# skewed balance



## Cornyflakes09 (25 Apr 2018)

Hello everyone!
I am a new member in your forum )))
I have a big problem with algae:hair algae, dots and the green spot algae
Aquarium 45p, 450 E Twinstar light, drop checher is yellow,light 7 hours,tropica soil,tropica specialised fertiliser -3 ml on the week ,seachem potassium every day 2.5 ml,tap water. There live a snails neretina,Caridina multidentata,Red bee shrimps,Otocinclus. Water changes every 3 days.
Everything was fine, but after trimmings all the plants get sick and algae appeared, added many floating plants(used seachem excel too) What am I doing wrong?(The aquarium was launched in January.) my instagram Cornyflakes09
Everywhere it is written that the macro in the ground, micro need to be added to the water and potassium.


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## Kalum (25 Apr 2018)

Dosing full macros will definitely help eliminate that as an issue and won't do any harm, what lighting intensity are you running for the 7 hours? If high it might be worth dropping it down to let the plants recover and reduce algae then ramp back up

Do you have good flow around the tank as well?


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## Cornyflakes09 (25 Apr 2018)

was at full power, now reduced by one division.
*filtration : *OASE FiltoSmart 100 thermo - External filter


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## Kalum (25 Apr 2018)

Cornyflakes09 said:


> was at full power, now reduced by one division.
> *filtration : *OASE FiltoSmart 100 thermo - External filter



Actually, just noticed you're using tropical specialied fertiliser and it should provide some macros as well as micros, I've not used it myself but someone else might be more familiar with it and know how much of each a dose gives you, are you dosing after each water change every 3 days?

Having both macros and micros in the water column is important and I would never just rely on anything from any substrate

Filter is more than enough so you should be getting good flow


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## Cornyflakes09 (25 Apr 2018)

at the moment I made more co2, and reduced the light, and when I do water change I use only potassium and excel. But when I introduce fertilizer, maybe green spot algae becomes larger. in water nitrates and phosphates are 0 ppm, but they should be enough in the soil. so it was before the skew.


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## ceg4048 (25 Apr 2018)

Cornyflakes09 said:


> I have a big problem with algae:hair algae, dots and the green spot algae


Hello,
        Hair algae is caused by poor CO2. This can happen as a result of any combination of poor injection rate, poor injection timing, porr flow rate, poor distribution and excessive lighting.

Green Spot algae (GSA) is caused by any combination of poor CO2 and poor PO4.

Cheers,


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## jon32 (25 Apr 2018)

I've had a few problems on a new iwagumi setup with hair algae and drop checker was always lime green going on yellow. Also I'm running a filter with 10x turnover. 
Anyway after acquiring a Seneye reef and using the built in par meter I discovered my lights were putting out way too much par so I reduced it to 50-60 max and in some areas it's around only 30-40. This has solved my hair algae problems and plant health/growth is now very good.


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## ceg4048 (26 Apr 2018)

jon32 said:


> I've had a few problems on a new iwagumi setup with hair algae and drop checker was always lime green going on yellow. Also I'm running a filter with 10x turnover.
> Anyway after acquiring a Seneye reef and using the built in par meter I discovered my lights were putting out way too much par so I reduced it to 50-60 max and in some areas it's around only 30-40. This has solved my hair algae problems and plant health/growth is now very good.



Yes, correct. Too much light results in poor CO2.

Cheers,


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## Cornyflakes09 (26 Apr 2018)

thanks,i will try this par meter too) Indeed I observe that there is a lot of light and plants are depleted. How best to add fertilizer? If there are a lot of algae, then it can be from a deficit? Or is it better to change the water?


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## ceg4048 (26 Apr 2018)

Cornyflakes09 said:


> thanks,i will try this par meter too) Indeed I observe that there is a lot of light and plants are depleted. How best to add fertilizer? If there are a lot of algae, then it can be from a deficit? Or is it better to change the water?


Algae only ever occurs due to poor health, which is typically caused by a deficit of nutrients or CO2.

How best to add nutrition is covered in the article https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/ei-dosing-using-dry-salts.1211/ found in the Tutorial section of the forum.

As part of your general maintenance program, you should always try to perform as many large water changes as possible. 

Apart from all that, these photos indicate that the tank likely suffers from a CO2 problem, not a nutrient problem - unless you are not adding any PO4.
Almost all of the photos you showed are of plants suffering from Green Spot Algae (GSA) which is caused by any combination of poor CO2 and poor PO4.

This deficiency can be caused by many things, such as too much light, poor injection rate, poor injection timing, poor flow/distribution.

Remove all infected leaves as much as possible.

When is the dropchecker yellow? Is it yellow when the light first turn on?

Have you changed the location or orientation of your filter outlet? Can we see a picture of the filter outlet?

Cheers,


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## PBM3000 (26 Apr 2018)

If it's too much light, what do you recommend reducing first - duration or intensity?


