Easy Green Fertilizer and algae bloom

[CA Archer]

I have been cycling my tank for about 2 and 1/2 mths now, all my numbers are where they should be, just haven't gotten around to getting any livestock yet. My plants are getting established and growing nicely. I used a quality aquarium soil, have both planted and non planted plants. Everything was going along great until I added a pump of Aquarium Co-op Easy Green. Within a couple of days I had a pretty nasty algae bloom. I have managed to get that cleared up using water changes and a small UV light for a couple of hours at night. Now the problem is, I am afraid to use any more of the Easy Green. I am not sure if that is what caused the algae bloom or if it was caused from the room getting warmer with longer daylight hours. It has been above average heat where we live. Tank is in the middle of the room, not direct sunlight, but lots of large windows allowing lots of natural light in. My light schedule is on 4 hours, off 3 hours, on 4 hours. I am sure I should probably add a shot of Easy Green for the health of my plants, but now I am hesitant that I will get another bloom. Could it have just been a coincidence that I added the Easy Green and had an algae bloom? I was also using fish food to cycle the tank; I have since switched to Dr Tims ammonia daily to keep the bacteria growing until I can get some fish. Maybe that is what caused the bloom? Too much fish food?

 

[Timbobby]

Hi! I use the easy green fertilizer as well. 3 tanks in total. I dose each tank everyday. 2 of the tanks are low tech and 1 is high tech. The low tech tanks get doses that equal the recommended amount for medium light. The high tech tank at the end of the week gets about 7x the amount recommended for low light. I have never had an algae bloom in any of them. That is just my experience using easy green daily for a month.

 

[StevenF]

Algae tends to do best in planted tanks when not all of the 14 nutrients plants need to grow are pressent. If all the nutrients are available for plant growth algae doesn't dow well.

Easy green has: Nitrogen, Potassium, Phosphate, Magnesium, Iron, Manganese, boron, zinc, molybdenum.

It doesn't not have: Calcium, Sulfur, Chloride, Copper, nickel.

Many fertilizers don't add all the nutrients for the following reasons:

1. Tap water typically has them. However if you are using RO or distilled water or your water utility is using a lot of industrial RO water you won't have these nutrients.
2. Many homes have copper pipes that leach copper into the drinking water. Unfortunately new construction typically uses plastic pipes.
3. Fish waste will add these nutrients to the water.

Test your water for GH (general hardness) This test checks for the pressent of calcium and magnesium. If your water has at least 3 degrees of hardnesss you probably have enough calcium and magnesium. If it is less than that Increase the Gh with a GH booster. Using a booster increase the GH by 1 degree. That sohould ensure you have enough calcium and magnesium. Chloride is a salt containing chlorine. Due to the Chlorination process used this is always present in tap water. And often chlorides are pressent in most rivers and streams. Having fishing the tank would also help.