Sophia Posted March 17, 2010 Report Share Posted March 17, 2010 :evil: Gave the first dose ever of flourish to my tank (exactly as directed on label) on Sat and have continued with the flourish excel daily recommended dose also. Now today the water seems slightly murky - not white-cloudy but less easy to see the back of the tank. Ammonia/Nitrate/Nitrite are all zero/under 10/zero as usual. There is a slight growth of soft green algae on the glass but it is still murky when I scrape a bit of glass clear. I can't see any new algae tufts growing anywhere either. I can only assume it is some kind of fluctuation caused by the fertiliser programme as nothing else has changed, not a peep. This is not a good start to fertilising Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted March 17, 2010 Report Share Posted March 17, 2010 are the fish ok? they do not look like their fins are fraying or eyes damaged etc? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer Posted March 17, 2010 Report Share Posted March 17, 2010 Liquid carbon can cause the water to appear murky. See if it clears up 24 hours after you dose - if so, you know what is causing the murk. It is not harmful. If it does not clear up, you could have a bacterial bloom on your hands. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophia Posted March 17, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2010 are the fish ok? they do not look like their fins are fraying or eyes damaged etc? nahp, everyone as fishy as usual. They've just finished dinner and the corys are snuffling around looking for more if anything there has been less food in there than usual since the weekend as the tetra are re-acclimatising themselves to dry food after having mostly white worms for a couple of weeks (I didn't realise they were a treat only - nevertheless some of the little ones needed feeding up) Liquid carbon can cause the water to appear murky. See if it clears up 24 hours after you dose - if so, you know what is causing the murk. It is not harmful. If it does not clear up, you could have a bacterial bloom on your hands. There isn't time for it to clear up as it gets a dose a night - I've been sticking to the label like glue! Do you think now there is fertiliser in there I should do it less? Or maybe the plants haven't caught up to the algae in taking up the ferts and maybe I should give another dose of that? It does say you can give that 'once or twice a week'. Also I don't remember it being murky when I first started, though that was in overdose. I remember it got a little murky towards the end of the overdosing though. It's been getting the sedate recommended rate of flourish for some weeks now. The leaves of some of the plants are still browning a bit but that has been a steady progression downhill which made me realise I needed the ferts. There has only been one dose of fert so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer Posted March 17, 2010 Report Share Posted March 17, 2010 If it is not too murky, and the fish are all ok, I wouldn't be worried at all, it should clear up. If you are dosing excel daily, you could try dosing ferts every day as well. Your plants will start to become very happy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted March 17, 2010 Report Share Posted March 17, 2010 oh phew. that's good to hear. I agree with what jenH has said so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophia Posted March 17, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2010 i'm too wary to dose ferts every day but I will do the 2nd dose now to make it twice in the first week i did originally think I would give 2 doses till the plants recovered their green-ness but after the murk I got a bit worried thanks guys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer Posted March 17, 2010 Report Share Posted March 17, 2010 It is absolutely fine to dose trace ferts daily. With something like flourish comprehensive you will see amazing growth if you dose 1ml per 40 litres each day. Not cheap, but really easy and produces great results even with relatively low lighting. The plants will take hold and have everything they need to outcompete the algae. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophia Posted March 17, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2010 just remembering that at the end of the overdosing when the water was murky the corys weren't happy. I can't help but think murky isn't unharmful after all, or is one not the cause of the other? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer Posted March 17, 2010 Report Share Posted March 17, 2010 If the fish are unhappy, cut back a little bit and do a water change ASAP. You don't want unhappy fish. Excel can cause murkyness at normal doses and normal doses are typically not harmful to fish, but again, fish are individuals so you need to assess the situation and act accordingly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophia Posted March 17, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2010 ok is it OK to decrease the frequency of flourish excel while the trace stuff is still starting off? I worry that things are in a state of imbalance at the moment and changing a variable will upset things more Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer Posted March 17, 2010 Report Share Posted March 17, 2010 IMO you can hardly do wrong with trace as long as you don't overdo it (dosing too much at a time). I have a couple of tanks that only get flourish comp and no CO2 or excel and the plants are beautiful. Others get trace and CO2 and others get trace and excel. You can do it either way, but it is best to be consistent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophia Posted March 17, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2010 ok, that's interesting and thanks for sharing, as always Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suphew Posted March 17, 2010 Report Share Posted March 17, 2010 Do you have good lighting on the tank as well? Unless you have the 3 things plants need to grow in balance (light, CO2, and Nutrients) adding the fertiliser is just going to feed algae. Very often light is the limiting factor to plant growth, not the fertilisers since fish provide plenty of this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophia Posted March 18, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2010 lighting is OK - I thought it was on the bland side but I have some plants that tolerate low light and they have shot up as if under good lighting. So I'm pretending it's good. still a bit murky today so have left off the excel and given another dose of trace instead. i could swear the sagittaria are slowly greening upbut mine husband disagrees :-? the twisted val that has recovered from the excel overdose is green at least :bounce: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer Posted March 18, 2010 Report Share Posted March 18, 2010 Well done. Are the fish still looking happy? Have you done a water change? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophia Posted March 18, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2010 hello, fish were always happy so I didn't do a water change - tomorrow they get one anyway Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophia Posted March 20, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2010 have done a water change and the water isn't perfectly clear but I'm waiting and seeing for the time being i also sieved all the sand to remove snails and that stirred it up too the thing i noticed about the water last week was the dried droplets of water on the lid were green/dark green instead of the usual whitey colour - maybe another clue for you fish detectives Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophia Posted April 2, 2010 Author Report Share Posted April 2, 2010 mostly laid off the flourish excel since last post and the cloudiness has gone when I was doing the overdosing I noticed that the impellor in the filter and the inside of the filter box got a bit white gunky - I presume this is a side effect of using the product, that it is somehow cumulative, which could explain why using it a little a day for a few weeks brought about same cloudiness as when overdosing?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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