Greetings. I have a 29gallon thats been setup for 6 months. 12 Harlequin Rasbora and 3 Yoyo Loaches. I have a coconut half that i'm trying to grow java moss on as well as 4 small to large peices of driftwood. I've been waring with BGA for the last month and think alot of it has to do with the fact my tank has never developed Nitrate. The substrate is a fairly fine sand about 2 inches deep to cover the slate that the driftwood is bolted to. Now i've started doseing Flourish Nitrogen to get my Nitrates up but i realy would like to figure out why i'm losing so much nitrate when i dont have any mesurable plant load.
Nitrate=0 on none planted tank, why?
- Thread starter Phycha
- Start date
Having no nitrate is normal in a planted tank. This is because plants are using it all up. even having a few plants, can messing around with them.
This isent a planted tank. I have 3-4 fibers of java moss which have survived the last major BGA bloom.
for one it doesn't matter wheather it is algae or plants that use it up both would result in the reduction of nitrate and could lower it to undetectable levels if you arn't feeding much.
the other possibility is that your tests are old and arn't working like they should anymore. I know some varietys of tests do fail although I'm not entirely sure why.
Nitrate is only one part of the nessasary nutrients for building mass of photosynthetic things. but think about how much food you feed and how much algae you had. you might have had enough algae that it ate through the nitrate build up you possibly had and the reason it is dying back is the lack of a food source now that it has caught up with supply.
the other possibility is that your tests are old and arn't working like they should anymore. I know some varietys of tests do fail although I'm not entirely sure why.
Nitrate is only one part of the nessasary nutrients for building mass of photosynthetic things. but think about how much food you feed and how much algae you had. you might have had enough algae that it ate through the nitrate build up you possibly had and the reason it is dying back is the lack of a food source now that it has caught up with supply.
BGA is not an algea at all. Its able to Fix atmospheric Nitrogen and is common to waters with extreamly low Nitrates. Meny articles on it suggest in the presents of Nitrates it doesnt form or is out compeated. I'm trying to find a solution to my low Nitrates to permenetly wipeout the BGA. My fishload is IMO about 3/4 full for a 29gallon and i've never had a large bloom of anything but the BGA. I havent ruled out my test kit is malfunctioning and will test adding flourish nitrogen to a small glass of water to see if i can get a reading on it.
The species of BGA we have does not fix N2, there's plenty of N for it in any planted or non planted tank.
The low N regions are extremely low NO3 levels, far beyond any one's trest kit range here certainly. The middle of the ocean along the equatorial regions in 4km deep water and no upwelling, 1000's on miles from land is a low nutrient region. BGA are very small and need very little to live.
Adding KNO3 routinely will solve any low NO3 levels associated with BGA.
You will need to get rid of BGA first, blackout for 3 days or antibiotics, one is free, the other cost $. KNO3 is added the first day and then the last after treatment is completed and a 50% water change before and after is recommended to remove as much as is there.
Regards,
Tom Barr
The low N regions are extremely low NO3 levels, far beyond any one's trest kit range here certainly. The middle of the ocean along the equatorial regions in 4km deep water and no upwelling, 1000's on miles from land is a low nutrient region. BGA are very small and need very little to live.
Adding KNO3 routinely will solve any low NO3 levels associated with BGA.
You will need to get rid of BGA first, blackout for 3 days or antibiotics, one is free, the other cost $. KNO3 is added the first day and then the last after treatment is completed and a 50% water change before and after is recommended to remove as much as is there.
Regards,
Tom Barr