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Hello, Nothing to do with nutrients and everything to do with the inability of the old leaves to source CO2 from the water column. Keeping the light intensity low during this transition will reduce the demand for CO2. Flow is not really an issue in a non-CO2 injected tank. Look...

Yes, CO2 is toxic as Hell. You can kill fish faster with CO2 than with "new tank" ammonia/nitrite syndrome. Having said that it's a certainty that if the hobbyist is dosing CO2 at a rate that negatively affects the fish but that does not turn the DC green it means that something else in the...

Sorry but there is zero relationship between Iron and BBA. EI dosed tanks have high Fe without necessarily incurring this penalty. In fact, studies have shown that Fe can be dosed up to approximately 13ppm before becoming toxic to plants. I myself, for the EI article dosed up to 3 ppm Fe with no...

Hello, Anaerobic zones should be avoided where possible. The idea of a planted tank is to oxygenate both the water and sediment in order to improve the health of plants and fish. Oxygen promotes the rise of the good bacteria and supplements the availability to the fish. Plants send oxygen...

Yes, this is not correct. As mentioned, CO2 saturation in water has nothing to do with carbonate concentration in the water. The effect that carbonate has in the water column in it's interaction with CO2 is purely that of change in pH. CO2 dissolves in high carbonate content water in exactly...

Haha life gets in the way mate. Experienced an earthquake on the other side of the Kyrg mountains while sipping wine in my high rise appartment. I immediately thought to myself: "Self, this is not sustainable..." Talk about a red pill moment...:crazy: Cheers,

Cheers mate! (or maybe something like "Ура!"):wave:

Surface Scum Surface Film Cheers,

I'm in complete agreement with Darrel. When I see post like these I cringe because newcomers will inevitably read this stuff and will start worrying about things that absolutely don't matter at all, and that's when they get into real trouble because their attention and energy is spent on useless...

It's suggested that you review the EI Dosing article in the Tutorial section of the forum. This is what happens when folks make assumptions about a technique that they don't fully understand. In Post #18 Tim Harrison refers to a thread with an identical question. The guy who invented EI responds...

Hmm, OK, wow this sounds very complicated. I always prefer the simpler approaches if I can get away with it. A popular general approach with sumps is one of first, covering or otherwise sealing the sump against gas leakage and then injecting CO2 directly into the sump. A major disadvantage of...

Hi, The concentration can be anything you want, low, high, Astronomical - whatever you choose. Were you aware that ADA Aquasoil has approximately 100X EI concentration level? It just doesn't matter. This is not something to worry about. The idea of having a rich sediment is that you can be...

Hello DuyHung, If your older emersed leaves are failing then it means you have some combination of too much light, poor flow, and poor CO2. It's the same story if someone gives you a plant from their tank and you get problems when they are placed in your tank. Moving the...

Hello, It might help to provide some sketches as it's not really clear what the geometry you are thinking of/ If you have a center overflow box at the back then using two spraybars on either side will be fine, but it means you have to think harder about how to distribute CO2 to the...

Wow, I speak really excellent Vietnamese! Anyway DuyHung, the idea is that when you push the ice cubes deep into the substrate the ice melts and the nutrients are released into the sediment. If the nutrient content of the sediment is high then yes, some nutrients wil find its way into the water...

Hi, I guess it's necessary to define what you mean by "truly high light". I reckon a PAR value at a certain distance below the surface is the best way to go. I mean really, a lot of T. Barr bashing goes on but have you never seen his tanks? You cannot pick and choose examples of supposed...

Good plan. You can even float the plant at the surface for a few days to allow a better transition. Many don't realize that in the natural habitats, plants are not just dunked under water. The rains come and the plant has the ability to adjust to the submerged state as the water level rises. We...

There is a huge difference between a CO2 vs a non-CO2 tank. It is the same relative difference between a Formula 1 car vs a farm tractor. Although Paulo is correct that plants need light, plants in a non-CO2 tank do not need nearly as much light as most folks seem to think. There is a lot of...

Mate, to be honest, I wasn't even aware of this myth until I read the OP. I wonder if folks are confusing wallichii with macandra? R. macandra is one of the handful of plants that are reported to struggle in high KH. Of course, people are so lazy and cavalier when it comes to...

