just about had it with my plants!!!

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
M

mos90

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 20, 2009
1,309
0
0
rome,ny
i have a 125g hightech,co2inj w/contoller,uv,400w cp. it just seems to be too much work to keep the plants trimmed and the algea at bay. and using ei dosing 50% water changes a week are tiring me. on top of that i may have the tank overloaded and my nitates are impossible to keep under 25, unless i do 2-50% water changes a week. the higher nitrate levels could be why im fighting algea. mostly spot algea and some brush on the leaves of my swords.

im temped to rip everything out and keep it simple. im in the process of setting up a 300g non-planted to lessen my load on the tank. i think my 15" silver arow is taking up 1/2 my 1" per gallon rule. 15X1.5X3 calculates to 67 gallons.

i think id rather cut my losses and just say that plants arent for me.
 
are you dosing nitrates with your EI routine? it's not that bad really. 50% weekly water changes is what most people do on monster tanks. and daily dosing takes all of 45 seconds everyday. trimming plants, that's just part of the game. sounds fish tanks in general are too much for you ;)
 
no i can handle the fish tanks no problem.:nilly:

no im not dosing nitrates. i dose phospates only once a week to maintain 2ppm level. csm-b 3x a week 1/2 tsp. and k2s04 1/2 tsp 3x a week. then i dose excel 3x time a week. double the normal dosage.

im still leaning towards nitate levels giving me a problem. maybe after i lessen the fish load everything will fall into place.

i dont mind and sometimes enjoy working on my tanks. its when you think u are doing everything right and u still have problems that frustrates me.
 
yeah i had lots of algae problems until i got it all figured out. honesltly those nitrates levels dont sound that bad. have you tested the nitrates of your tap water? assuming your using tap water to replace.

most algae problems are caused by too much light/not enough co2. check out this article, very helpful for causes/solutions for common algae http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm
 
i looked at that site. good info.

i have a drop checker and c02inj with controller. c02 always stays at optimal levels. as far as light i have a corallife 400w cf with 6700k bulbs.
for quite a while ive only been using 1/2 the bulbs, so 200w. ive only been runnig the light for 7 hours a day. i could try to drop it 6 hours but that seems kinda low.

here is what ill try. ill bump up the c02 a hair and reduce light to 5 hours a day for a few weeks and see how everything looks. none of my plants are high light so it may work.

as far as nitrate levels. the lowest i can get the tank is 25ppm right after a 50-60% water change. by the end of the week they are closer to 80ppm. i have let the tank go without a water change for 10days and n03 is over 100.
 
That tank looks beautiful. The plants go really well with the fish.

Have you had the tank set up for very long? Sometimes planted tanks just take a while to reach an "ecological balance" and during that time it is normal to see some algae growth.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom