how much ferts you putting in?
i constantly have berried shrimp in both my tanks and ferts haven't killed any yet. as a matter of fact i think my cherries might out breed my guppies.
Drowning in an algae nightmare!
- Thread starter myswtsins
- Start date
i constantly have berried shrimp in both my tanks and ferts haven't killed any yet. as a matter of fact i think my cherries might out breed my guppies.
The solution to which would be to use potassium chloride in the softener instead of sodium chloride, so providing potassium for the plants.
Whoa. A lot happens when you go away for a few days!
I couldn't find food grade H202 locally so I just started dosing with regular H202 yesterday @ 1ml per gallon.
Canuck - PH without Co2 is about 8.2. So if there are other buffers to be concerned with how do I calculate my CO2? I plan to get a drop checker VERY soon though (money allowing).
dundadundun - Looks most like Rhizoclonium. And from researching that it sure seems to be what I have, just need to figure out my CO2 situation now. I am on the hunt for tiny teaspoons right now too!
Zigman - Photoperiod right now is manually done & irregular. Yes I know I am a bad bad bad girl! I know better but just haven't gotten around to buying another timer, I have even run out of power strips now too!
I will fix this asap and the photoperiod will be between 6-8 hrs, which is what I strive for right now & am pretty accurate about but nothing compares to a timer.
KarlTh & Canuck - 0 Gh is from a water softener. I am working that out right now. I am waiting for test results directly from the well to see if it is safe to use in the fish tanks because I know that is the better source over "softened" water. I just need to figure out why the water is cloudy & smelly from the well but not after passing through the softener. Salt level is only 1.002. Potassium chloride to too darn expense & still would not solve the issue of no calcium or magnesium, that is why I am trying to just use my well water...SHOULD solve a lot of issues.
Thanks so much everyone! I am going to go against my budget and buy a drop checker, tiny tsps, a timer & a power strip today! Just need to sell something to justify it.
I couldn't find food grade H202 locally so I just started dosing with regular H202 yesterday @ 1ml per gallon.
Canuck - PH without Co2 is about 8.2. So if there are other buffers to be concerned with how do I calculate my CO2? I plan to get a drop checker VERY soon though (money allowing).
dundadundun - Looks most like Rhizoclonium. And from researching that it sure seems to be what I have, just need to figure out my CO2 situation now. I am on the hunt for tiny teaspoons right now too!
Zigman - Photoperiod right now is manually done & irregular. Yes I know I am a bad bad bad girl! I know better but just haven't gotten around to buying another timer, I have even run out of power strips now too!
I will fix this asap and the photoperiod will be between 6-8 hrs, which is what I strive for right now & am pretty accurate about but nothing compares to a timer.KarlTh & Canuck - 0 Gh is from a water softener. I am working that out right now. I am waiting for test results directly from the well to see if it is safe to use in the fish tanks because I know that is the better source over "softened" water. I just need to figure out why the water is cloudy & smelly from the well but not after passing through the softener. Salt level is only 1.002. Potassium chloride to too darn expense & still would not solve the issue of no calcium or magnesium, that is why I am trying to just use my well water...SHOULD solve a lot of issues.
Thanks so much everyone! I am going to go against my budget and buy a drop checker, tiny tsps, a timer & a power strip today! Just need to sell something to justify it.
As long as you are getting a 1 point drop from the starting pH, you have approximately 30 ppm of CO2, so it looks like that isn't a concern. The next thing to look at would be the calcium and magnesium, imo, the flourite provides some but I believe the ratio of NaCl to other salts may actually block uptake of other nutrients. I'd try adding magnesium and calcium to the water. Magnesium is easy, you can get epsom salt anywhere. I'm not sure what you could use for calcium.
I will try to at least add some epson salts today but I am really hoping for a good result from my well testing & not have to worry about adding anything extra to replace what was already in my water. As far as my tests go (ph & kh) Co2 seems pretty stable but I do get burps of co2 out of my red sea 500 reactor from time to time. Could that being causing the rhizoclonium?
As far as my tests go (ph & kh) Co2 seems pretty stable but I do get burps of co2 out of my red sea 500 reactor from time to time. Could that being causing the rhizoclonium?
ok, in some areas the tiny teaspoons can be found. in others like mine... well over 2 years and no luck... i checked everywhere! what i wound up doing is getting the red sea deluxe planted tank test kit. it comes with a couple tests that use a powder regent. the scoop for that is pretty small. i measured it by scooping it into another measuring spoon and dividing from there by how many scoops it took. if i remember correctly it was about 1/32 tsp. you should be able to get a set that includes a 1/8 tsp from walmart or other places listed in ei dosing for dummies post in the sticky.dundadundun - Looks most like Rhizoclonium. And from researching that it sure seems to be what I have, just need to figure out my CO2 situation now. I am on the hunt for tiny teaspoons right now too!
