hey... a few ?'s

A

amd

AC Members
Aug 4, 2006
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first off, hi everyone, i have been trying to get a good answer on a few questions and no other forums seem to cut to the chase as i had hoped, sooo.

i am currently battling bga with marydel, and its dying, 3 more day ov treatment and its done. anyway my questions are...

can someone help me created a fert regimine and to be completly honest, i have been ferilizing with gregs dry ferts, but not sure if im doing it right. so what i guess i will try here is ask, what is everything you all need to know about my setup, to help create a fert guide? that way i can post it all up in one good easy to read chunk and go from there. i kinda want to go at this starting over and coming in as a noob.

are t8 actually better than a t12? both in no mode not odno.
i have 4 40 t12 6500ks in shop lights. ehh diy very soon
would having 2 more be better? 6 total.?

also what causes bga and how to PREVENT it, since im already killing it i guess i know how, i just want it to stay gone! i had a lot of dead spots so i got a pwerhead that took care of that

my tank, "what i think yall need to know"
55gallon
flourite
4 40watt shoplight 6500k's
rena xp2, with phosphate remover bag(so i was told for bga)
powerhead
water temp ~79-80f
ph 6.4
kh 6-7 (between water changes, i have to buffer with b.soda)
pressurized co2 with current reactor m
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 0
light schedule, ehhh i need a timer!

also my glosso is dying, apperently not enough light, i thout id try anyway,possibly get lucky. also im not sure whats up with my micro swords, i got a 1sq ft mat, it seems to be rooting and growing taller, not tooo tall, just like 1/2 inch in the last few week since i got it. it just seems the "50%" leaf tips are going brown.

anyway any help is well appreiciated, thanks aheadof time, and if theres anything that yall need to know to help let me know.
 
microsword is a slow grower and will get some algae at the tips. It sounds like you don't have enough nitrates in your water maybe...

When I had a BGA problem I started dosing nitrate once in a while (1/8th tp a day with a 20 gallon planted) with 1 tsp of pottassium sulfate a week and it went away... i'm starting to customize my own ferts using greg watsons dry stuff now... >>;
i just planted a TON of microsworsd so i dont know whats going on >.<
 
new one here, this morning after the second dose of maryicin the water is a little cloudy. what would be causing this? the water has allways had a slight green tinge, but this looks like white cloudy water with a hint of green, i dont think its algae, iv had that before and the fish seem to be perfectly insane
 
The easiest way to get rid of BGA is a three day blackout. Simple and effective and free. Avoid chemicals. Yes they might work but why add them if they're not needed.

There's a few things I've found with BGA from my own experiences and from others.

1. Circulation is good.
2. Nitrates are good but only if the tank is well balanced in the first place.
3. Snails. Yes they might not eat the BGA but their constant grazing seems to prevent the algae from taking hold.

I have a 55g tank that is divided. One third is home to 5 dwarf puffers. The other two thirds is home to an arrowhead puffer. On the dwarf side I began to see the development of BGA. Over a few weeks it started taking off but none appeared on the arrowhead side. I was puzzled by this and it eventually dawned on me that it was because there is no snails on the dwarf side. They get eaten. The arrowhead puffer eats fish and ignores snails so I have a nice population in its territory.

What I done was syphon out the BGA, re-checked my ferts and added two otos with the dwarfs. The constant grazing by the otos seems to have helped. No BGA has reappeared yet.

Now, take all this with a grain of salt. I have several tanks and no BGA but I do keep a lot of snails. Funny how the tank (one side of the tank) with no snails had the BGA. But this is hardly scientific and I'm sure there are many clean tanks with no snails. Good fert balance and tank maintenance will work wonders for any types of algae, or cyano.
 
T8s are a little better than T12s but they won't work with a T12 ballast. You'll basically need a new hood to use T8s. Compact fluorescents and T5s are even better, especially if you want to grow foreground plants.

BGA is usually caused by high phosphates, though a lack of nitrates or potassium can lead to the same problem. You have 0 nitrates so that's an indication that you need to increase nitrates and possibly potassium as well. Are you using KNO3 to dose? If you're using KNO3 then you shouldn't have to worry about additional K(potassium). How much are you dosing? Don't use a phosphate pillow to remove phosphates, if you forget to remove it after awhile it will leach the phosphate back into the water. The algaecide is probably doing a number on your plants as well and may explain why they are doing so poorly.

If your kH reading is in degrees, then you have way too much CO2, if it's in ppm, you have too little CO2. Here's a link to a CO2 table chart:

http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_co2chart.htm

As for a fert schedule, dose 5grams of KNO3 and less than a gram of KH2PO4 every other day or 4 days a week. On the following days, dose 10mL of trace.
 
well, i really need help with getting the ferts ballanced, any help plz
 
so 86.3 ppm of co2 is bad? i thought everyone says max it out, why is it bad to be so high, the tetras seem great
 
Maxing out the CO2 in a planted tank without livestock isn't a problem but a high CO2 level can suffocate animals. Now something else may be screwing up the readings, like a high phosphate level or water conditioners like pH UP or Down. In general though, you want to keep the CO2 ppm under 35.
 
It should only take a single dose of EM (maracyn) to kill bga, bot a full 5 dose routine. Before dosing manually remove as much as you can. The cloudiness is a result of killing the bga. The day after you dose the EM you need to vac the tank to get out the dead stuff and also clean your filter media for similar reasons. Check you ammonia levels.
 
i dont think it had died yet though. its stll clinging on in places, but wrinkling, i am on day but havent dosed the 3rd yet, so i shouldnt dose now?
 
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