GardenBanter.co.uk - what am i doing wrong?

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- - what am i doing wrong? (https://www.gardenbanter.co.uk/freshwater-aquaria-plants/16381-what-am-i-doing-wrong.html)

what am i doing wrong?

125 Gal
3.07 watts per gallon
Flourite w/ some sand
Ph - 8.0
KH - 20
Co2 then accding to chart is 6.5
GH - 9.0
Ammonia - 0.0
Nitrite .03

Pressurized Co2 1 bbl a sec
Lots of diff plants I got front ppl on this newsgroup..

I seem to have brown algae and not much growth as I did last week when I
first put the tank up. Since the algae bloom my ph went from 7.0 to 8.0. I
added 25ml of Tropical MasterGrow a day or so before the Algae Outbreak.

Any Thoughts , Suggestions, Ideas, Additions, Subtractions I should make?

Thanks!

Dustin

what am i doing wrong?

Also, I had little to no surface irritation so i had three mollies die -
there are now around 8 mollies , 4 corys and 2 plecos in the tank.. if that
makes any difference.

Thanks

"Dustin" wrote in message
...
125 Gal
3.07 watts per gallon
Flourite w/ some sand
Ph - 8.0
KH - 20
Co2 then accding to chart is 6.5
GH - 9.0
Ammonia - 0.0
Nitrite .03

Pressurized Co2 1 bbl a sec
Lots of diff plants I got front ppl on this newsgroup..

I seem to have brown algae and not much growth as I did last week when I
first put the tank up. Since the algae bloom my ph went from 7.0 to 8.0.
I
added 25ml of Tropical MasterGrow a day or so before the Algae Outbreak.

Any Thoughts , Suggestions, Ideas, Additions, Subtractions I should make?

Thanks!

Dustin

what am i doing wrong?

Most of the plants are fast growing stems - like anabils *spelling* and tiny
stem plants that were growing like 3 inches a day last week....

"Nsty N8" wrote in message
...
125 Gal
3.07 watts per gallon
Flourite w/ some sand
Ph - 8.0
KH - 20
Co2 then accding to chart is 6.5
GH - 9.0
Ammonia - 0.0
Nitrite .03

Pressurized Co2 1 bbl a sec
Lots of diff plants I got front ppl on this newsgroup..

I seem to have brown algae and not much growth as I did last week when I
first put the tank up. Since the algae bloom my ph went from 7.0 to 8.0.
I
added 25ml of Tropical MasterGrow a day or so before the Algae Outbreak.

Any Thoughts , Suggestions, Ideas, Additions, Subtractions I should make?

Thanks!

Dustin

What about your nitrate readings?
I'd add TONS of fast growing stemmed plants, pronto!

what am i doing wrong?

Three more questions:

How long has the tank been set-up?
Did you add a phosphate-based product to try to lower your pH?
What is the pH of your water out of the tap?

kush

Dustin wrote in message
...
Most of the plants are fast growing stems - like anabils *spelling* and
tiny
stem plants that were growing like 3 inches a day last week....

"Nsty N8" wrote in message
...
125 Gal
3.07 watts per gallon
Flourite w/ some sand
Ph - 8.0
KH - 20
Co2 then accding to chart is 6.5
GH - 9.0
Ammonia - 0.0
Nitrite .03

Pressurized Co2 1 bbl a sec
Lots of diff plants I got front ppl on this newsgroup..

I seem to have brown algae and not much growth as I did last week when
I
first put the tank up. Since the algae bloom my ph went from 7.0 to
8.0.
I
added 25ml of Tropical MasterGrow a day or so before the Algae
Outbreak.

Any Thoughts , Suggestions, Ideas, Additions, Subtractions I should
make?

Thanks!

Dustin

What about your nitrate readings?
I'd add TONS of fast growing stemmed plants, pronto!

what am i doing wrong?

OK, it's discouraging, but not fatal.

Your plants aren't established yet and adding a phosphate-based pH buffer
and liquid fertilizer provided the algae with just the opportunity it
needed. My advice is to not worry about the pH too much at this point. As
your aquarium gets settled and you're supplementing with CO2, you can expect
your pH to drop to somewhere under 7.5. Using chemicals is a trap; you'll
be fiddling with water chemistry every week and never achieve an
equilibrium. Also, when your tap water is as basic as yours (and mine),
don't expect miracles from CO2; any water is only capable of holding so much
dissolved gas. By the time you got your pH down much below 7 all your fish
would have died of carbon-dioxide poisoning.

Recommendations:
1) do a 25% water change every two or three days for the next couple of
weeks to flush out the chemicals. Then redose with trace minerals.
2) I forgot to ask your temperatu crank your thermostat back to about
72º to inhibit algae growth and because cooler water holds more dissolved
gasses (CO2).
3) Add a bunch of cheap stem and/or floating plants until everything else
gets established. Don't even take them out of their bands if you don't want
to (you can attempt to return them to your LFS for credit later on).
4) Introduce small snails and otto cats.

Good luck,
kush

"You can't have everything - where would you put it?"

Dustin wrote in message
...
Tank has been up about 2 weeks.

I added Proper PH 7.0 the second day to drop the ph from an 8.5 to a 7.0 -
bad idea?
The algae bloom didnt happen until the 8th day, after i added a little
tropical master grow. 10ml I added it and left for the weekend, and i
came
back to algae :(

Tap water PH is 8.0

Thanks!

"kush" wrote in message
...
Three more questions:

How long has the tank been set-up?
Did you add a phosphate-based product to try to lower your pH?
What is the pH of your water out of the tap?

kush

Dustin wrote in message
...
Most of the plants are fast growing stems - like anabils *spelling*
and
tiny
stem plants that were growing like 3 inches a day last week....

"Nsty N8" wrote in message
...
125 Gal
3.07 watts per gallon
Flourite w/ some sand
Ph - 8.0
KH - 20
Co2 then accding to chart is 6.5
GH - 9.0
Ammonia - 0.0
Nitrite .03

Pressurized Co2 1 bbl a sec
Lots of diff plants I got front ppl on this newsgroup..

I seem to have brown algae and not much growth as I did last week
when
I
first put the tank up. Since the algae bloom my ph went from 7.0
to
8.0.
I
added 25ml of Tropical MasterGrow a day or so before the Algae
Outbreak.

Any Thoughts , Suggestions, Ideas, Additions, Subtractions I should
make?

Thanks!

Dustin

What about your nitrate readings?
I'd add TONS of fast growing stemmed plants, pronto!