LaMotte or Hach Test Kits??

[The Gipper]

Just started up a 120 last weekend, stuffed with plants. I added 1 tsp KNO3,1 tsp K2SO4, dose of fluorish one day ago, and today there is greeen string-like algae(moderate amount) on the glass & some places on the driftwood (seemed to come from no where overnight)!! My doses for KNO3 is 1 tsp 3/week, and K2SO4 1 tsp 1/week. Fluorish according to directions. I have good pearling from plants, but also am experiencing a little leaf die-off (as I said, set up brand new last Saturday, new Onyx gravel, new filter, no seeding from other tanks)

pH 6.5-6.7 (gas CO2 holding this here, tap is ~7.0)
Temp 82
KH 3
K ?
P ?
Fe ?
NO3 ?(have test kit & will test tonight)
Seachem Fluorish for trace, added according to directions

As you can see, currently I have no test kits for P, K , Fe. I've seen positive posts for Hach and LaMotte kits, but prices are strikingly different!

QUESTIONS:

Hach test kits for P and Fe are ~$15, LaMotte are ~$70. Are Hach as good as the LaMotte?

Do I need to test for P and Fe? I don't see a test kit for K at my "go to" site for kits - is there a K test kit, or is this something you just add and don't test for?

How do you add Iron if its low?

Any ideas on the green stringy algae that appeared on the glass?

 

[Raithan Ellis]

I don't think you should be having any problems with iron when using Onyx, however I still dose my Flourish Iron as well.

Now the iron test, I hear LaMotte are the way to go. I've tried several different ones, Seachem, Hach and Red Sea. All failed attempts, none shared similar results and Red Sea was the bottom of the line, IMHO.

Regards,
Raithan O. Ellis

 

[125gJoe]

I agree with Raithian, LaMotte is the best, and I do not like Red Sea..

 

[plantbrain]

Do you have herbivores in your tank?

Drop a bunch of amano shrimps and nothing will be left after a few days.
Other wise trim, prune and manually remove the algae. You'll have to keep up on things the first few weeks. Regular work and all.

I would not buy the test kits for anything else here except for the following:

pH: a monitor is real nice and very accurate. Narrow range pH kits for 6-7.2 are also good.

KH: Lamott is not that much here nor are the cheaper Tetra kits etc.

Those you have to have.
NO3:Lamott is the only good kit I've run across here, but 50-60$.

PO4: the Lamott is good and there's a nice Hach, runs about 90$ though.

Fe: I had a nice Hach, again ran about 90$, and a Fe Lamott.
I don't think Fe Test kits tell you anything useful about the plants in your tank. You can search archives about that issue.

K: don't bother testing.

GH: just make sure it's above 50ppm or 3GH.

You can get away with a great deal and not test if you keep up with a dosing routine.
But when a new tank is starting up, you will have a period of instability, 1-2 months. Add herbivores and or plan to do some extra scrubbing during this period.

Some ways to make the start up phase easiler:
Add old tank water from established tank. Add mulm from established tank.
Season the filter on another mature tank.
Add lots of herbivores after about a week or two.
Add lots of plants(did that part)

Scrub and trim algae off first and prune plants, _then_ do the 50% water change. This will stress the algae first, often times when stressed, they send out millions of zoospores. It doesn't take long, a few hours/minutes. Doing a large water change after cleaning a tank will remove a good deal of these and any other detritus laying around. Turning a UV on for the next 24 hours after a water change is useful to kill anything left floating in the water column such as the zoospores which are pretty tough and resistant.

I got 100 Amano shrimp for 68$ at my LFS. I added 70 to my 75gal, 17 to my 20 gal, 4 each to my 4 gal cubes. You can also trade them or go in on a deal with a couple of other folks in your area also. Put up a little ad etc at the LFS asking if interested in getting shrimps etc.

The algae species is likely Oedogonium. Single short strands on glass and plants etc.

Regards,
Tom Barr