# Using high and low ferts alternating



## Kingyfish1 (12 Mar 2021)

Hi everyone 
In a new setup dose anyone alternate a high npk fert like tropica specialised nutrition one day and then a low one like ada or tropica premium the next to keep nitrates, phosphate down and help reduce alge problems. I have a high biomass of plants that need the fertilizer but think the high nutritants like nitrogen and phosphate are not helping with alge.
Any advice welcome 🙂


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## Courtneybst (12 Mar 2021)

I don't personally do that but you could just dose less? Or use the Tropica Premium exclusively.


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## Zeus. (12 Mar 2021)

Kingyfish1 said:


> alternate a high npk fert like tropica specialised nutrition one day and then a low one like ada or tropica premium the next to keep nitrates, phosphate down and help reduce alge problems.



No, the general consensus/evidence is nutrients in abundance has nothing to do with algae, how ever insufficient nutrients is linked to algae. Dosing a 'complete' fert is the way to go with regular WCs. Nitrogen free ferts like Tropica Premium have there place with high fish loads and low plant mass, but most folk posting here don't fall into that category, so why dose a fert thats missing an essential nutrition element for plants


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## Sammy Islam (12 Mar 2021)

Kingyfish1 said:


> Hi everyone
> In a new setup dose anyone alternate a high npk fert like tropica specialised nutrition one day and then a low one like ada or tropica premium the next to keep nitrates, phosphate down and help reduce alge problems. I have a high biomass of plants that need the fertilizer but think the high nutritants like nitrogen and phosphate are not helping with alge.
> Any advice welcome 🙂



Ferts definitely don't cause algae, i've been dosing 1ppm PO4 (phosphate) a day for the last 2 months to see if it improves growth and colouration. Hasn't caused any problems at all. Algae grows on mainly unhealthy plants, feeding them with all the nutrients they require, especially CO2, will promote healthy plant growth. Generally algae won't go away, you have to remove it or atleast take proactive steps to fixing the issue in the first place.


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## Kingyfish1 (12 Mar 2021)

Thanks for clearing that up 👍


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## dw1305 (12 Mar 2021)

Hi all, 


Kingyfish1 said:


> Any advice welcome


If you do want to limit your input of fertilisers you can use an approach that uses the <"health and colour of a floating plant"> as an indication of when to add nutrients. 

I've called it the <"Duckweed Index">.

cheers Darrel


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## ceg4048 (14 Mar 2021)

Kingyfish1 said:


> Hi everyone
> In a new setup dose anyone alternate a high npk fert like tropica specialised nutrition one day and then a low one like ada or tropica premium the next to keep nitrates, phosphate down and help reduce alge problems. I have a high biomass of plants that need the fertilizer but think the high nutritants like nitrogen and phosphate are not helping with alge.
> Any advice welcome 🙂


For best advice it would be necessary to determine exactly what species of algae is present in the tank as the type of algae is strongly correlated to the cause. Close up photographs would help a lot.
As mentioned by other posters, in planted tanks, NO3 and PO4 do not cause algae, but are used as agents to avoid or to mitigate specific types of algae by their role in supporting plant health.

Cheers,


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## Kingyfish1 (16 Mar 2021)

ceg4048 said:


> For best advice it would be necessary to determine exactly what species of algae is present in the tank as the type of algae is strongly correlated to the cause. Close up photographs would help a lot.
> As mentioned by other posters, in planted tanks, NO3 and PO4 do not cause algae, but are used as agents to avoid or to mitigate specific types of algae by their role in supporting plant health.
> 
> Cheers,


Thanks for trying to help me out ceg with the alge.Here are a few photos of the algae,  maybe a few types here I'm not sure.
The tank is just over 6 weeks old, I have good flow and co2 in the tank, I am dosing specialised nutrition 8-10 ml a day Lighting is on for 7 hours a day, and have been doing 50% water changes twice a week, but wanted to get that down to once a week soon. This is my first planted tank so I am a beginner to the hobby. Setup and used george farmers book so not experienced.


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## ceg4048 (16 Mar 2021)

Hi Kingy,
              OK, thanks for the photos. There appears to be a couple types of diatomic algae typical of newly setup tanks.
Theoretically, the algae should go away by itself after 2-3 weeks, however, the situation is often exacerbated when we make mistakes, such as having too much light and/or if the flow and distribution of flow are less than excellent. If these faults are egregious then the diatoms do not go away and instead become a plague.

It's difficult to determine if there is excessive lighting without the proper tool, such as a PAR meter, or without information from the manufacturer, so if possible, it's often a good idea to reduce the intensity of the lamp to provide a margin of error.
One also has to verify whether flow is actually good, as well as if that flow is being distributed properly. I can see, in  photo #4 that there is a single pump outlet pointing along the length of the tank, a configuration that I'm always suspicious of. I don't know the size of the tank or the rated flow of the filter so it's difficult to assess.
There is also the issue of what the injection rate is and when does the light turn on in relation to the behavior of the gas.
The timing of the CO2 is very important. I can see the DC is a dark green, which is a bad omen. It should be a nice light lime green when the light goes on.

You can do frequent large water changes and use a toothbrush to pull out the strands as often as possible, dosing the nutrients after each water change. On the plants that have broader, thicker leaves, such as the Althernantera you can use your thumb and index finger to scrub the leaves and remove the dirty looking film from the leaf surface. That helps quite a bit.

Cheers,


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## Kingyfish1 (16 Mar 2021)

ceg4048 said:


> Hi Kingy,
> OK, thanks for the photos. There appears to be a couple types of diatomic algae typical of newly setup tanks.
> Theoretically, the algae should go away by itself after 2-3 weeks, however, the situation is often exacerbated when we make mistakes, such as having too much light and/or if the flow and distribution of flow are less than excellent. If these faults are egregious then the diatoms do not go away and instead become a plague.
> 
> ...


Thanks for your help ceg
I Will increase the co2 and reduce intensity of the lamp and hopefully it will clear up.
Cheers


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## rebel (17 Mar 2021)

Those are filamentous diatoms etc. They will go naturally. I'd soldier on ahead at full speed.

There nothing stopping you from attacking it daily with a toothbrush.


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