I have some ottos and SAE...will see if i can get the ancintrus...
Also, I have brown/dark algae...this calculator only talks about green and
blue algae...

Will you use liquid CO2 and Tropical master grow together?


"George Pontis" wrote in message
t...
In article ,
says...
What is your experience with fertilizers and CO2? I am currently
experiencing algae on the glass of my tank and leaves.
I think is because water my dosing of fertilizers and CO2 is not the
correct, it is over what it should be. I use liquid CO2 and Tropical
Master
GRow.
My tank is a 58G tank that has vals, differen types of swords, dwarf sag,
red ludwiga, and some other plants I can't remember there name. The light
is
on for around 10-12 hrs a day.
What doses do you recommend? What can I do to save my plants and get rid
of
the alage?

I think that you will need to do some water testing to know if your dosage
is in
an appropriate range. A nitrate measurement would be a good place to
start. Iron
and phosphate are also useful. The liquid CO2 (Excel ?) is hard to gauge
because
you cannot infer the amount from the pH and KH as you could if you used
real CO2.
If your plants are growing nicely at the recommended dose then there is no
reason
to adjust it.

In another post recently, there was a link to a website that talks about
the
Redfield and "buddy" ratios. The theory says that algae is least likely to
grow
when the range of nitrate to phosphate is between 15 and 30. For example,
at a
reasonable nitrate level of 15ppm, .5 to 1 ppm phosphate would be ideal.
The site
had some more details and a handy calculator. I don't know to what degree
this has
been proven, but the recommended values are easily achieved and seem
appropriate
for a planted tank. Check it out he

http://www.xs4all.nl/~buddendo/aquar...dfield_eng.htm

Once you get the algae growth under control you might want to try some
plant-safe,
algae eating fish. Some good choices would be the ancistrus plecostomus,
otocinculus, and siamese algae eater (_not_ "chinese"). The ancistrus is
heavier
duty and can keep large panels of glass clean, while the SAE and otos will
delicately clean leaves.