Rico wrote in message . ..
I'm in the process of migrating from artifial to live plants. My set
up is a 55gal tank, Eheim Professional II Canister filter, Coral Life
compact flourescent light 230 watts. My chemistry is
Ph 7.0
dKH 4
dGH 10
Nitrites 0
Amonia 0
Nitrates 80

Too much NO3 and too much light.
If you are using CO2, this is still a huge amount of light.
Without CO2 it is a recipe for algae and problems.
1/2 this amount of lighting would be better and fine with a CO2
enriched tank.
50-70% weekly water changes will correct things for you.
What is wrong with your tap water BTW?
Why use RO and go through all that hassle?
Is it for the fish?

Plants do better in harder water.
Fish will not stress out due to hard water increases of say 2-4KH.
Altums and Discus did fine.
Something else is causing the fish ick, maybe 80ppm of NO3.....

Otto cats will eat brown algae, diatoms.

If I stick to R/O water, what can I use to raise it's KH to 3-4?

As said, baking soda.

What is a normal water temp fluctuation? Should I keep the heater on
so the water temp does not drop during the night?

2 degrees perhaps.

What can I use to eliminate the algae?

Grow the plants and have lots of them.

BTW, while I'm waiting on the CO2 injection system, I'm using the
jungle fizz from a friend.

That's not going to do much on a 230 w, 4+ w/gal PC lighted tank.
You need a decent gas system, a KH of about 3 and a GH of about 5 or
so.
With a KH of 3, your pH target by adding CO2 gas ONLY, will be 6.5.
Try and keep this pH using only CO2 gas while the lights are on and
keep it close to this pH the entire time the lights are on. 6.5-6.6 is
your target range for a KH of 3.

Regards,
Tom Barr


Thanks

Jerry

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