The Planted Tank Forum banner

I think I messed up my Trace

952 views 7 replies 2 participants last post by  samee 
#1 ·
Hi guys, I recently downgraded from my 45 to a 30. At the same time I made new trace. atm I have green slime algae everywhere as well as blue green. Im sure its not because of a new tank and more of trace imbalance. I noticed that my trace has white ppt floating around. I did add more iron than usual, which screwed up everything. My question is, is the mixture garbage now? Can I mix it with water and water my outdoor plants? I have around a litre of this concentrated solution. I have house plants, veggies outside as well as my succulents. Now I dont want to kill or harm any succulents so Im not going to water them. Veggies I think I will throw them in. Anyone have knowledge in this? I use my tank water to water all my plants weekly.
 
#2 ·
The algae you have does not sound like it would be due to a trace imbalance and rather, due to a macronutrient imbalance. You do not mention if you are dosing any macronutrients.

Regarding your micronutrient mix, the white precipitate is mould. In future batches, this can be avoided by adding a few drops of hydrocholoric acid (10M) or Excel (glutaraldehyde).

Some people will just toss the trace mix and remake another batch. Others will just filter out the mould and continue using the trace mix. I tend to do the former, as trace mix is reasonably cheap, though a litre is quite a bit.

In the future, you may want to make less. Storing it in the fridge along with the aforementioned treatments will also help prevent mould formation.
 
#3 ·
hm thats weird. Im dosing macro as well. The trace is a new mixture I made so I dont understand why it would mold so quick, Ive been making mixtures for years and never had mold before. These are white like the aloe vera drink which have pulp in them, sort of like that. The macro mix I have is months old, I was dosing the same mixture in my previous tank and had no algae. Its only my new trace I made that I added extra iron.

My mixture is:

Macro in 1 L of DI:

94 g of k2SO4 (3 tablespoon)
24 g of KH2PO4 (1 table) --Ive reduced this amount slightly because it wont mix fully
111g of KNO3 (6 table)

Trace is 65 g which is 5 table. I then added iron on top as well.

For my 45 gal I was dosing 20 ml of each, ever other day. Now that its a 30, Im not sure, Im dosing 10 ml to 15.
 
#4 ·
Macronutrient mixtures tend not to grow mould. Micronutrients mixtures will often grow mould.

You might have just been lucky that mould did not form in the past. Needless to say, from your description, it sounds like it has formed.

I would doubt that the change in micronutrients caused the algae that you are observing, and would look elsewhere. What are your water parameters and lighting conditions like?
 
#5 ·
Ok, I do water changes on Sundays, today was the last dosing of trace. My phosphates are 5 to 10 ppm and nitrates are.......0. Wow, I guess Ive not been dosing enough macro?

I have crazy lighting, its a 30 gal square and the water surface to gravel is 10". I have a 48" bml at 5" above the surface and a 24" dual bulb t5ho at the back. All sides of my tank glass have the slime on them. On a small part of my gravel I have bga. My plants have the slime algae as well. My par is crazy high, there is one small area where the par is low as neither light is reaching that part. The flow of the tank is good, lots of water agitation. My plant load is heavy, just about the entire substrate is covered with plants. Plants are growing great as well, star grass is a weed.
 
#6 ·
You might want to reduce your light a bit, and definitely step up your fertilization. Your nitrates should definitely not be zero, and that is likely the cause of your problem.

In addition, you didn't mention anything about CO2 injection, but I would also take a look at that and ensure that you are injecting enough into the aquarium.
 
#7 · (Edited)
Thanks, I guess I will try that. Im injecting co2 as well, my indicator is dark yellow all the time.

So I will increase my dosing and I have raised the light from 14 to 16" from the gravel. I should be getting 100+ par at gravel along a small strip. The substrate actually added 2" minimum to the depth, so the tank is shallower than expected. I targeted for 100 PAR at the substrate but after setting up and everything the depth became less. On my 45 gallon though it sat only 13 or 14" from the substrate as it rested on the tank top. I had slime algae before in that tank too but as soon as I made a new macro mixture, it went away. My macro at that time was off as well, so I corrected and it worked. this time I thought it would be trace but if high light + low macro = slime then I hope thats true. I will dose more, I dosed less because it was 30 gal rather than 45. But then the plant mass is almost the same to my 45.

 
#8 ·
This sucks. I changed my water yesterday morning. Today, theres already algae covering the front glass and the water is still cloudy. I guess my bacteria is struggling too. Ill try to do another water change wednesday.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top