# Losing my mind



## molurus73 (Apr 15, 2005)

I am going to lose my mind. Maybe someone could help me out. I guess I am not smarter than the plants in my tank. I have my pressurized co2 up and running. Fixed the leak and it seems to be doing well. I have been dosing traces every other day. I made a solution of 6 tsp of CSM + B in 500 ml of distilled water. I have been putting in 10 ml of this solution every other day. The other days I have been adding 30 ml of two solutions. One is 6 tsp of KNO3 in 500 ml of water and the other is 3 tsp of KH2PO4 in 500 ml of water. 

I have been doing this for one week now. I know that I should give it more time, but the algae is getting much worse already. The plants are growing so that is a good thing. I even saw a few pearling today I believe. But the algae thing is what concerns me. 

The co2 controller reads 6.9 ph my test reads 7.0. My KH is steady at 6. This gives me what seems like about 18 to 22 ppm of co2. Should I up the co2? Turn the controller to 6.8 or 6.7? I will start dosing dry measures of the ferts as soon as I use up the solutions I have made up. Or do you think that I should just chuck them and start dosing dry measures now?

My tank is a 75 gallon with about 68 actual gallons of water. Eco complete for a substrate. Pressurized co2 with a controller set at 6.9 ph. I have many plants in there right now. I won't claim to know all of them but there are some fast growers in there. The lights are a 2 x 110 watt from AHSupply and I just added a 2 x 32 watt t8 shoplight on Monday. This puts me at about 2.3 wpg. Would the increased light have a sudden effect on the algae? Water parameters are as follows:

GH : 11
KH : 6
PH : 7.0
PO4 : 5 
NO2 : 0
NO3 : 40
NH3 : 0

Any guidance would surely be appreciated. I am trying to get all this ironed out. I am just really struggling for some reason. Thank you.

Jim


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

molurus73 said:


> I am going to lose my mind. Maybe someone could help me out. I guess I am not smarter than the plants in my tank. I have my pressurized co2 up and running. Fixed the leak and it seems to be doing well. I have been dosing traces every other day. I made a solution of 6 tsp of CSM + B in 500 ml of distilled water. I have been putting in 10 ml of this solution every other day. The other days I have been adding 30 ml of two solutions. One is 6 tsp of KNO3 in 500 ml of water and the other is 3 tsp of KH2PO4 in 500 ml of water.


According to my calculations you are adding ~5ppm of NO3 and 2.5ppm of PO4 to your tank every other day. You could probably cut the PO4 to 10ml (~0.8ppm) instead of 30ml.

Just for a comparison, I add about 2ppm of KNO3 to my 75g every day (or 4ppm every other day) and about 1ppm of PO4 to the tank every other day. I also add 15ml of CSM+B on days opposite the PO4 so we are dosing pretty similarly but I have a little bit more light than you (32w more) and probably more plants (thought you probably have more fast growers). Your CSM+B dosing looks good for starters but you can increase in a couple of weeks.



molurus73 said:


> I have been doing this for one week now. I know that I should give it more time, but the algae is getting much worse already. The plants are growing so that is a good thing. I even saw a few pearling today I believe. But the algae thing is what concerns me.


Definataly give it more time  I know it is very hard to have patience when the algea starts but take it easy, sit back, and have a beer or something Some types of algae are common in new setups. What type of algae are we talking about? Brown dust like stuff, green dust, Hair, thread, etc. You can use the algae finder in the dark blue menu bar at the top to help ID it. You can take a look at the thread I did on GCAS documenting the first few weeks of my 55g setups here:
http://www.gcas.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3719

Also, did you add a dusting of peat and some mulm to the bottom of the tank before you added the substrate? That will work wonders in getting the tank established and helping avoid some of the algae woes in a new tank setup. I have a few pics of the 75g when I first set it up after moving. Even though the substrate was old, I still used peat and mulm.



molurus73 said:


> The co2 controller reads 6.9 ph my test reads 7.0. My KH is steady at 6. This gives me what seems like about 18 to 22 ppm of co2. Should I up the co2? Turn the controller to 6.8 or 6.7? I will start dosing dry measures of the ferts as soon as I use up the solutions I have made up. Or do you think that I should just chuck them and start dosing dry measures now?