KarlTh & Canuck - 0 Gh is from a water softener. I am working that out right now. I am waiting for test results directly from the well to see if it is safe to use in the fish tanks because I know that is the better source over "softened" water. I just need to figure out why the water is cloudy & smelly from the well but not after passing through the softener. Salt level is only 1.002. Potassium chloride to too darn expense & still would not solve the issue of no calcium or magnesium, that is why I am trying to just use my well water...SHOULD solve a lot of issues.
Thanks so much everyone! I am going to go against my budget and buy a drop checker, tiny tsps, a timer & a power strip today! Just need to sell something to justify it.
to increase your gh you can get barr's gh booster or the seachem equivalent and pay for the water too. i've been re-constituting water for my tanks from rain water all summer with 1 pound of barr's gh booster and baking soda for kh. it even helped me save 2 fish from columnaris... long story that includes water main maintenance. you can get barr's gh booster from aquariumfertilizer.com. note: it was formulated by gregg watson from info taken from the seachem equivalent and should provide the ingredients you're missing.
another option to the teaspoons and scale is to make stock solutions. it should work well with only 2 solutions. the rest of your supplements can be dosed at larger amounts and a regular measuring spoon set should suffice. this is also touched upon in the sticky at the bottom of that post i mentioned. for plantex, kh2po4 and k2so4 you just put 1 tablespoon into a 250ml bottle (i used old flourish bottles as they come in 250 ml) and add water. the plantex should be mixed in a separate bottle and refrigerated to keep it from spoiling and binding with your macros.
My story ...
I began keeping fish with a goldfish in a bowl in the late 1960's. My patience, enthusiasm, and willingness to constantly experiment were VERY high back then. I have been through many tanks and still maintain 5 or more to this very day (number changes as I swap, trade and buy new tanks.)
Through the decades I have darkened my tanks, bought fish and creatures to 'eat algae', mixed yeast, sugar and water, and enough to fill swimming pools, invested in VERY EXPENSIVE CO2 equipment and made frequent and expensive trips to have the cylinders refilled, invested additional LARGE sums of money in expensive chemicals to control algae, etc. In the end, algae was still a maintenance problem--to this very day, it is.
In the end I ended up with dark tanks when I would have liked to have been viewing them. I ended up with inhabitants I would rather not have in my tanks. I ended up with CO2 equipment a bar would envy, etc.d
Now, I might be accused of 'being slow', however, even I woke up to the fact something/things needed to change--or else I needed to give up the hobby!
Or, to say all that very simply, hydrogen peroxide has its' VERY valid uses.
And, I continue to search better solutions and experiment to this very day ...
Regards,
TA
I began keeping fish with a goldfish in a bowl in the late 1960's. My patience, enthusiasm, and willingness to constantly experiment were VERY high back then. I have been through many tanks and still maintain 5 or more to this very day (number changes as I swap, trade and buy new tanks.)
Through the decades I have darkened my tanks, bought fish and creatures to 'eat algae', mixed yeast, sugar and water, and enough to fill swimming pools, invested in VERY EXPENSIVE CO2 equipment and made frequent and expensive trips to have the cylinders refilled, invested additional LARGE sums of money in expensive chemicals to control algae, etc. In the end, algae was still a maintenance problem--to this very day, it is.
In the end I ended up with dark tanks when I would have liked to have been viewing them. I ended up with inhabitants I would rather not have in my tanks. I ended up with CO2 equipment a bar would envy, etc.d
Now, I might be accused of 'being slow', however, even I woke up to the fact something/things needed to change--or else I needed to give up the hobby!
Or, to say all that very simply, hydrogen peroxide has its' VERY valid uses.
And, I continue to search better solutions and experiment to this very day ...
Regards,
TA
You might focus strongly on CO2 and that tap vs softener, see if you can bypass the softener if possible.
A 3 day black out will kill off the algae.
Not much of an issue there.
New tanks somethings get this algae, some amano shrimps will take care of it, they are pretty good at getting algae.
Add some GH, say 1-2 degrees, those are plant nutrients.
Use less light, consider cycling the 55w bulbs back and forth(5 hours each with one coming one first in the AM, the other in the PM, no overlap, or maybe 1-2 hours of overlap)
Also, with a softener, the CO2 ppm reading from the pH/Kh table is going to be really skewed.
So you might need to eyeball things rather than reply so much on the table.
Regards,
Tom Barr
A 3 day black out will kill off the algae.
Not much of an issue there.
New tanks somethings get this algae, some amano shrimps will take care of it, they are pretty good at getting algae.
Add some GH, say 1-2 degrees, those are plant nutrients.
Use less light, consider cycling the 55w bulbs back and forth(5 hours each with one coming one first in the AM, the other in the PM, no overlap, or maybe 1-2 hours of overlap)
Also, with a softener, the CO2 ppm reading from the pH/Kh table is going to be really skewed.
So you might need to eyeball things rather than reply so much on the table.
Regards,
Tom Barr
:iagree:
Most homes have a faucet that bypasses the softener. In my case it was the kitchen sink.
Most homes have a faucet that bypasses the softener. In my case it was the kitchen sink.
