Because I incorrectly assumed RO water was better. I can use tap water going forward
-
You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up
Algae or not enough C02?
- Thread starter aaronf
- Start date
sparkyweasel
Member
- Joined
- 30 Jun 2011
- Messages
- 2,985
I think Biovert Ultimate is just NPK and is intended to be used in conjunction with Biovert Plus which contains micronutrients.
As @Gorillastomp says, you can save money by buying dry salts instead of liquid fertilisers.
As @Gorillastomp says, you can save money by buying dry salts instead of liquid fertilisers.
Valodia
New Member
@Gorillastomp The original message says that the tank water is at 8kh and 7gh. It is fine to use RO water if you have some limestone source in your hardscape. It provided Ca and carbonates, Mg needs to be added with fertilisers.
I have read the thread about EI dosing, and would this be a good purchase? Ei Starter 1 Kit with Bottles - Starter Kits - Dry Chemicals - Fertilisers
Also, do people use automatic dosing systems? Is that a thing?
John q
Member
Yes that ei Starter kit would be a good purchase.
Some folk use dosing pumps but they're not an essential item, I suppose it all depends on how easy/complicated you want to make the running of the tank and if you can remember to manually dose the tank six days of the week.
Hello,
This is one of the cardinal sins of plant husbandry. Plants do not care about acidity unless the acidity is being caused by some toxic acid agent, like pool acid. It's the same for the fish. Even more appalling is the fact that those fish originate from tributaries and streams which are highly acidic. The CO2 should be reduced ONLY if you witness the fish suffering from CO2 toxicity, which is manifest as a respiratory issue.
These symptoms appear to be diatomic algae which could possibly have been cause by the CO2 reduction or may have been inevitable. Unclear.
RO water is ok if you are attempting to breed the fish, but is unnecessary for general fish keeping. If you feel your tap water is too hard the you can cut the tap water with RO, but generally RO can be more trouble than it is worth. With pure RO water pH probes and pH test kits don't read correctly, so the RO water should be adjusted to about 4 KH and calcium and magnesium are necessary trace elements so you'd want a minimum of about 2-3 GH to ensure calcium. You should then add a teaspoon of Epsom's Salts to add magnesium. Tap water typically has all of this so check the website of your municipal water company (Thames Water?) as they typically provide a water report.
Cheers,
Switched fully to Tap Water now, for reference my water parameters: https://www.affinitywater.co.uk/docs/water-quality/AF023.pdf
| TOTAL HARDNESS | 335 mg/l |
| CALCIUM | 134 mg/l |
| pH | 7.3 |
Of note, I have a LIMETRON inline water filter to the house's water supply. I expect actual calcium levels of the tap water to be lower (If I have my head around this).
Slight issue with the EI ferts - being delayed for 10 days! Either I buy some micronutrients (to use temporarily with the NPK Biovet Ultimate) from elsewhere for the time being or I wait 10 days
The soil is a fluval plant and shrimp substrate. Would 10 days be an okay time to wait for the EI delivery, or would you recommend purchasing some liquid ones (which i can grab from the aquarium shop) sooner?
Last edited:
Valodia
New Member
@aaronf In my opinion, all these catalytic or electromagnetic limescale reducers have no or just minimal effect. They claim that some of the Ca/Mg carbonates are made insoluble and forced to precipitate/crystalize temporary. Maybe that helps a bit in your household with a pipework, boiler heat exchanger when water passes and leaves the system quickly. However, for your tank, the water composition chemically remains the same. You can use a TDS meter to experiment - compare conditioned water to unconditioned water from the same supply on the same day. It would make a good article I think. 🙂
While you are waiting for your EI kit, get some cheapest available micro ferts from LFS near you if you wish. They always have some mainstream ones - Tetra, JBL,etc.
I think from the overall aquarium water chemistry point of view for a high-tech tank, you have to decide which way you go:
1. The "lab" way , where you basically work as a chemist and have a lab at home. This means you prepare your water - taking RO water as a base, add dry salts to remineralize it, making different tests and measurements, all the bottles, beakers, scales, meters, ppms, moles etc. and adjusting levels of individual nutrients/components with a different chemicals in the tank trying to archive your own "ideal" water, which is a moving target in reality. If you like chemistry and science being a part of your hobby - that's for you and there is nothing wrong with it.