Hi KirstyF, It's exactly as you say. Yes this was one of my tanks and nothing special was needed other than the realization that CO2/flow/distribution are the most important factors in any tank. The more light that you use the more critical these factors become. I would avoid...

Many roads lead to Rome. One should experiment to find the most convenient and effective solutions. The plants will tell you immediately what works and what doesn't. They never lie. Cheers,

Wow, where is that written? R. Wallichii in water GH >26 and KH>20 Cheers,

Hello, Lamp manufactures, with the exception of the very high priced marine brands, rarely produce PAR data for the consumer. There really is no direct conversion of lumens to PAR, simply because lumens is a parameter based on human vision, which has nothing to do with the way plants use...

I agree with Hufsa, in that no one necessarily "needs" root tabs as long as the water column is being dosed. Of course, it's always better to have nutrition in both the water as well as in the sediment, but as mentioned, root tabs often contains ammonia as their source of nitrogen and if the...

Hello, In all tanks, but especially non-CO2 tanks, lighting should be very low to begin with, probably 20% power. When you dump plants under water they have the priority of avoiding being drowned. Their physiology has to change in order to deal with the water. After a few weeks they can...

No, sorry, high pH water has nothing to do with the free CO2 in water. This false doctrine persists despite all the obvious evidence and information to the contrary. Gases typically follow Henrys Law, which states that at a given temperature the solubility of a gas in a solvent is a function of...

Advanced plants really do not care about exotic and expensive bulbs. The reason advanced plants are advanced is because they require better implementation of CO2. Cheers,

When it comes to lighting, less is actually more. High intensity makes plants grow more quickly - but it also makes algae and all other problems grow more quickly. Cheers,

Any supplementation of CO2, whether by gas or by liquid should automatically be considered high tech. This is completely untrue and you are strongly advised to avoid this critical error made by many hobbyists. Less light is better. Learn to grow plants with the light that comes with the tank...

Hello, Melting plants are a typical symptom of CO2 deficiency. The higher the light energy the higher the demand for CO2. You may wish to reduce the intensity even more, perhaps down to 25%. Another thing you may wish to try is to move the CO2 diffuser as close to the intake pipe as...

Hello, Apologies for the confusion. As far as plants are concerned the expression "poor CO2" always means that there is a problem with the ability to capture an to process CO2 from the water column. Plants can virtually never have too much CO2, however, the animals tolerance of CO2 is...

This is a typical symptom of poor CO2. It is only perfectly natural when CO2 is poorly executed. Cheers.

Hi castle, Apologies if I missed your previous post asking about this. It's a well worn road and these are two completely different subjects when we talk about causality. Many moons ago the claim that nutrients cause algae in a planted tank was falsified by the mere fact that...

Welcome Gregg. Reading through your interview was a pleasure. Nice plants as well. Here is a spy photo taken of you during your discussion with the moderators at plantedtank.net Cheers,

I agree with mort in post #10. Sunlight causes algae only when CO2 and nutrition are inadequate. In fact your risk of algal blooms will have more to do with your Chihiros wrgb than with sunlight penetrating your background. Choose the background that is the most pleasing and forget about window...

Hi, It's really not necessary to find any special supplier. Any garden center usually will sell KH2PO4 and KNO3, as well as micronutrient mix. Farmers have been using these generic products for a very long time and we have been using them for decades. If you have access to Amazon or ebay...

Hi, No, it could not. Nutrients don't cause algae. Yes, this is a definite possibility. Cheers,

Hi Cedric, To understand my answer to this question an understanding of what "pH" actually is will be required. Many hobbyists worry about pH at the wrong times and this causes more problems than if they did not worry about it. Have a look at this post, which attempts a...

Hi, No idea about relevant youtube videos but you hardly need one. Damaged leaves should be cut low on the stem. There are a lot of propaganda out there suggesting the addition of microbial fungus in the sediment, but this is hardly necessary. CO2 is the most important ingredient...

Hello, If KH=0 then buffering=0. Adding food combined with higher KH tap water during water changes will raise the KH over time. Cheers,

Hello, These are all symptoms of CO2 deficiency. In a low tech tank there is not much that can be done, other than placing the plant in shaded areas or reducing the overall lighting level. Cheers,

Yes, that's right, I meant psychological. Understanding the importance of water chemistry does not automatically mean that testing is necessary. It's exactly as Darrel points out. The problem is not in the recognition of the importance of water chemistry but in the implementation of testing and...

Could it be that the vehement people had previously wasted their time, money and energy using test kits and then managed successful tanks after they stopped using test kits? Could it be that they are attempting to prevent newbies from repeating the experience of wasting these precious resources...

As mentioned by Happi, dosing EI inherently means that there is no need for testing. Additionally, trying to micromanage ratios of nutrients is probably the cause of unhappiness. You should simply dose the suggested amounts and forget about ratios. Ratios really does not help to grow better...

Hi, As long as there is sufficient CO2 there really not many plants that will suffer at 28/29 degrees. Higher temperatures increase the plants metabolism, but these temperatures also are even more conducive to algal blooms. A good practice is to limit the light intensity in order to arrest...

Hi, You can simply leave the lights off and restrict dosing nutrients, assuming the tank is not in a sunny area. The plants will lose weight and the dim available light will help to reduce the chances of algal blooms. When you do restart the light, obviously make sure it's a lot less than...

Hello, No, you should not. Instead, you should worry about the possibility that your lighting is too high, or a myriad of other issues that trigger algal blooms. Cheers,

Hi, Yes, in the EI scheme of things this is normal. One of the reasons is that much of the PO4 is re-used in various metabolic cycles, whereas generally, the N from NO3 is consumed to a much greater extent by the construction of components such as proteins and so forth. Phosphorous is...

Yes. No. Add as much PO4 as you like. There are no repercussions of high PO4, only of low PO4. There is no "Goldilocks Zone". Required nutrient uptake is a function of light intensity, temperature and nutrient availability. It therefore changes as these variables change. Fretting about high...

Hi John, No worries mate. I understand that we all are trying to get a grip on cause and effect. OK, I can see why some may suspect Fe (either in excess or deficiency) since there is a possible issue of Iron Phosphate precipitation. I'm paraphrasing from Barr's conclusion here: If...

GSA is caused by any combination of poor PO4 and poor CO2. If you are adding the EI target amounts of KH2PO4 then it is unlikely that low PO4 is a factor. One then has to evaluate CO2/flow/distribution. EasyCarbo=CO2, therefore poor CO2 has to be under immediate suspicion. If you are only...

Hello, BBA is a CO2 deficiency related algae. There are many BBA threads available, and in general, correct attention to CO2 techniques, as well as to flow/distribution is necessary. Cheers,

Hello, Algae can result if the sunlight intensity is too high for the available nutrient loading and CO2 concentration level. This is the same as would occur if the the lighting were artificial. What you can do is to cover the back and sides of the tank to reduce the overall...

Hello, One teaspoon of nutrients weighs approximately 6 grams. The weights obviously vary for each nutrient, but this is a fair approximation. Cheers,

Hello, As mentioned by other posters above, there really are no "correct" EI values. This way of thinking, forced by the results of spreadsheets, is one of the things I dislike the most about the calculators. I suggest that you study the background information provided in the EI dosing...

Hi Angus, Well, algal blooms are symptoms of declining plant health. There is a relationship between algae and plants in our tank. It is a specific relationship and the relationship is different in different environments. That's why it's not a good idea to pull observations from...

Aquatic plants can feed from any nutritious source, whether it be from the sediment or the water column. It's always beneficial, therefore, to have nutrients in both locations, but it is not compulsory. There are reasons many choose to have high nutrition in the sediment and very little in the...

Yeah, both those numbers are insanely high, but it doesn't matter though, as none of these numbers will hurt. What's important is to understand how plants use nutrients instead of blindly following some number on a spreadsheet. You can grow excellent plants using numbers 1/100X of that. So for...

Hi, Well it's not that I'm not a fan of volcanic products. What I'm not a fan of is the way in which they are marketed. The claims made by the suppliers are disingenuous as these rocks do not have any special characteristics which makes them any better that run-of-the-mill clay sediment...

Hello Angus, Yes absolutely. There is no correlation whatsoever between water hardness and algal blooms. BGA normally indicates either a problem with low levels of nitrate or, as you mention, the buildup of organic waste, which can release ammonia/ammonium into the water...

Well this sounds like a lot of twisting to me. Are you claiming that Amazonia does not leach nutrients into the water? Are you also now hiding behind twisted words? No one claims that NH3/NH4 doesn't fertilize. When we say that nutrients do not cause algae we are specifically referencing NO3...