I would finish out the solutions you made. No sense wasting them. I still use a PO4 solution (I got used to dosing Fleet enema plus I have a lot of different sized tanks) but I add the KNO3 dry. Much easier to add 1/4-1/2 tsp every toher day then measuring out 30mls.

I would definately up the CO2. Try to get it at least 30ppm when the lights are on. Shoot for 6.7 with the controller for a while. I'd say drop it a point (6.8 ) tomorrow and then to 6.7 on Sunday and see how the fish react. If the fish are fine, drop it to 6.6 next weekend when you will be around to keep an eye on the tank. We have a simlar KH and I have my controller set to 6.4 (56ppm CO2!) MAKE YOUR pH CHANGES SLOWLY!

I also use a timer for my controller so that the probe reads 24 hours a day but the CO2 does not inject during lights off. This saves the fish from the stress of high CO2 levels 24 hours a day. I can show you how I do this next week at the meeting if you are interested.



molurus73 said:


> My tank is a 75 gallon with about 68 actual gallons of water. Eco complete for a substrate. Pressurized co2 with a controller set at 6.9 ph. I have many plants in there right now. I won't claim to know all of them but there are some fast growers in there. The lights are a 2 x 110 watt from AHSupply and I just added a 2 x 32 watt t8 shoplight on Monday. This puts me at about 2.3 wpg. Would the increased light have a sudden effect on the algae? Water parameters are as follows:
> 
> GH : 11
> KH : 6
> ...


The low CO2 is probably contributing to the algae more than anything else! I'm also not sure How accurate your kits are. Most get very hard to read at the higher levels. If you want to bring a water sample to the meeting we can do a test with the LaMotte kits I have and your kit and see how close they are.


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

Here is the "nitty-gritty" on the PO4 solution I use and the respective ppm for each of my tanks in case you were interested:

35 grams (about 6.5 tsp) of KH2PO4 in 500ml of water. Why did I choose 35 grams??? Because it is fairly easy to add 0.5ppm of PO4 to my three high light tanks every other day! 

1ml in 10g (~8g actual) = 1.6ppm (I use 0.5 ml every other week or so)
1ml in 30g (~25g actual) = 0.51ppm (I use 1.0 ml)
1ml in 55g (~46g actual) = 0.28ppm (I use 2.0 ml)
1ml in 75g (~66g actual) = 0.20ppm (I use 2.5 ml)

I mixed it up in a 500ml container and wrote the above directions on the container so I would have it at the tank when I need it. I'm not good at figuring out small quantities like a "rice grain's" worth so I would always be wondering if I was adding enough. This takes the worry out of dosing PO4 for me. One less thing to worry about is always nice.

I use a PO4 solution since I have different sized tanks. PO4 is very difficult to dose dry in smaller tanks. 1/16th of a teaspoon in a 75g would give you about 0.8ppm of PO4. 1/16th of a teaspoon in a 30g would give you about 2ppm!

I purchased a small scale that you are more than welcome to use, as is anyone else that wants to make up a solution using grams instead of teaspoons. Feel free to bring your ferts to the August meeting and I can break out the scale for you


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## Simpte 27 (Jul 16, 2004)

Wne my Co2 is correct or close (25-32ppm) I find that adding po4 in almost any level (not saying I will dump a gallon into the tank) will NOT cause algae problems (Thanks Tom). Your trace may be a bit high. Haven't done the math as its late and I was out for a bit  I have recieved plants that hag staghorn and bba on them as well as snails (not mentioning where I got them from  ) and none showed up in my tank. I used to have problems with bba but after a cpl of months (3-4) and some reading I have not had algae in my tanks no matter how high my PO4 is. (I don't even measure it, I just squirt).


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## molurus73 (Apr 15, 2005)

Must be nice Mr. no algae at all. Anyway, I will try to up the co2 level a bit and see. I will go as high as I can without hurting my discus. Unfortunately, I haven't converted 100% yet as my discus are still number 1. It's close, but they still win.


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## molurus73 (Apr 15, 2005)

I appreciate the help so far guys. I just want this tank to look respectable when Tom gets here. There was supposed to be one of these  in that last post.


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## Rob Tetrazona (Jun 21, 2005)

Along with what everbody else has said, patience. You may have to watch your tank go through several stages of algae. Not to fear. As you start tweaking your CO2 & dry ferts for the better, your plants will take off, and algae will start disappearing from regular trimming as well as stop growing.


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