# Algae mess (thread and GDA) many changes to tank, don't know where to start!?



## jfishy (Oct 2, 2013)

hey guys. So I had this tank (17 gallons) running since October and has been running pretty well. In december I bought a pressurized co2 canister for my tank. I noticed throughout the months after, I've noticed deficiencies (mostly nitrogen and potassium) and recently bought myself Plantex CSM + B, potassium nitrate, and monopotassium phosphate, and ferrous gluconate. Solutions are:
all in 16 oz bottles
KNO3 (74.45 g in 16 oz) according to http://calc.petalphile.com/
5ml dose was 4.73 ppm/degree of K
1.69 ppm/degree of N
7.5 ppm/degree of NO3
I dose 10 ml every other day

KH2PO4 (11.34 g in 16 oz)
5ml dose was .53 ppm/degree of K
.42 ppm/degree of P
1.3 ppm/degree of PO4
I dosed about 5-6 ml every other day with KNO3

Ferrous gluconate was 24.43 g in 16 oz
with 5 ml dose was .5 ppm/degree
I dosed 10-12 ml every other day

Plantex CSM+B i forgot, I just followed the solution instruction for plantex csm+b off aquatic plant central and dose with the ferrous gluconate every other day at 4 ml

I did that for a bit (about a week or two) and I noticed that algae was growing randomly throughout faster, but not much at all. In response I raised the CO2 (no current drop checker, had a plastic one reading yellow, but I didnt have the right solution in it so I didnt read it as accurate at all and I am in the process of making a 4 dkh solution, just need to borrow a scale. It was at about 2 bps) (using a Do!aqua diffuser, cleaned weekly ish with h2o2)

I did 50% water changes weekly

Then, very recently, last week, I went from my 3 fluval nano leds (8 watts each) to two GE 6500k t5 HO bulbs at 24 watts each using a hagen glo fixture. I also changed the filter from an aquaclear 50 to an ehiem classic 250 to finally be able to use my violet pipes. However, about a day or two after, I get this huge bloom of thread algae and GDA. I raised the co2 again to about 2.5-3 bps, to the point where I had to lower it a bit since the fish came to the top.

I did many changes recently, and I do not know which one to approach first. and I am thinking whether or not to do that 2 punch on algae (the h2o2 and excell) or to wait it out (but it looks horrendous and is growing on plant leaves). Just all a bit stressfull and over whelming as I never experienced this much before. All the help helps me a lot. Thanks and regards:
Jonathan

PS: Pic is of a day or two before the start of algae, the night of putting on the new lights and filter. I will get pic of now when I can


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## rjordan393 (Nov 23, 2012)

You are dosing too much of everything for a 17 gallon tank.
Based on the amount of 74.45 grams KNO3 you added to 16 ounce container (473.18 ml) and dosed at 10 ml for 3 or 4 days gives you 15 ppm per dose. That's 45 to 60 ppm per week. That's your problem right there.
I have a 75 gallon tank and do bi-weekly water changes and it is lightly planted and I am no where near what you have been dosing and my tank only gets a little bit of GDA. 
Here is a ratio I follow for nutrients:
7-1-8 respectively for Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium.
After I do my water change, I test for NO3, PO4 and Fe and adjust them to 20 ppm NO3, 2 ppm PO4 and 0.20 Fe. I do not dose any nitrates or phosphates until my next water change. but I do dose iron and traces two times a week. I try to keep my iron concentration at 0.2 ppm. In the second week, I add some potassium based on what the uptake of phosphates are. At the end of the second week, my nitrates hover around 8 ppm and my phosphates at 0.7 ppm and I started out with 20 ppm NO3 and 2 ppm PO4.
You need to test your water for 2 to 3 weeks and its best to do this after a water change so that you will know how much to adjust it to. 
There are other things you need to look at. Get a water report from your local utility. There might be sufficient nutrients in your water supply to mess up your dosing.
Your tank seems to have a 3 to 4 inch substrate which will affect the amount of water in your tank.
Measure the inside dimensions (length X width X height where you keep the water line) and divide by 231. This will give you the capacity of your tank in gallons without the substrate. Now if you take the average height of your substrate; then do the math again and substrate it from the capacity.
This will just about bring you to the amount of water thats in your tank with substrate. 
So with this in mind, you might need to adjust your dosing regimen also.
CSM-B has iron in it and you do not need to dose Fe gluconate. Adjust CSM=B to 0.2 ppm and dose up to 3 times a week if you have to.