OR
2. Keep it easy and simple with your base water by assuming that your tap/rainwater/mix water contains a reasonably normal starting mix of everything. Maybe that water is out of balance (in shortage or in excess of some ingredients for plants), but you will add EI (or any other rich fertilization method) mix to it, creating a cocktail containing more than everything your plants needs. Only some occasional tests/measurements might be required to make sure that you have no extremes in your tank or something went wrong . This gives you more time to enjoy the hobby or you can concentrate more on other important factors in your tank. "Ideal" water composition of your WC water has no sense if you are not maintaining other factors properly - filtration, flow/agitation, temperature, levels of waste/bioload, CO2 injection, lighting and many more.
While you are waiting for your EI kit, get some cheapest available micro ferts from LFS near you if you wish. They always have some mainstream ones - Tetra, JBL,etc.
I think from the overall aquarium water chemistry point of view for a high-tech tank, you have to decide which way you go:
1. The "lab" way , where you basically work as a chemist and have a lab at home. This means you prepare your water - taking RO water as a base, add dry salts to remineralize it, making different tests and measurements, all the bottles, beakers, scales, meters, ppms, moles etc. and adjusting levels of individual nutrients/components with a different chemicals in the tank trying to archive your own "ideal" water, which is a moving target in reality. If you like chemistry and science being a part of your hobby - that's for you and there is nothing wrong with it.
OR
2. Keep it easy and simple with your base water by assuming that your tap/rainwater/mix water contains a reasonably normal starting mix of everything. Maybe that water is out of balance (in shortage or in excess of some ingredients for plants), but you will add EI (or any other rich fertilization method) mix to it, creating a cocktail containing more than everything your plants needs. Only some occasional tests/measurements might be required to make sure that you have no extremes in your tank or something went wrong . This gives you more time to enjoy the hobby or you can concentrate more on other important factors in your tank. "Ideal" water composition of your WC water has no sense if you are not maintaining other factors properly - filtration, flow/agitation, temperature, levels of waste/bioload, CO2 injection, lighting and many more.
Thanks!
I have switched to tap water for my daily changes.
I have set up the photoperiod with co2 being offset 2.5 hours before photoperiod and ending 1 hour after.
I just planted a bunch of rotala rotindidolia red at the back, and I'm awaiting some red root floaters (p.s. I assume the redness comes in time 😜). During the end of the photoperiod im seeing bubbles form on the leaves, which I assume is the O2 content being saturated in the tank? Nevertheless the bubbles look great.
Hello Aaron,
While it's not an emergency I suggest simply turning down the lights until you powders arrive. Micronutrients are not really that important. I don't know why everyone gives them so much credit. The important nutrients are the macronutrients Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium and Carbon. You already have micronutrients in the tap water and you may have some nitrate according to your water repot. That may tide you over but definitely keep the lighting very low if they are adjustable. If the plants are grown in a nursery then they have enough stored nutrition and they will not be depleted if the lighting is kept very low. If your local shop has an NPK product they it may be worthwhile, but most commercial products are just a lame bit of micronutrients and are mostly water.
No. This just means the rate of oxygen production exceeds the solubility of oxygen under those conditions of pressure and temperature. It may also mean you have too much light right now since you do not have an NPK. The plants may be simply using up their energy reserves. Can that last for 10 days? Uncertain.
It is unwise to assume that the tap water has sufficient NPK. It may be the case but that is never a good assumption.
There really is no such thing as balance. The level of lighting determines the required level of nutrition and those numerical values are never constant. EI ensures an unlimited amount of nutrition such that when those required values either increase or decrease there is always a sufficient amount in the water column to satisfy the demand.
EI never requires any measurements, ever. Dose the suggested amounts and carry on. It does not matter if you have extremes, because first of all, no one can define "extreme". One only ever has to worry about deficiencies and of course, EI ensures that there will never be a deficiency. The only extreme that is dangerous is extreme organic pollution produced by the plants themselves, which is a natural byproduct of being fed.
Cheers,
