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Can you people help me identify the type of algae on my plants?

Andy Pierce said:
I think you're trying too hard on the water aspect by going with RO. While you're trying (unsuccessfully) to completely remove all the silicates, you may be removing other trace minerals you'd actually like to have back where your plants can't get the upper edge on the diatoms. You could try switching to tap water (dechlorinated) for a couple weeks and see if that helps. Otherwise what you're doing sounds ok to me. From your picture, it looks like the tank is in a very bright location where you might be getting too much light what with the dedicated aquarium lighting combined with room ambient lighting.
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Thanks for the comment bro, its probably the dedicated lighting that fools you. The tank never gets direct lighting except for about 10-15 minutes when the sunset and its too low to be opposite my veranda and most days I have the shutter down so it doesn't even get that.

I was under the idea that as long as you give the plants their minerals and the ferts they are ok. I really wouldn't want to switch to tap water. It's horrible! Way too hard, way too many silicates, I mean I don't even drink that water cause it taste so bad
 
APT EI 2ml a day for 60 litres is the manufacturer recommendation and is plenty. If my maths doesn't fail me, that's equivalent to a total weekly dose of:
21.25ppm N
6.93ppm P
23.1ppm K
which are EI levels already

that leaves remineralising your RO water with Seachem Equilibrium or DIY products. APT EI is relatively low on Magnesium, if you have RO water without adding MgSO4, the relatively lower amount of Mg may be a limiting factor?
 
erwin123 said:
APT EI 2ml a day for 60 litres is the manufacturer recommendation and is plenty. If my maths doesn't fail me, that's equivalent to a total weekly dose of:
21.25ppm N
6.93ppm P
23.1ppm K
which are EI levels already

that leaves remineralising your RO water with Seachem Equilibrium or DIY products. APT EI is relatively low on Magnesium, if you have RO water without adding MgSO4, the relatively lower amount of Mg may be a limiting factor?
Click to expand...
I already reminlise my water with equilibrium as I said, I have a TDS meter and usually I reminilize to 100 TDS

Also when I test my nitrates and phosphates and the end of the week they are really really low. like nitrates are 10, phosphates 3-4. I Figured my plants are already using all of it because I have a loot of plants
 
demetrisag said:
I already reminlise my water with equilibrium as I said, I have a TDS meter and usually I reminilize to 100 TDS
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@demetrisag If you remineralize to 100 ppm TDS using Seachem Equilibrium you are essentially only getting 3.5-4 GH (which is only 18-20 ppm of Ca and 5-6 ppm of Mg ... keep in mind there is a lot of Sulphate (S) and Potassium (K) / K2O in Equilibrium that will register as TDS.

The proper way to use Equilibrium is to target a specific GH and calculate the dose based on that target.

To @erwin123 's point you might be low on Mg as well... you don't have any plants or livestock that mandates that low of a GH - as a matter of fact, your actually close to the limit on Ca of what is acceptable for your shrimps and snails - they need a fair amount of Calcium to build their exoskeleton and shells.

You should aim for say a GH of 7 and calculate your dose from that. This will give you 34 ppm of Ca and 10 ppm of Mg. The TDS increase in your preparation container will be closer to 200 ppm instead of 100 ppm.

demetrisag said:
Also when I test my nitrates and phosphates and the end of the week they are really really low. like nitrates are 10, phosphates 3-4. I Figured my plants are already using all of it because I have a loot of plants
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I did my calculations for a 100 L tank instead of 60 L (I assume @erwin123 s math is correct) ... my bad... however, you cant really go wrong with adding more ferts unless you hit toxic levels - which we are very far away from. Yes, 2 ml a day and double it at WC day (after the WC) probably make more sense. Either way, wont matter as you will have plenty of ferts either way (provided that you increase that Equilibrium dosing).

Cheers,
Michael
 
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MichaelJ said:
@demetrisag If you remineralize to 100 ppm TDS using Seachem Equilibrium you are essentially only getting 3.5-4 GH (which is only 18-20 ppm of Ca and 5-6 ppm of Mg ... keep in mind there is a lot of Sulphate (S) and Potassium (K) / K2O in Equilibrium that will register as TDS.

The proper way to use Equilibrium is to target a specific GH and calculate the dose based on that target.

To @erwin123 's point your low on Mg as well... you don't have any plants or livestock that mandates that low of a GH - as a matter of fact, your actually close to the limit on Ca of what is acceptable for your shrimps and snails - they need a fair amount of Calcium to build their exoskeleton and shells.

You should aim for say a GH of 7 and calculate your dose from that. This will give you 34 ppm of Ca and 10 ppm of Mg. The TDS increase in your preparation container will be closer to 200 ppm instead of 100 ppm.


I did my calculations for a 100 L tank instead of 60 L (I assume @erwin123 s math is correct) ... my bad... however, you cant really go wrong with adding more ferts unless you hit toxic levels - which we are very far away from. Yes, 2 ml a day and double it at WC day (after the WC) probably make more sense. Either way, wont matter as you will have plenty of ferts either way (provided that you increase that Equilibrium dosing).

Cheers,
Michael
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Michael very very interesting. I will aim for GH. 7 like you said. Do you think this will play a role on diatoms I have a problem now
 
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