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Originally Posted by conny1908
Thanks for the input, especially about patience and balance!  |
:mrgreen: Balance is really the key, since you can get algae problems both with too much and too little... light and nutrients.
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Originally Posted by conny1908
I have no CO2 injection.
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With soft water, a neutral pH, and low light adding CO2 is not as necessary as with hard water and high light.
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Originally Posted by conny1908
The fertilizer is a "multi-purpose plant food supplement". It contains no phosphates, but has soluble potash, traces of copper, iron (FE), chelated iron, manganese, molybdenum, zinc, and kelp extract - if that is any help.
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Sounds like a trace mix with potassium. With low light and no CO2 injection (and how densely planted?) you want to be really careful with adding fertilizer to your tank. Stay on the lower limit, or reduce whatever you are adding for a week or two and monitor the results.
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Originally Posted by conny1908
I'm not sure what N and P are. Nitrogen and phosphates? Nitrates are 20 ppm. Ammonia and nitrite 0.
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That's right, N and P are just used to refer to Nitrates (NO3) and Phosphates (PO4). Tests have shown that a proportion of N to P of 10:1 is the most desirable to keep algae in check. In your case, 20 ppm of NO3 would call for 2 ppm of P. In some areas P is added to the tap water, which can make battling algae a difficult task.
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Originally Posted by conny1908
Our tap water is very soft, so I added some crushed coral to the substrate, which brought the total hardness up to "moderate", but the buffering capacity is still low (according to the five-in-one test strips I use). pH is 7 out of the tap. According to the test description, the reading I get with the strips won't be accurate unless he buffering capacity is at least at "medium", so I'm not sure what pH in the tank is. Need to get another test kit, I suppose.
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Strips are not the most accurate thing in testing. I would suggest to get liquid dedicated tests for at least pH and NO3, and perhaps PO4 and kH. "Low" and "moderate" isn't precise enough...