phosphates

I have new tank of 2+ months. GSA has been my only issue so far. Contrary to advice out there that low phosphates and unstable CO2 are the causes, my deposits reduced considerably when I upped nitrates. I could see the difference in a day. However it still deposits a little daily. Not sure...

So, my tank has been up and running almost a week and generally things are going well (ammonia is at 1.5ppm having peaked at 2.0ppm, most likely due to the Aqua Soil Amazonia), nitrites stable at 2.0ppm, nitrates increasing (currently at 7.5ppm). All of that is pretty good and suggests that the...

I'm getting back into the hobby after a lot of years, and am wondering what the best stuff is for testing these days. I know I'm going to want to test for specific stuff. nitrate phosphate calcium alkalinity I have a pH meter and a refractometer already. I'm thinking I'm not gonna bother...

Hello all, recently i have been struggling with my tank. It started out with cyanobacteria overtaking my substrate, and now its off the substrate but taking over a few plants. Furthermore, I have now started noticing my plants turning brown and starting to die. I do weekly water changes of about...

Hi everyone I could really use your help. I have had this up for 4 months and diatoms have been a problem since day one. I know that diatoms are to be expected in a new set ups but I actually tore down this tank and started a new because of the diatoms. Here are my tank parameters; 8.5 gal 8...

i've never had this problem in the past. the only difference this time around is that i utilized a good amount of akadama mixed in with old florabase, which is pretty much fine clay, and am using lava/lace rock for the hardscape. i know that lava rock is supposed to not alter the pH of water...

I have had my planted tank with cherry shrimp for a while now and I started getting hair algae. little fury hairs all over my plants. So after reading up on it I tested my phosphates. They were off the chart. I did a 50% water change and my phosphate were still off the chart. I have a 29...

Hi guys! Story short. I took some of my tank's water for testing to a reputable fish store were they tested for phosphates. The color from the test results was so dark that it was way off chart. The guys at the fish store told me that there's no natural way to get that amount of phosphates in...