new tank with sand

[bruce]

FishNix,

I finally saw some small bubbles yesterday under my Anubias leaves... I am so happy..

I tested my KH and PH yesterday and I believe my CO2 level is too low.. I have to buy another PH test kit, coz the one I have jumps from 7 to 7.5 and mine is within that region...

aslo I am not very happy with Aquarium Pharmaceuticals test kit I got.. Its not easy to work with... do you have a KH test kit? if so which one?

So tomorrow and during the weekend I will add another DIY CO2 bottle and hook both bottles to the Nutrafin diffuser.. hopefully then I will get more bubbles..

 

[FishNiX]

hey-
im still battling algae...ive started using the "thunderstorm period" method, which is basically to turn your lights out for a few hours during the day... today will be the first day that i actually get to witness it (i want to make sure its not strssing the fish out)... i think im going to get some ottos and another SAE today, and maybe a butterfly loach or two...

cheers!
-camden

 

[bruce]

Ohh well we are in the same boat now

I have algae on one of my swords and green water as well... My tanks looks really bad...

I added two Otos yesterday which I don't see at all.. I don't know where are they hiding... my LFS charges $4 for each .. How much do you pay for them?

How long are you having the lights on?


I am pretty sure my green water is beacuse I added too many root tabs and plant food.. I should have been more patient...

I also plan not to feed the fish as often...

Keep me posted on your progress

 

[FishNiX]

so here is what im doing today

i bought 4 ottos (aparently you tend to lose a couple when you buy them, so im hoping i come out of this with atleast 2 hopefully 3...). they charge 2.69 at old town aquarium at north and wells in chicago. i also got one more SAE... which will bring me back up to 2.

i also purchase a dozen minnows (white cloud mountain minnows actually) for my 3 gallon, eventually i want a school of them in my 29.

the final thing i bought was a nutrifin co2 system...apparently it is good up to 20 gallons so im going to keep dosing with the excel liquid too. i just started adding fertilizer once per week and i dose with the CO2 and Iron every morning (b/c at night it would be wasted....or not used until the lights were on at least)

my lights run:
8AM - 1PM
and
3PM - 930PM

so i am doing like 11.5 hours...which is a lot, but i like to feed the fish when the lights are on and i go to work at 8 and dont get home until 7 or so... i could probably drop back to 9PM, but i dont really want to

im still using that 1 philips 5000K bulb, which im sure isnt helping!

good luck and keep me posted!

 

[bruce]

Hey FishNix,

My algae bloom is going crazy... However I have done a lot of reading about algae and how to fix it...

so both of us right now have an imbalance in the nutrients. I have figured out half of my imbalance equation, which is 0 nitrates..

The other half would be determined by checking the phosphates level..

In a balanced tank you should have a 10:1 Nitrate to Phosphate ratio, so having 0 nitrates is definitly the source of the problem.. I still don't have a Phosphates kit but i am getting one soon, hopefully tomorrow.

Now to bring my tank back into balance I have to add Nitrates. You can add Nitrates in the form of Potassium Nitrate. I found a place where you can buy all these checmicals for cheap: Greg Watson. You can get all the chemichals to make your own PMDD according to your tank needs.

The chemichals you need are:
Mono Potassium Phosphate for adding phospate
Magnesium Sulfate for adding Magnesium
and Potassium Nitrate for adding Nitrates


The ideal phospahtes level should be between 0.5 to 1ppm and Nitrates should be dosed to 10 times that.

Use this calculator to see how much chemichals you need to create your own dosing mixture: Chuck's dosing calc.

I think we both have algae due to the same reason: 0 nitrates. So as soon as we add Nitrates and up the CO2 level our plants should kick in and the algae will disappear..

let me know what you think..

PS. I am trying to gather info on how to get Nitrates locally to fix my algae problem ASAP. I will let you know if I find any products in the local hardware store. I read that some stump removers are pure Potassium Nitrate.. but I don't know what stump removers are maybe you can help me with that.. I think Ace Hardware might have that...

 

[FishNiX]

hey-

seems you can get some Seachem suppliments for this stuff too...

http/www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod...=AT&N=2004+2021

http/www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod...=AT&N=2004+2021

i need to find a test kit for this stuff too.

if i find anything more, ill post it!

cheers!

 

[bruce]

I just ordered my chemicals from Gregwatson.com, I checked the local stores for flourish nitrogen and they don't have it..

I hope they get here very soon... I ordered all 3 chemicals for $14 including shipping.. and they should last for about 3 life times

so its really a good deal and a lot cheaper than buying the ready made products..

 

[mrnewbie]

would this be the right stuff from this place

http/www.gardenchemicals.co.uk/pdt_potas...siumnitrate.htm

 

[bruce]

yes that should be the same, it says Potassium Nitrate...

Its kinda expensive though man.. try to ask the UK people around here maybe they know a better and cheaper place to get it from

 

[FishNiX]

hey, i just noticed that dr foster's place is in WI, so it cant be too far from here...so i ordered the stuff from them. the chemicals were 4.99 per bottle and i got some root tabs, sprulina discs, some driftwood and one of those GE bulbs... all in all not bad, i think 40 with shipping.

ill let you know how it goes!

also, i just hooked up that CO2 yesterday, so im hoping to see good things!!

 

[bruce]

FishNix, I got my chemicals from greg watson, they should be here on thursday. I am going tonight to get a phosphates test kit also..
It might take a while after adding nitrates for the tank to start stabilizing, I also found out that you should bring the tank back slowly don't dose up to 10ppm nitrates at once.. go 2ppm a day

Mrnewbie, I hope you found better prices...

 

[FishNiX]

yeah -- i need to get a few test kits too.

i've been doing PH, LH, GH, Ammonia and Nitrite, but I need to buy a kit for Nitrate, Phosphates and Carbon (if they exist)...

i have noticed that my water seems a little cloudy right now, but not green and all the of chemicals seem ok....it may be time for a water change as i was lazy over the weekend and its been about a week. the fish seem pretty happy so far, and the ph hasnt dropped at all since i added the CO2 reactor...possibly due to my extremely high GH. It may also be the fact that ive got one kit on a 29 when i should have two...

let me know how things go! ill be sure to let you know when i get my chemicals... where have you found your test kits?

cheers!

 

[bruce]

Well, I got my test kits at my LFS, I also got some at petsmart..

petsmart is usually cheaper than my LFS..

to test the CO2 you need to have the PH and KH and you can calculate the CO2 based on those..
Use the following website: URL=http/www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_co2chart.htm]CO2 Claculator[/URL]

My tank is getting dark green.. I can't see the back of it.. and I have to look really close to see the fish... it looks very ugly

Hopefully it will clear within a week once I start adding the Nitrates

 

[FishNiX]

hey- you've probably seen this, but i think its pretty interesting:

http/www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_co2chart.htm

it seems that i have a KH around 7 degrees and a PH of about 7.8... which leaves about 3.28 ppm.

this is quite strange considering ive been adding excel for the past month every day....

perhaps the excel doesnt result in a lower ph? anyone out there have any ideas?

cheers!

 

[FishNiX]

i guess you have seen that article

that sucks man... is it just in the water or on the glass too?

i would do a 10% water change everyday until it clears up... this way you wont stress your fish, but should change the chemicals fast enough to clear out the algae. also, do you have a biowheel on your filter? if you do...you can probably rinse our your filter pad a little to clear off the algae living there....but if you dont have a biowheel or some biological filtration, i wouldnt do it b/c it will kill your benificial bacteria too!

you may want to syphon off the water from the bottom where your gravel tabs were so that you can maybe pull out some of those excess nutriants as well.

cheers!