Something's wrong, I dunno what

S

superjohnny

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Dec 18, 2002
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My Ulvaceus is starting to get holes in the leaves. My water is constantly dirty, but I don't really understand why. I do 40% water changes every 3 days or so and it's relatively clear the day after, but then soon it starts to look dingy.

I don't get it. I'm thinking my filter is to blame (Fluval 204) it's pretty old, but I clean it frequently. That's just a guess cause I don't really have any other thoughts. Quite a bit of water moves through it and when I clean it there's lots of gunk in it.

My water parameters:
PH: ~7.0
KH <
Nitrites: 0
Amonia: 0

Any thoughts? Thanks guys :)
 
Is the tank over stocked, or are you over feeding? Maybe, if the filter has a lot of gunk in it when you clean it, you need to clean it more often? When you change water, do you do a good job of siphoning off the mulm that can accumulate on the substrate?
Just some thoughts.........
Len
 
plants need...

Plants need light, macronutrients, micronutrients.

light = the most important of the 3, try for 2 wpg minimum

macros = N (as in nitrate, or ammonia), P (typically from fish food, prob not the problem), K (might be low)

micros = fertilizer (from store, many to chose from, some include N and iron)
 
I have a CF 96w 8800k light so that's not a problem. When I vaccuum I run it about 1/2" over the substrate and try to pull as much of the mulm as I can. I feed daily, and they generally eat every bite. It shouldn't be over-stocked or over-fed. I have not been using any fertilizers because last time it caused a major algae outbreak. I added about 3ml of Flourish last night, I'm hoping that will help.

I think I'm going to bust out and get a new Rena filter... maybe that'll help? I'm at a bit of a loss as for what to do. With the ample supply of food and fresh water, my fish should be growing, but they're not.

I'm at a complete loss on this one guys :) Thanks for the thoughts tho :)
 
I really doubt it is the Fluval that is causing your cloudy water. What sort of CO2 supplementation are you providing? With the amount of light you're providing, if CO2 levels aren't around 20ppm, algae will opportunistically take over and cause a green water outbreak.

If CO2 levels are adequate, then I'd suspect a micronutrient deficiency. Perhaps Ca or Mg? Is your tap water hard or soft?
 
SUPER soft. I've been adding Sodium Bicarbonate to the water to raise the KH and CO2 to lower the PH (kh makes it jump of course). This weekend I added a 2nd DIY CO2 and am getting about a bubble per second. I think it's time to take a careful look into diffusing the CO2 better.

Wouldn't the macro nutrients be supplimented by the frequent water changes and Flourish?
 
I doubt that your water changes could possibly add nutrients to the water, but the Flourish's guaranteed analysis makes it look like that is a large contributor to nutrient addition.

It seems to me like algae is just flat-out outcompeting your Aponogeton, and stealing all available nutrition from the water. I think that that's the diagnosis, but, unfortunately, I can't do more than that. Best of luck and HTH,

Matthew
 
Somewhere along the line, have we established that this is an algae problem? I thought you referred to it as "dirty water".
Could we have some more info.? 96 watts over what? What is the size of the tank? What is the kH("super soft" doesn't tell us anything)? What is the gH? What is the pH out of the tap?
How well is it planted(how many)? Fish....how many?
There's no way to tell you anything without knowing all of the above.
Len
 
Len, I guess that we never really established that, but I was skimming another post at the time when I wrote my reply and thought that algal existence had been established. I agree that we need to know all the parameters which you had stated, and I'll leave this plant thing to the experts now!
 
Ok guys, I'll have to run some more tests when I get home.

As for KH & GH. My test kit basically tells me to get a 5ml sample and add 1 drop of the KH solution. Then the water is supposed to turn pink and I'm supposed to add 1 drop of solution till the water turns blue. Once it does I count the drops and multiply that by 20 to find out the KH.

When I add the first drop it turns blue so it's really low and lower than my test kit will measure. :(

Ph out of the tap is around 7.0.

I have 4 small angels, 1 i'm not sure and 2 SAE's.

Recently I had an algae outbreak so did a 4 day blackout. The tank was crystal clear for a few days after that, but gradually started to get murky.

Thanks for your help. I'll take pictures tonight and do some extensive water testing so I can give all the facts. I know how frustrating it can be trying to help someone without all the information.

Gracias
 
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