These are generally false claims because there is always circulation in the sediment. If you intend to put rooted plants in the tank then this is doubly unnecessary because plants oxygenate the sediment via their roots. We really never need to worry about circulation in the sediment and we do...

As mentioned by John q, assumptions can be detrimental. if you determined the CO2 level by using the pH/KH/CO2 chart then the value is in error. Reliance on the chart will always get you in trouble because it will always overestimate the CO2 level in the tank for the reasons discussed in the...

Hello, EI really does not specify Mg at all and there are no optimum amounts simply because the levels vary with different municipal water supplies. The 10ppm is very high and there is no way plants require 10ppm of Mg. Is it possible you have misinterpreted the value of 10ppm of MgSO4...

Hello, BBA spores are likely to be in every tank in the world, so there is no point worrying about that. BBA blooms occur because of what we do or do not do in the tank as explained in the post=> cleaning dry algae from a used tank So you'll need to get a full understanding of the...

This argument is not reasonable and giving an answer "yes" or "no" would also be unreasonable. Whenever someone has a problem in a tank it is first necessary to determine what it is that they are doing or not doing. The answer is not a choice of binary options. An analysis must be performed on...

Hello, It's a good idea to stop worrying about nitrates. Nitrogen is the second most important element (second only to CO2) and nitrate is not toxic at these concentration levels. I do not think it is a good policy to omit nitrate dosing at the beginning. The best practice is to add...

Yes. Cheers,

He and I spoke briefly. We met in a phone booth. Along for the ride were Bill and Ted. It was their Excellent Adventure... Cheers,

As stated previously, nutrients will never fix a CO2 problem. Your only effective course of action will be to reduce the light energy entering the tank. Whether that means disabling bulbs, or otherwise obfuscating the light via mechanical methods, or by adding floating plants. Cheers,

Haha, thanks Michael. Too cold though! I'll be in a desert. Nice and warm...:cigar: Cheers,

Hi Chris, Yeah, I was afraid of that. For some reason your tank seems to be on the borderline of BBA. If you still have the Excel then definitely resume the attack straight away. The placement of the spraybars looks OK. It's not clear which has the CO2. It should probably be the...

Hi Sdogg, Well, pointing flows in opposite directions is not ideal. Hobbyists try to play ping pong with water all the time and this just isn't fun because water refuses to play. Having said that, in some tanks, due to the placement of objects in the tank, such as hardscape or...

Hi Chris, Yeah, Lewis ran a heck of a race down in Brazil and Mercedes seem to have the faster car. Max's lead, while not insurmountable, seems a tall order with only a couple of races remaining. I don't think Lewis can pull it off but I'd be happy to have him prove me wrong. :)...

Rotting stems, or the rotting of any part of any plant automatically implies poor CO2 uptake. Investigate gas injection rate, injection timing, as well as flow/distribution. Plants do not care whether they are in sand as long as you dose nutrients regularly. Cheers,

Hello, BBA is a CO2 related algae. I no longer know what the term "DIY CO2" means. Originally, it meant the use of a yeast fermentation device, which is notorious for causing BBA due to it's poor delivery of CO2. If this is the case then I suggest you abandon these methods and consider...

Hi Chris, As we discussed earlier, it's not really a good idea to point filter outlets at opposing directions. This normally leads to cancellation of flow. Splitters are always a potential problem because the two filter outlets always have slightly different back pressures, so the...

Hello, The root cause, as usual, is a CO2 deficiency which may not affect all the plants, but probably somewhere in the tank there is a deficiency. This may have been the result of the plants growing and causing blocked flow or blocked distribution. The green organisms at the surface...

As mentioned by the other posters, there is no requirement for root tabs if you intend to dose the water column. Since plants uptake nutrients from either location you can either use an nutritious substrate, such as ADA Aquasoil or insert nutrients into the substrate such as Osmocote/clone or...

Yes, these are all factors that have an effect in all systems. Although our glass boxes are not the same as natural systems, some natural processes do occur, however, since the level and diversity of organisms in the tank are limited, not everything that happens in a lake or river can occur in...

Well, nothing drastic will happen. That will still be below the crossover point as shown on the chart, so most or all will be NH4. That is correct. The soft clay pellets are soaked in a nutrient solution. In order to mineralize the NH3/NH4 to NO3 the oven needs to be around 400 degrees.F. for...

