CO2 levels and algae hell. Please help !!!!

[rrkss]

Cheers guys that the best info anyones given me so far, the LFS strictly told me that the phosphates were the cause of all my algae problems, infact they went as far to say phosphates were bad as they were a micro nutrient and plants only use macro nutrients so phosphate were only good for encouraging algae growth !!!.

The fish shop should learn more about plants. The three macronutrients are Nitrogen, Phosphates, and Potassium. We then have the micronutrients which are

Iron
Copper
Zinc
Boron
Manganese
Cobalt
Strontium
Chloride
Sodium

and a few others. For your tank size, go for a pressurized setup since that will be the easiest to manage and the least hassle. Strontium has 8 known isotopes 4 of which are non radioactive. The strontium in crushed coral is most likely not radioactive. By the way just an interesting fact about radiation; beer is 13x more radioactive than the water discharged from a nuclear power plant.

 

[Vyper]

I never stop being amazed by the info I pick up on here, and that last little bit about the beer was superb, cheers for that, since beer is 13% more radioactive than power plant water I've almost got an urge to try it on my BBA, maybe radiation is the key to algae eradication.

Anyway seriosuly guys, I'll stop nagging about this stuff now if someone can just oput my mind at rest as to why adding KH tablets should raise my PH from 6.3 to 7.5.

Just for your ionfo the instructions on the box say 3 tablets will increase KH by 1 in a 100 litre tank, so in theory if you did have a 100 litre tank 9 tablets would get you to KH 3. So why oh why does 6 tablets in my 180 litre tank get me a KH of 3 and a PH of 7.5. I'm lost, all this KH GH stuff has me scratching my head, I didn't even know it existed till thiis morning, I thought PH was a techy as it gets, now I'm playing with all kinds of wacky water factors which I'm still not totally convinced I understand, but what I did p[ick up was KH is good and acts as PH buffer and stops big PH changes, which is exactly whats its not done in my tank. Do I just have unique water which defies the laws of know science or am I just missing the point and really my water has always wanted to be 7.5 and the KH has now made that possible ? Geeez I need a lie down, all this makes my head hurt.

 

[IceH2O]

When KH rises so does pH. The only way to lower pH and keep KH up is to inject CO2.

If you added crushed coral it would do the same, just not as quickly, and it would be more stable. If you look at the ingredients of those tabs I'll bet baking soda is near the top. I'd watch for a huge pH/KH drop after those tablets run out.

 

[plantbrain]

Read up on KH.

You do not need it to be high, anything from 1-2 degrees is fine, adding more serves no purpose.

Raising the pH is bad for fish if you add lots of Baking soda all at once.
Lowering it or raising it with CO2 is not.

Ask yourself why this might be.........

If you place a fish in a high salt tank and then back to low salt tank, is that bad?

Yes.

Baking soda is a carbonate salt.

This shocks the fish.

CO2 does not.
We do weekly large 50-75% water changes with low pH CO2 enriched water with plain tap that's 1 full pH unit above. Never any issues nor anyone for the last 20 years.............due to pH changes and CO2.

Baking soda? Folks have killed their fish adding 4-6 degrees all at once.

If you want more CO2, the obnly way to do that is well.............add more CO2.

Lowering, raising KH, monkeying with strong acids, and other hairbrained ideas to get that pH/KH combo you seek are futile and waste time, $, and brain cells.

Plants want CO2, so if you want better conditions for the plants, only add CO2.

GH and the rest are nutrients(as is CO2).

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[tanker]

I think you may have more than one problem. To raise PH properly (if it is needed) is to add crush coral, or some other kind of buffer--baking soda is just a temp fix.

What else are you adding?? From experience iron ALWAYS cause a beard algae growth for me. I no longer dose iron.

There are 2 different kinds of flying foxes, only one of them eats beard algae. Also it is very difficult to tell one from the other.

What are your lights??