Algae ID and help needed.

[Brennos]

Hmmm, I'm at around a 1/4 tsp dry powder each week in 100L with about 50% water changes weekly. If you're already testing at zero nitrates, I'd suggest you use that rate, and measure the drop in level over the next couple of days.

The rate of drop might change suddenly if you run low on another nutrient - say iron, or magnesium, or whatever.

My current regime (heh, now I sound pretentious ) is about the same amount of potassium sulphate, potassium nitrate, trace elements mix, and 1/2 a tsp of MgSO4- epsom salts. Dosing that level keeps phosphate as the growth limiting factor for the plants and algae in my tank.

50% water change! Do your fish mind? Do you do the water changes because of the no3 etc, or because you have messy fish?

[John Rimbauer]

50% water change! Do your fish mind? Do you do the water changes because of the no3 etc, or because you have messy fish?

The reason is much more prosaic and sad sorry. With the siphon out the window, and the gravel vac in the tank, it breaks siphon at 50% empty. Hence the 50%. Hose in the other direction when I'm done to fill it back up.

The only time the fish mind is if its a) very cold outside, and b) I run the water in quick. It upset the corys I had quite a bit. Now if it's very cold I turn the filter and heater back on, and run the water in over 20 mins or so. I think the thermal stratifcation of the coldest water at the bottom is what annoyed them, so the filter running helps stir the water.

If you keep the fertiliser proportions about the same it seems to work, based on nitrate readings. Once you hit 5-10ppm you've got your level. I use this method on the 3ft at work, and that's a high light, injected CO2 job that only gets 20% water changes a week.

[Brennos]

The reason is much more prosaic and sad sorry. With the siphon out the window, and the gravel vac in the tank, it breaks siphon at 50% empty. Hence the 50%. Hose in the other direction when I'm done to fill it back up.

The only time the fish mind is if its a) very cold outside, and b) I run the water in quick. It upset the corys I had quite a bit. Now if it's very cold I turn the filter and heater back on, and run the water in over 20 mins or so. I think the thermal stratifcation of the coldest water at the bottom is what annoyed them, so the filter running helps stir the water.

If you keep the fertiliser proportions about the same it seems to work, based on nitrate readings. Once you hit 5-10ppm you've got your level. I use this method on the 3ft at work, and that's a high light, injected CO2 job that only gets 20% water changes a week.

Excellent. Do you mix the powder/crystals into a water mix first? Or just dump the 1/4 teaspoon in and good to go?

[John Rimbauer]

Excellent. Do you mix the powder/crystals into a water mix first? Or just dump the 1/4 teaspoon in and good to go?

I used to mix them, and eventually moved to dumping them straight in. I found the premixed product would get various things forming a precipitate in the bottom of the container. If the products are pretty pure, they'll dissolve and dissipate very quickly. Just treat it like salting your dinner, shake it on rather than dump in and you should be golden.

Some of my fish seem to find the epsom salt crystals drifting through the tank fascinating. They pick at them as they sink and dissolve, but I've never noticed even the slightest hint of an adverse reaction. The trace elements, KNO3, and KSO4 dissolve too quick for them to pick at.

[Brennos]

I have manually removed bucket loads of cyno, in prep for dosing potassium nitrate. I have done a 40l water change, and letting everything settle, Ill dose with Flourish Excel, and Flourish, and let that settle, and test all water parameters, and dose the Potassium Nitrate in a couple of hours. How long do you reckon it will take to see an decrease in cyno? I removed all the driftwood, and removed the cyno from the java fern roots, and syphoned as much as I could from the sp microfilia bases. On a side note, I also planted some more java fern on a second piece of driftwood, and added that to the tank. It's starting to look like a jungle, which is the look I want, I just need to get this cyno under control, its driving me nuts.

[Brennos]

Added 1/4 teaspoon, waited an hour tested, and my nitrate is still 0ppm. added a pinch more, and waited till now and tested again, still 0. How long does it normally take to see an increase? Do i need to add more? tank is about 140l minus gravel wood and substrate?

[John Rimbauer]

How long it takes to see an increase will depend on your tank's circulation, but I would expect pretty quickly - say under 15 min.

You're in a odd position in that you know nitrogen is a limiting factor in the tank at the moment. In theory, the plants will absorb and sequester the nitrate as quickly as they can to use it in protein synthesis and new growth. This will change once they have sufficient nitrogen.

Nitrate doesn't seem to cause any issues til about 20ppm, so if you're in a mad rush you could cut out all other ferts, and just dose nitrate. If you've got no response on 1/4 tsp, you could consider adding a whole tsp and testing thereafter. It shouldn't mess up any adult fish, but any babies could be affected. If you over shoot 20ppm, then it's time for a water change - and from there it's kitchen math time. If it's 30ppm, a 50% waterchange will bring you down to 15ppm, which should be fine given the plants will be using it.

As to how long it takes to see an effect, I recall that I was cleaning out cyano every day and it was growing back fast enough to just about see it spreading. The first thing I noticed in the subsequent couple of days was that it stopped spreading as the plants took up the slack. As far as I recall that was within a couple of days. The caveat on that is that I was running lots of light and injected CO2 at that point, so the plants were going nuts. You may need to double (or more) the time frame depending on your lighting and stocking level.

If you've got a quick growing plant such as Ambulia in there, use it as a bellwether. With adequate light and no CO2, just ferts, it should be growing a couple of cm a week with good green colour, and possibly reddish tips when it gets nearer the lights. It should also be spreading via sideways stems and need pruning frequently. The prunings you take out will remove some of the excess phosphate. If it slows down and stops spreading, you know you're developing a deficiency. Echinodorus osiris works this way too - if the new leaves aren't tinged red, then the plant is starving for something. It's a bigger plant though.

[Brennos]

Thanks for your help so far john. I have E. uruguayensis, s. microfolia, and added 5 small bunches of Ludwigia Repens today, as well as an Amazon Sword (which is rather small and sad looking right now) and I have quite a bit of Java Fern planted on driftwood, as well as a large free floating bunch. So I have quite a few plants in a 130l tank to absorb a lot of the ferts, ill try adding a 1/2 teaspoon of Potassium Nitrate, and go from there. Once again, Thanks for your help John.