[Michael Appleseed]

I've started dosing the PPS-Pro method and I'm running into trouble. It's been about a week now and I have BBA growing, as well as GSA, and my dwarf sag and rotala are literally losing their green pigment and turning clear. Many of the crypts are sort of melting, and there's some pin holes in one of them... Everything was (and is, sort of) growing really quickly and vibrant, but it seems like its out of balance now.

Size: 55 gallon aquarium
Substrate: Eco-Complete
Heater: 200w Aqueon
Filtration: Eheim Professional II
Carbon Dioxide: Green Leaf Aquariums Choice regulator, 5 lb tank, 3-4 BPM
Lighting: GLO t-5 HO 108w on for 7hrs a day

Dosing: PPS-Pro, micros and macros on alternating days

Anything will help,
Michael

 

[Subtletanks91]

3-4bpm is extremely low of a 55g aquarium. I dose pps pro and have never had a problem.

Co2 is running 5-8 bps
5ml pps pro both bottles
Amazonia
Aqueon dual t5no 67ook bulbs

I would up the co2, maybe cut back the dosing depending on how stocked the tank is with plants. I'm sure nilocg can help out here

 

[rezco]

Its possible you now have an excess of nutrients. Can you do a nitrate or phosphate test? Otherwise a couple of massive WC to reset the balance might work.

 

[kamebard]

One thing to check is make sure you mixed the ferts correctly, it's very easy to mistake measurements and throw the nutrients off balance.

As for the melting - your water conditions have changed, and as such many of the plants are adjusting.

 

[Michael Appleseed]

Awesome, thanks for all the help guys! I'll up the bubble rate, do a couple water changes, and try to get the algae under control. I'll probably try it again in a week or two if everything goes back to normal.

Cheers,
Michael

 

[Michael Appleseed]

Subtletanks91,

Do you dose both bottles every day? (5ml of each in my case) Do you separate the dosings by time? Or area of the tank? I'm curious.

 

[jrman83]

Your algae is not from excess nutrients, so that's not it. If you use the EI method your life is much easier. No need for all of the testing. I will agree that your bps for a 55g sounds low, but your issues may be from not enough nutrients in the water.

 

[plantbrain]

CO2 and some water changes are more the issue, the ferts should not matter this much.

Ferts are just part of growign plants, a fairly small part, light, this is fine, but the CO2, that's the big issue, if you have a lot of BBa and GSA, those are good "test" that say the plants are not doing as good as they could be.

CO2. Focus there.

 

[Michael Appleseed]

I'm continuously impressed with the help everyone's so willing to offer on this site! I started a journal if anyone cares to check it out:

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=578905&highlight=

THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH! I'll keep you posted!
~Michael