As explained many times previously, the difficulty with plants have nothing to do with how much light you have, but how effectively you can deliver CO2 to the plants. Each plant has a different ability to uptake CO2. This difference in ability is what distinguishes the difficulty. A useful...

Yes, correct, except we do not have rivers, lakes or coastal waters. We have a glass box that is synthetic and whose system has nothing to do with nature. Even in nature, depending on the specific location, eutrophication has varying effects. In some systems is causes algae, in other systems it...

Hello, It's not as simple as just lowering the pH. In toxicology a general rule is that the concentration determines toxicity. The majority of folks using Aquasoil are also using CO2, which does lower the pH and they may still suffer toxicity as there is a LOT of NH4. In any case...

Also, you are definitely doing or thinking something fundamentally wrong if you calculated 96ppm. How did you obtain this number? Cheers,

No. The speed at which the gas escapes is more or less the same. What does change at 22 deg. is that the water will have a higher gas solubility than it does at 25 deg., which is a good thing. No. Cheers,

Well, I think the first thing you need to do for your tests is to establish a control tank using basic, ordinary bulbs. That's what we here have done and that's why we, after using different bulbs, after more than a decade, can report that there has not been any meaningful differences in growth...

Hello, What I can see from the photo you supplied is the yellowing of mature leaves. It is unlikely that this is a micronutrient deficiency as most micronutrients have very poor mobility within the plants. They accumulate in the leaves and they stay there. However, Nitrogen is a highly...

Any high intensity light will damage aquatic plants if CO2 and nutrients are lacking. On the contrary, I've grown plants using Actinic lighting with no problems at all. You can't have your cake and eat it too. On the one hand you seem convinced blue light is bad for plants yet you also recognize...

Even if antibiotics remove the BGA it still does not reveal root cause. One of the causes of BGA is a high NH3/NH4 loading rate. Their Aquasoil is very high in Ammonium Nitrate, which does result in a high buildup unless frequent water changes are performed. This buildup is also present in tanks...

Exactly. He's aware of EI but has he tried it? Don't know. His claim is easy to falsify, right? EI dosers add too much ferts and don't get algae. We can add the appropriate nutrient to a tank experiencing algae and the bloom is reduced or eliminated, further falsifying the claim. Cheers,

BGA is primarily associated with poor nitrate levels. You have not stated exactly what steps you have taken. Is this a CO2 injected tank? If so step number 1 is to add more KNO3. Light bulb type has nothing to do with BGA unless you have too many bulbs. Initiate frequent and large water changes...

Water hardness has nothing to do with algae. It is correct that there are many factors. Hardness is not one that warrants attention. On what basis have you concluded that the tank suffers Mg or Fe shortage? It's better to list the symptoms rather than to conclude a cause. Cheers,

Actually, the major factor in heaters failures is their repetitive ON/OFF cycling. That happens when the heater is over-powered for the tank. It's better to have a lower powered heater that stays on for a longer period and which experiences fewer cycles. Cheers,

Yeah, this is just more pseudoscience from The Matrix. I love the part about phosphorous's limited solubility. I wonder if the municipal water companies who dissolve PO4 in the systems are aware of this so-called fact. I never knew it was impossible to keep lots of fish in a planted aquarium...

There is another category similar to C4, called CAM (Crassulacean Acid Metabolism). CAM plants uptake CO2 at night and stores it as malic acid. Then extracts and uses the CO2 during the day. CAM plants are typically in arid terrestrial environments, but there are an aquatic versions in the genus...

Exactly. This is the long and the short of aquarium lighting. What folks fail to understand is that LCP for plants is very low, somewhere between 10-20 micromoles. It's very unlikely that any bulb we use in the typical tank scenario produces energy below LCP at any location in the tank. As...

Hello, This is not really true. You do not need full spectrum at all. This is the misconception that allows vendors to charge outrageous prices for their so called "full spectrum" bulbs. Plants have the ability to change the color of the incident light into other colors to fit their...

I agree with Darrel. This is really not anything to worry about. I suggest that you just carry on and forget about the holes. Cheers,

Hello, These are all symptoms of poor CO2. Since you are adding CO2 then you'll need to look at your flow/distribution. Your photo does not show how you are distributing the flow so it's not possible to comment. I would certainly NOT increase the light intensity as this makes the algae...