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Hey Guys and Gals!
ITs been awhile since ive posted anything, fishtanks have been going really well until recently. Here is the situation. I have a 110gal planted tank, with a mix of med, low light plants. Running 4 CF light strips rotating on a 10hr cycle. Ive been adding 1 1/2 teaspons of KNO3 every other day with Potassium sulphate. at 1 teaspoon. And for my microferts ive been using CSM+B at 1 teaspoon on the opposite days to the KNO3. my current levels are this:

Phosphate .5ppm
Ph: 6.6ppm
6 DKH
Nitrate is 5ppm
12 DGH

I normally do 50% waterchange every week, with work its been about every 7-12 days. My plants have seemed to be stunted, they dont grow leaps and bounds like they use to, and recently i had an algae bloom, making my water go cloudy and green.

I did a 60% waterchange, unplugged the lights let the tank be in darkness for about 4-5 days. Turned the lights back on and the water was still cloudy. i did another waterchange, and cleaned the filter. Im running an ehiem 2028 canister filter, (which was black...i try to clean it out every 3-5 weeks) replaced the pads with a phosphate pad to remove the algae bloom... put the tank back in darkness for a few days and nothing has changed....

what am i doing wrong? I have done a few major plant trimmings... could i have removed too much to the point that i crossed the boundry from plants using all the ferts in the tank to plants not needing as much and algae taking over?


The kinds of plants i have are Amazon swords, Java Ferns, Hydros, and a few others.. sorry im not a plant guro as id like to be.

Oh am also runing Co2 injection. it just seems that the plants have been going gun ho for ever, making me have to trim every water change, to stalling... I havent changed my routen with my ferts.... it seems like i am missing something.... I havent been adding root tabs for my swords... i know that is a factor.. but why would the rest be stunted and the algae to break out?

Any ideas? comments?

Shawn

Hi,
Here is just one of many sites that describe "green water"
its causes, and cures:

http://www.otocinclus.com/articles/greenwater.html

A couple of comments for thought...
You mention 4 compact fluorescent bulbs "rotating"
on a 10 hour cycle.
I'm not sure what you are saying here.
It almost sounds like you are running two lights all the
time for 20 hours. Running one set for ten, and then
another set comes on for 10 more. 10 hours of light is
generally the best. You don't say what the wattages are
of the bulbs, nor do you say the "K" rating of the bulbs.

You don't say how many plants you have (quantity wise..
a lot, a few, etc). What you do say is that you
have mostly low to medium demand plants which means that
you should not be running more than about 2 watts/gallon.

The CO2 saturation should be up around 30 mg/l.

Depending upon how energetic you were with the trimming
you could have removed too many of the fast growing stem
plants leaving the slow growing swords and ferns behind.
They will not consume the nitrate and nutrients as fast
as the stem plants. Yes, you could have tipped the scales
with the trimming.

As far as stunting is concerned this site describes the
various nutrient deficiencies and the symptoms of the
plants:
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_nutrient.htm

Read the links and look at your tank with the comments and
information in mind and I think you will discover what
happened to cause the problem and how to remedy it.
Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Thanks Frank Ill see what happens after i read that stuff.

For clarification, My CF light rig is on total 10hrs. I have two sets so one will be on for 10hrs straight. the bulbs are 6500K (i think they are) and the second set which come on for "high Noon" are on for about 4-6hrs and those bulbs are in the 7000k range.

Plant load.. I have about 7 Amazon swords and Java ferns. And about a dozen hydros and a bounch of other stuff.