Calcium Defeciency

[Texans]

if you need ca add or bury some shells or crushed coral

[Dmckmc]

Originally Posted by plantbrain

BBA= trim off old worthless(to the plant anyway) leaves.

you may need to wait a bit for the new growth to fill in so you can trim with something left over, 1-2 weeks etc.

In the meantime, some folks will spot treat with H2O2. Do not add more than 10 mls per 10 Gal worth of aquarium at any one time.

After 3-6 weeks, the BBA will slowly go away and you can trim it out.
Some use SAE's(a fish) to gnaw the BBA. They get lazy and bully other fish later as they get old and not longer eat BBA.

Mostly just keeping on top 0f things and trimming, good CO2, good light, ferts are pretty easy relatively speaking, tap water sounds perfect, you may only need a little Mg. Otherwise KNO3, KH2PO4, and Trace mix(MgSO4 can be added to this) eg CMS+B.

IME, diffusers clog and change the dosing of CO2.
They need cleaned routinely and maintained.

Good current for the surface, some rippling etc.........= key to making sure there's ample O2.

Fish Respiration MUST include both CO2 and O2 levels, not just CO2.

If you have high CO2 and low O2 in the aquarium= least amount of wiggle room with dosing CO2 and stressing fish. High O2 and high CO2= decent for fish, great for plants, both are happy. My fish and shrimp bred in every tank I own, so they are doing pretty good.

You will use more CO2 and degas more, but you gain more O2, thus can use more CO2. I have about 55-60ppm on average for my aquariums. But I have excellent filtration(Wet/dry filters, surface skimming etc) and excellent current.

Odd thing is, Dupla made a big deal about wet/drys and good current in the 1980's, few listened.
To date, I've never seen a confirmed case of Ca++ deficient aquarium plant.

CO2 looks a lot like that claim.

And I've seen more CO2 issues that I can shake a stick at, I'm not saying 100% of the time..........but 99.99, okay 99.999% of the time, it'll be something else like CO2.
also remember this about cO2 measurement, the pH/KH chart will NEVER tell you that you have more CO2 than you think, only less.

So say the chart says I have 40 ppm. I might have 40ppm or less, I CANNOT have more than 40ppm however.
Now some folks measure and the chart says they have 200-300ppm, plants and fish are fine.
The chart is obviously incorrect and has over estimated the actual CO2, which is likely in the 30-50ppm rnge for many of these folks.
So the chart will underestimate the actual value in all cases or be close to the actually value.

This makes many think they have 30 ppm, when they may only have 10ppm and have algae.
Or they rush and adjust the CO2 way to fast and then leave for work to come home to gasping or dead fish in the tank.

Thanks Tom, I believe I am doing everything recommended in your post - plenty of surface aggitation as well as current. I clean my diffuser every two weeks, etc. I spot treat with H2O2 once a week.

The only thing I have not done is try and measure the co2 level. I don't know anything about the ph/kh chart - can someone help with that?

I just reduced my light intensity a few days ago so we will see if that helps. I have very high light that I was diffusing with a screan. I just added a second screan.

[Sotty]

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...9QEwAQ&dur=439

Measure you KH and Ph and find where they intersect on the grid and that is your maximum CO2 concentration.

[plantbrain]

CO2 is 90% of this hobby for most folks, unless you go non cO2, then it's not even 1%

Scotty made a good point about "maximum CO2 concentration."
But in many cases, it may be less, sometimes much less than you think, but it will NEVER tell you have more CO2 that this.

CO2 is always equal to this value on the chart, or the CO2 is less than that value.

I tend to target 45-50ppm myself. But I have wet/dry filters and good O2, so I have much more wiggle room.