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## rjordan393 (Nov 23, 2012)

As an addedum, its important to measure your tanks inside dimensions because there's not much room for error as in much larger tanks. Convert all fractional parts of an inch to their decimal equivelants. Once you know what your real capacity is with substrate, you will need to re-do your calculations. 
Here are some ratio's that I keep in my maintenance book.
7 to 1 ratios in elementary form converted to NO3 and PO4:

5.7 ppm N to 0.81 ppm P is equal to 25 ppm NO3 and 2.5 ppm PO4.
4.5 ppm  N to 0.65 ppm P is equal to 20 ppm NO3 and 2.0 ppm PO4.
3.4 ppm N to 0.49 ppm P is equal to 15 ppm NO3 and 1.5 ppm PO4.
2.3 ppm N to 0.33 ppm P is equal to 10 ppm NO3 and 1.0 ppm PO4.
1.1 ppm N to 0.16 ppm P is equal to 5 ppm NO3 and 0.5 ppm PO4.

Your Potassium is elementary and the level should be 8 times the Phosphorus level.


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## jfishy (Oct 2, 2013)

woah,I didn't know I was over dosing pretty high, I thought all would have been absorbed after every other day. Do I have to throw out my solutions and remake them or will I still be able to use them, just dose smaller and not as often? What dosing regime would you suggest for the time being as I don't have a test kit yet? And which test kits would you suggest for me to buy? 
Thanks and regards
Jonathan


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## jfishy (Oct 2, 2013)

those ratios, are those met per dose or you meet them after testing after a water change? and Ill get to figuring out the new dimensions right now


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## jfishy (Oct 2, 2013)

Lol the mess. Btw the plants are really over grown, but at a time like this, would it be better to trim them down, taking out a lot of the leaves covered in algae, or to not trim and let them grow out for now?


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## rjordan393 (Nov 23, 2012)

Yes, its ok to trim the plants but stop the dosing. You have to know where you are at, before you can move forward in calculating the new dose. If you want to lower the overdose quickly, then you need to do a couple of water changes. The test kits are important. You need a nitrate, phosphate and an iron test kit as the main kits. 
Yes, you can keep the prepared nutrients and mark them with the amount of grams that you added to your containers. You just have to imput a new volume of your tank once you work that out and imput the same amount of grams for each nutrient in the calculator.
Don't forget to get that water report. That's important too. That affects how much you should dose.
For instance: Lets say you have 5 ppm nitrates in your tap water and after the water change of 50 %, you end up with 10 ppm after your test. So if you want to raise it to 20 ppm nitrates, you need to re-do the calculations that will give 10 ppm more. I keep a separate sheet of my nutrients and each one is listed with the amount of grams and the amount in milliliters such as 5, 10, 15 or more and what these values give me in ppm.
Nitrates and phosphates are not limited to what you dose as the tap water may contain some and the aquarium with the fish will also produce these nutrients.


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## rjordan393 (Nov 23, 2012)

I hate to throw another wrench into this but hobbiest's think that using ordinary kitchenware is ok to measure dry chemicals. That is not the case. I tested this with a 1 tbs and a 2 tbs kitchenware. When the measured amount of 1 tbs times 2 was weighed, it did not match the 2 tbs. so one of these was incorrect and I did not know which one. You need a good scale to weigh your chemicals. Supermarket scales are not good enough. Hobbiest's are only fooling themselves if they use these and want accuracy.


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