. if it's high, dosing shouldn't be necessary.
p can be tested. same deal
k... a little tougher... if you're not dosing n+p you probably will need k dosing anyway
fe... i wouldn't dose that separately unless i had a reason to suspect i need the extra
micros... safe to say this is one i probably would dose
gh... test it and dose accordingly anything in the low range could use a small dose of gh booster during w/c's... most folks don't seem to need this but my tanks certainly appreciate it
Consistency, only advice I'd add here. Put your lights on a timer (I have mine on 8 hours a day), dose NPK daily using either EI (Tom Barr method) or PPS PRO (google it), and Excel (read the bottle for correct amounts) daily, dose micro nutrients per the method you choose. I have 10 tanks set up, it literally takes me 3 mins a day to dose PPS and Excel.
This is more about growing plants and very little to do with algae control.
A good article:
http://www.tropica.com/advising/technical-articles/biology-of-aquatic-plants/co2-and-light.aspx
Read this carefully a few times and make sure you fully understand the charts and figures.
No one ever answers my question on how much is too much or induces algae curiously
Seems there's not this middle ground really, rather and massively wide area of safety with respect to nutrients and the upper ranges, and a mucgh much more lethal side of things with respect to CO2.Excel, which kills 10000X more fish than anything to do with ferts.
Almost weekly or daily sometimes we hear about someone toasting their tank with CO2/Excel.
So effort there is a good deal of it, and of course the articel covers the relationship with light
Regards,
Tom Barr
A good article:
http://www.tropica.com/advising/technical-articles/biology-of-aquatic-plants/co2-and-light.aspx
Read this carefully a few times and make sure you fully understand the charts and figures.
No one ever answers my question on how much is too much or induces algae curiously
Seems there's not this middle ground really, rather and massively wide area of safety with respect to nutrients and the upper ranges, and a mucgh much more lethal side of things with respect to CO2.Excel, which kills 10000X more fish than anything to do with ferts.
Almost weekly or daily sometimes we hear about someone toasting their tank with CO2/Excel.
So effort there is a good deal of it, and of course the articel covers the relationship with light
Regards,
Tom Barr