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## ceg4048 (26 Apr 2018)

PBM3000 said:


> If it's too much light, what do you recommend reducing first - duration or intensity?


Always, always, always reduce intensity first. Intensity does the damage, duration only prolongs the agony....

See the post https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/enough-light.17608/#post-181832

Cheers,


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## Cornyflakes09 (27 Apr 2018)

I did water tests: PH -6, KH -8, NO3 -0,PO4 -0, K -5 . Now I put the lily pipe again because it mixes the layers of water better.Now a lot of СО2, tests confirm. In the photo, the color is blue because there was a water changes. But when the light turns on, the color is green, yellow towards evening.Now the light burns for 6 hours 70%, and I add only potassium 5 ml every day, but tests of potassium in water do not show. Asking advice from aquascapers, they advised not to pour fertilizer, only potassium and reduce the light day and water changes. But now it's getting worse, and I can't look at how the plants die. Thanks for the article, I will learn and your aquarium is perfect)
when I lay down the soil, then under the bottom was laid a lot of ingredients, they should also work: jbl volcano mineral,ada tourmaline bc, ada bacter 100, ada clear super,Tropica soil and substrate(aquarium 4 months)plants don't feed on roots?


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## Cornyflakes09 (27 Apr 2018)




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## Konsa (27 Apr 2018)

Hi
Its definitely CO2 issue with strong light.
I get stunned tips from time to time in my low techs.Try to have the dropchecker lime green on lights on  instead towards the end.May be turn the gas on earlier 
Regards Konsa


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## ceg4048 (27 Apr 2018)

Cornyflakes09 said:


> But when the light turns on, the color is green, yellow towards evening


Hi,
   I agree with Konsa. If the DC is green at lights on and then yellow towards evening then this is not good for plants or for fish. What this means is that the CO2 concentration is at it's highest at a point when the plants do not need it to be high (evening). They need it to be at it's highest when the lights first go on. The situation is a bit confusing because you did a water change, but really, what you need to do is to measure the pH directly every hour or so and record the pH readings so that you know exactly how low is lowest CO2 concentration level and how high the higest concentration level is - and you need to know precisely when these are occurring relative to your lights.

The more brightly lit the tank is the more critical this information is.

Your plants are dying because there is too much light and your CO2 is problematic.



Cornyflakes09 said:


> when I lay down the soil, then under the bottom was laid a lot of ingredients, they should also work: jbl volcano mineral,ada tourmaline bc, ada bacter 100, ada clear super,Tropica soil and substrate(aquarium 4 months)plants don't feed on roots?


Yes, of course plants feed from the roots. They feed from both roots and from leaves but it a LOT easier for them to feed from the leaves.
So you should stop listening to those folks who tell you that you should only dose potassium in the water.
We have been successfully feeding plants via the water column here for over 25 years and this has not been a problem.

All those products that you have added to the soil is mostly useless and they cost a lot of money without adding any value.

In any case, your plants are suffering a CO2 deficiency caused by using too much light. When that happens, it doesn't matter how many soil ingredients or how much potassium you put in the tank.

Cheers,


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## Cornyflakes09 (27 Apr 2018)

Well, I understand you.
Now I need to set up co2 and light. Should I apply daily doses of macro fertilizers,micro too?I used to make aquariums on a plant substrate and I did not need to pour fertilizer, all the plants grew well. I thought the same system here, but we learn from our mistakes. Beautiful photos on the Internet, hide behind themselves such misalignments in the system. Sorry for my language


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## Cornyflakes09 (28 Apr 2018)

Help me understand the doses of  (EI regimen)? After reading, I wanted to make the powder myself=)  I have a 40 litters-10 gallons. I found information by 20 gallons.
all the doses reduced in half?
Is it necessary to do this only in RO water, or TAP water?
 NPK (Nitrogen + Phosphorus + Potassium) Mixture for 20 Gallon Tank
1 month = 4 Weeks
3 doses of NPK per week
Therefore there are 12 doses of NPK per month
Multiply a single dose teaspoon value by 12 => [3/16 tsp KNO3]*12 = 2 ¼ tsp KNO3 (it's 3/32?)
[1/16 tsp KH2PO4]*12 = ¾ tsp KH2PO4
[1/2 tsp MgSO4]*12 = 6 tsp MgSO4
Add these to 600ml of tap or distilled water


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## PBM3000 (28 Apr 2018)

There's a much easier way than all that math:

http://www.aquariumplantfood.co.uk 

You can buy all you need in a kit, see below, which lasts ages.


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## Cornyflakes09 (28 Apr 2018)

okey thnx!)


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## Konsa (28 Apr 2018)

+1 for regular ferts as I dose my low techs with 1/2 to 3/4 of ei daily wich is a bit too much but does no harm to livestock and the plants definitely benefit from it
Regards Konsa


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