Gsa & Po4 @ 3??

[Sven]

I´ve been pestered by GSA for a long time, following the advice given here I´ve been dosing po4, which is at 2,5 to 3 consistantly and I have pressurized CO2 @ about 1,5bps. Ph is 6,2 and Kh is 50ppm (co2 =53ppm?)
Should I be adding more po4??

[bigstick120]

What size tank? How much PO4 are you dosing and what are you adding. Dont rely on test kits, chances are they are wrong if you are still seeing GS then you may need to add more PO4

[plantbrain]

PO4 can be estimated easily using a dosign calculator.
CO2 is more tricky to get preciselty measures, you should add a bit more CO2 slowly and note fish/plant health.

Key word: slowly

GSA is present when you don't does well and when you stop dosing PO4 and alos low CO2 is the other issue(and leads to other algae issues for that matter also).

Regards,
Tom Barr

[Sven]

Thank you for your replies, tank is 55g and I´m dosing about 1/8tsp po4 3 times a week. Would it be safe to increase po4 to 1/4 tsp 3 times a week?
I´ll be slowly increasing my co2, how long do I need to wait between increases in the co2

[Hoppy]

When I decided to raise my CO2 bubble rate and ignore the pH/KH tables I took about a month doing it. I would raise it a bit every two or three days, then watch what was happening in the tank. At that time I was having a hard time keeping BBA from growing on my plants, so I was watching to see if the CO2 was high enough so no more was starting up. Of course I kept an eye on the fish at the same time. I hit the bubble rate where the BBA stopped growing new spots on the plants before the fish ever seemed unhappy so I left the bubble rate alone after that.