Anyone ever seen this before? Green Dust Algae?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Allways learning :)

Had no idea it could get to 0 nitratewise.

In 40 years plus never was a successfull plant keeper..:(
 
lol truth be told when you start adding the CO2 reactors and crazy PH meters ect... I get lost... but the T5's and ferts...I do pretty good with. I was like "eh? wth?" the first time I tested 0's on a planted tank... thought my test was old or bad. But I understood enough to grasp the hows of it all.. I keep alot of low-light easy plants like Crypts. Most the time a few fert tabs.. and just keeping up with water changes is enough to make those babies go nutters. I hate fake plants almost as much as I hate fake rocks... only reason I have plants really. I'm sure there are some others around here that may hopefully chime in with more knowledge. But algae control i think is near and dear to any fishkeepers heart at the end of the day lol.
 
MonsterMinis said:
If your just gonna let it run it's course might try adding some stem plants, ime they tend to help discourage algae growth in general as they suck up any extra nutrients way more effectively then what you have listed... tbh with your list I wouldn't even be adding anything but fert tabs. And Miguel it's not uncommon at all for heavily planted tanks to have 0ppm of nitrates well at least "show" them, ime a planted tank should test all zeros. if your showing traces then you need to start ferting, or plant heavier. imo OP you may be over ferting. You may also need to look at your water changes, one thing that hasn't been touched on yet.

<~ The tank as my Avatar consistantly tests 0's even without it's weekly water changes ( I have found algae will blow-up if I let it go too long between water changes however, 2-3 weeks usually.)
Click to expand...

This is my second attempt at a planted tank. I went all in with my 180g and frankly, it was much easier doing it high tech with CO2, pH controllers, etc (see below - its a 180g). I had no issues and had a very green thumb as you can see. I wanted to do a hybrid tank with some mellow CA cichlids and rooted plants-they pulled the smaller plants out of the ground immediately but the three species left have done very well - With the stock list, I didnt see stem plants working out well but added the swords for the sole purpose of keeping algae away. The tank is fairly new being up for a couple months now and I've done 4-5 30-50% water changes in that time. I took that photo yesterday and I changed the water on Thursday last week (50%), so it gets green quickly! I cycled it with someone else's media and they didnt have this issue in their tank. I never thought to look for phosphates- I'll pick up one of those kits this weekend. I'll also hold off on the ferts except for the tabs every few months.

 
Miguel said:
Allways learning :)

Had no idea it could get to 0 nitratewise.

In 40 years plus never was a successfull plant keeper..:(
Click to expand...

In that 180g I posted above, I only added water after it was going well. I didnt do a water change in over 2 years because the plants eat the Nitrogen in Nitrate which leaves Oxygen. I would have to dose Potassium, Nitrogen, and a few others. It was the easiest tank I've ever owned and I've been doing this almost as long as you have. Biggest issue was it was boring- just trimmed the plants every couple of weeks and watched the schools of rummy nose, cardinals, and roseline barbs cruise around.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom