# Is this staghorn? Please give me some tips!



## PAXpress (Sep 22, 2011)

From what I can tell its staghorn. I have a 40g Breeder with pressurized CO2 at somewhere between 1-3 bps. I am using the EI method. I do a 50% waterchange on Saturdays then add 1/2 tsp kno3 1/8th tsp KH2PO4 1/8th Tsp CSM+B, 1/8th tsp of K2SO4 and about a 1/10th teaspoon of 13% chelated iron, and then Monday and Wednesday I dose again the same amounts. Recently this week I've added a few ml of flourish excel because Ive read that it has helped with algae issues. Heres a full tank shot so you can get a better idea of how many plants are in the tank. Since taking this picture I have moved alot of the plants around and alot have been growing and needed a trim.







I have a new regulator with bubble counter on the way which I think should help a bit because I think the needle valve on my current regulator nearly gassed my fish the other day. Had one die. He was the smallest angel and the rest seem to be doing better and I'm not really dosing too much co2 for fear that it will go haywire again and gas them. I had to remove my bubble counter because I believe it is what caused a leak and made me empty a 5# tank in 2 weeks (that or the crappy fiberglass seal that was sold to me at the home brew store instead of nylon washer) I have since replaced the washer tightened a few fittings and filled a 20# tank and has been running strong now for a week. Sorry for the run on paragraph and lack of sentence structure I'm a bit tired from a long day and just hoping somone can shed a bit of light or give me an idea of what I should change in my dosings to help reduce the growth of this algae. Otherwise the plants have been growing well all except the Alternanthera Reineckii which really hasn't seemed to grown any since I've bought it... Maybe fixing co2 levels will help? I just recently turned off the airpump and put in a surface skimmer so Co2 levels should be slightly more stable. Tips advice and constructive criticism greatly appreciated!


----------



## PAXpress (Sep 22, 2011)

Alrighty so hopefully I've found what was causing this. This tank has been cycled for quite a while and I used to have a sponge filter running. I have since removed that (two weeks ago about) and one of my other tanks was showing signs of ich so I increased the temperature of all of the tanks for about 2 weeks maybe a little more. Also somewhere in the last month I added some media to one of my canisters. What I'm getting at is I must have shocked or completely killed all or a lot of my BB because I did an ammonia test on my tank and it showed somewhere above or around 4.0 ppm ammonia. WHAT?! Right after seeing that I did a 60% water change. Tested again, levels look better. So guess I'll keep checking that. Also tested KH and GH. KH seemed around 6-7 degrees. GH is either really low or incredibly high. The test kit never changed to green and I put drops in to 20 and still didn't see any change the color of the tube just stayed a yellowish color so maybe that test kit has gone bad or something. Anyways think I will keep an eye on things. I'm incredibly amazed that my fish are still kicking. They've been through a lot. If you're thinking I don't have enough filtration on this tank I have two canister filters rated at 75g tanks running on my one 40g. I have filter floss sponge media and ceramic bio rings in both. Must have been temperature ph or something else fluctuating that killed my BB. Will keep everyone posted how things change.


----------

