Plants vs. algae

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plantbrain

AC Members
Apr 27, 2001
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Davis, CA
www.BarrReport.com
Group hug?
Told you theysn't wain't no troll.
Takes time to gel, look and decide for themselves what makes sense.

You are never going to force this stuff, they must come to the conclusions on their own, this can be rapid or take years, decades for some.

I've been posting since 1995 on mailing list.
So I've seen many changes in the last 15 years and many people come at this from this view and many others.

One clown sued a web site and the posters myself included, one in the UK sued(threatened) a mag and a business over the PO4 NO3 issue.
Huge raging ego. Never stopped me, even in Federal court. So yes, some have made a federal case out of it.

Amazing, all that over some obscure aquatic weeds.:eek:
Sort of bizzare when you think about it.

I guess I have a lot more compassion having seen similar folks many times over the years, I understand and know why they think a certain way, but some are looking for fight and to sue people also.
Not many, but they are out there.

I female dog slapped em good, one filed bankruptcy, got pounded good, case was dropped, wasted gobs of his own time, fees etc and the other lost the writing job and has not been heard much from since.

Karma will get you, so be nice.

Fine to debate the topic, even heatedly...... but never get personal.
Simple but very old rule I have used, never done me wrong yet.
Moderators all use it too.

Others read these threads and lurk also, so these can help many clarify, I am doing this for this poster, as they enjoy helping others and like this hobby lot.

but there are others that shall read............and not post....

Regards,
Tom Barr
 

The Plantman

AC Members
Apr 13, 2010
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Tom, thank you for putting your time and effort into that post, very eye opening!


Maybe I’m different then most aquarist’s, because I love to test, for me it’s all part of the hobby. I like “working” on it, more then looking at it. I test almost every day. In the last 3 months I can’t tell you how many Phosphate, Nitrate KH and PH test kit’s I’ve gone through, but it’s been a lot!

According to the tests I’ve run I’ve only had 3 significant drops in Co2 which I discovered the issue and fixed. Three times I knocked the filter exhaust towards the surface with my hand and forgot to fix it! With the two glass bottles I run, the amount of surface disturbance I allow, I’m getting 25-30ppm of Co2. I think I’m getting fairly accurate results, I test a sample of water after shaking it for about a minute and letting it stand for 10 minutes. Then I test a straight sample so I can see the difference. I test for phosphate and Nitrate before and after I do a water change with “Tropica” N/P fertilizer. I have also tested my tap water several times, KH, GH and PH are identical to a sample of shaken tank water.

My equipment, and lets say “approximate” parameters,

46 gallon Bowfront
2 T-5 lamps with 2 bulbs each totaling 84 watts
Glass cover
Twin glass DIY Co2 (I change one bottle every two weeks)
Filters 1) eheim 2215 1) 2217 1)Professional 2. Yes I’m running massive filtration
Fish,
10 Fan-Tail Leopards
3 small Clown Loaches
15-20% water changes every Sunday at 11:00am sharp!

Before waterchange/Fert,
NO3------0
PO4 ------0
KH--------7.5 (I do 10 ml in the test tube not 5ml)
PH--------- CO2 6.9-6.8……..tab and shaken tank water reads 7.6

The Co2 drops to 15-20ppm for the first day after I change a bottle and then goes back up to 25-30 (6.9-6.8) till I change the next bottle. I’ve had it up to 35ppm but I increased surface disturbance to bring it back down. I think the growth is impressive; I’ve gone from barely planted 3 months ago to just insane!

What would you say I could do to help me under stand this,

Right now, my water change is 15% plus just 5ml Tropica with N/P per week. I’ve been doing this religiously for the last three months, but I just started with the Tropica N/P two weeks ago. For the first 2 months I wasn’t even using fertilizers! I test NO3/PO4 before firt/water change and get virtually zero of each. I test after (about 30min) I get “about” 5ppm NO3 and .25 Phosphate. I test everyday after and it’s gone in 3 days. If I add more then that, I get green hair algae on the glass that lasts for about 2-3 days and then it dies. I also get a bitty bit of what appears to be BBA, but if I back down on the fertilizer it goes away also. I think once the tank has even more plant growth I’ll be able to add more fert but If I try to add enough to last straight through the week I’ll defiantly have but loads of algae.

So what gives? What do you think? And thanks for reading.

Shawn
 

The Plantman

AC Members
Apr 13, 2010
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One more thing, when I had my first tank the 29 gallon I didn’t have to fertilize at all just straight 20% water changes for the life of it. I destroyed it buy blindly buying a Baby Fire Oscar. LOL 6 months later it was a burned out brown cesspool! LOL

The dark letters in my post above are from cuting and pasting from word. I'm a terrible speller!
 

SidtheMonkey

Hey, I'm really a woman.
Mar 26, 2010
333
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Outside Seattle, WA
One clown sued a web site and the posters myself included, one in the UK sued(threatened) a mag and a business over the PO4 NO3 issue.
Huge raging ego. Never stopped me, even in Federal court. So yes, some have made a federal case out of it.
Heh. I forgot all about that. How did all that turn out, btw? I'm going to see "E.O." this weekend and now maybe I'll ask him. Might not be a pleasant subject tho?
 

dundadundun

;sup' dog? ;woof and a wwwoof!
Jan 21, 2009
4,295
2
38
S.E. PA
i got you plantman.

at least i tried. apparently that code isn't compatible with this site.
 
Last edited:

dundadundun

;sup' dog? ;woof and a wwwoof!
Jan 21, 2009
4,295
2
38
S.E. PA
i got that part... i was just trying to embed the video for you. i'm working on one of my older pc's too so it didn't want to load anyway.
 
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