Black brush algae from hell
That's not a lot of CO2. If algae takes off whenever you fertilize, I
suspect
your tank is CO2-limited. Try to add enough CO2 to get your pH down to
6.6.
Thats interesting. I had a very, very big BBA outbreak in a smaller tank. I
setup the CO2 system as a pre-cursor to putting it in my larger tank. The
plants flourished for a while, all other chemistry was as expected, high
GH/KH, Nitrate around 40 etc...
Then I took the CO2 away - and as if by magic, the brush algae appeared and
started to take over the tank - there was no getting rid of it - dosing with
my regular chemicals had no effect. It spread to the point of clogging the
internal filter.
As I used to go away on weekends I was worried that the filter may stop so I
trickled air in through a hose. Biggest mistake ever - the BBA just
flourished took over all bogwood - rocks- gravel the lot.
It's gone now - I cooked the slate in the oven, threw the bogwood out
(actually sunlight has an interesting effect on it - makes it go purple when
it dries out - it would make a nice ornament) and scraped the stuff off the
sides of the filter and removed the infected surface gravel.
There is still a little left - but I have very few fish in there now as they
have mostly been transfered.
Martin.
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