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Hello Again,

I’m resending my message with the requested details – I hope the new information is enough for you all to tell me if CO2 would help me battle algae.

Thanks,
Eric

Original message –
>I've been fighting algae for a while in a tank I started >in April. The first battle was against brown hair algae. I >won that one by adding fast growing plants and feeding >well. All was well for a while. I then got a build of an >ugly dark brown 'fuzz' all over my hornwort and its growth >has slowed. I also now have green hair algae. I will >manually remove as much as I can, reduce lighting, etc.
>
>I'm wondering if I inject CO2 into the tank could it be >enough to give the plants the boost they need to overpower >the algae?
>
>Thanks
>
>Eric

Tank – 46gl bow-front

Lighting – time = 12hrs.
Coralide compact fluorescent 92W 6400K
25W fluorescent on half the time

Parameters –
Ammonia = 0.01
Nitrites = 0
Nitrates = 35

Fish –
5 adult, four juvenile Panda Corys (always spawning)
3 Otto cats
6 Gold White Clouds
8 Harlequins
6 Amano shrimp
(may seem overstocked but with stable parameters and Cory spawning it’s a good environment :-) )

Plants -
Not being too expert in plants I used Tropica to help me identify my plants. This is what I think I have –
A good stand of Hygrophila polysperma
A few good Hornwart plants, but some are covered in green hair aglae
One stem of Egeria densa
Something that I belevie to be Echinodorus tenellus, on the smallish side but it’s spreading
What I believe to be Cryptocoryne wendtii ''green'', good size and growing well even though it’s covered with green hair algae
A small bunch of Java moss
One small algae covered Anubus Nana

Fertilizers and Additives –
(all Seachem, dosed per instructions)
Twice Weekly –
Trace nutrients
Flourish
Iron
Excel
Potassium
Their Nitrate supplement

Once a month or so Phosphorus to keep the level at 0.10

CO2 will most definitely benefit your plants, and that will in turn take care of the algae problem. In a tank that size you'd have to use a lot of DIY CO2 or go pressurized to notice the difference.

Also, I find a 10 hr photoperiod to be the best for me. You may want to try that out for a while. When my lights are on longer, I tend to get a bit more algae.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Hi there eminer1254,

First off, I don’t think you are overstocked.

Secondly, I love your lists ( insider joke as I am a list fanatic).

Now to your tank:

The one thing I don’t see listed is your water change routine, how often and how much.
You sure have enough light to go CO2; it could help your algae problem or magnify it. What are the instructions for your Excel products, or in other words – how much do you add each time? It seems to me that your tank is rather on the lightly planted side. Do you account in your dosing for that?

I see an issue with dosing Phosphates once a month. Are you adding enough to have a proper reading at the end of the month or the beginning? If the latter is the case then your plants do not have any left in the latter half of the month and no uptake will take place. In this case, algae will make use of the other available nutrients.

Another issue I see is your rather high reading of Nitrates (35ppm). If this is accurate then you might not perform enough water changes, or you have something dying in your tank (plant matter or animal), or you are overdosing your Excel Nitrate. You should try to get this value down to maybe 20ppm.

Hope this helps,

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Hi,
Ditto all of the above. And, I would question the
ammonia reading! In a cycled tank you should show
absolutely Zero reading. Generally speaking a
nitrate reading of around 10 is desireable for a planted
tank.

Frank


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

Hello,

Here's some answers to the questinos asked and some additional info.

The ammonia reading is based on the best my eye can see of color differences. I use Kordon's Aquatru ammonia test (suuposed to be very accurate). The color of the test is so close to 0 that I don't trust my eyes and add the 0.01. However, my eyes may be fooling me and the count may be 0.

Water changes -
Well, until recently chages have been around once every three to four weeks. I'm now doing them every two weeks to encourage more Cory spawning. The amount is 1/3 of the tank

Liquid nutrient amounts -
The amount of each varies, but all are based on the size of the tank. For example Excel is two cap fulls twice a week for my tank. I haven't taken into account the amount of plants I have in the tank.

Phosphates -
Interesting question. I add the phosphate once a month and then test it about a week later. It's always been around 0.10. Should I test just before adding more?

Nitrates -
The numbers have gone up and down over the year the tanks has been running. I do think they may be due to dead plant material.

The CO2 system I'm looking at (due to available $$) is this one from Red Sea -

"Turbo CO2 Bio-System"
http://www.redseafish.com/Product.asp?dir=&amp;catID=112&amp;subID=64&amp;proID=229
If falls within my budget and it sounds like it would work for me. I like the fact that you can turn it 'off' at night. Has anyone tried it? Anyone have any comments on it.

Thanks in advance,

Eric

That CO2 until you selected is basically a fancied up DIY reactor. Might as well make your own.

A DIY set-up will cost you about $15 (unless you have everything laying around already). I think the extra $10 is worth it to save the hassle of building your own.

You don't need to buy replacement kits every month. I used 1 cup of sugar in 3/4 gallon of water with 1/4 tsp of yeast.

I would mix all of this in a separate container 3 or 4 days in advance to let the yeast start fermenting. Otherwise, the CO2 level in your tank will crash for a few days every time you replace the mix. This will cause a pH spike that could harm your fish and plants.

Hope this helps,

Carl

Eric,

First off &#8211; I agree with Megil that this CO2 system is nothing better than a DIY in a nice package. Try to read some more comments about it on the web and you will find out that it is not all that good (meaning it is bad).

You sure did have a habit of saving on water changes. I personally believe in larger changes, depending on the tank setup and inhabitants. A 30% change every week might be even better when you want your fish to spawn.

You should consider the plant mass when adding nutrients to the water. If the plants don&#8217;t suck it up, where would it go? Some of it will be rendered useless (like Excel) but others will accumulate in the tank, like Nitrate. If you think your high reading is attributed to dying plants, maybe you should remove them in time before they can pollute the water. I think you simply overdose your Nitrate because you don&#8217;t have any takers for it.

About the phosphates &#8211; as I stated in my last entry, dosing once a month is not going to do you any good. If you have a test kit, go ahead and check the value right after you add phosphates, then every week until right before you add it again. based on the fact that you say 1 week after adding it you get 1ppm I would assume that you are down to next to nothing 2 weeks later, at the latest. And this for sure makes your algae a happy camper.

I would suggest you switch to weekly water changes, add your ferts as needed (and not as instructed), including the phosphates. Take all dying plants out and start with fresh ones. Most importantly, regardless of plant growth and CO2 etc., get your Nitrates under control. No fish will die (ok, maybe some will) immediately when exposed to 35ppm, but over a longer period it will take its toll.

Hope this helps,

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club