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Switcing to Tropica Plant Nutrition +

Aeropars

Aeropars

Member
Joined
9 Jul 2007
Messages
818
Location
Leicester
Hi guys,

I've been dosing for a good abount of time now with PPMD + PO4 and with this i've had green spot algae quite prominant on anything slow growing like my anubias and e. tennilus. I modified the po4 in the solution to double the recipe amount thinking that the po4 would help cure the green spot. Initially it looked like it made it worse but now it appears its pretty much the same. I'm pretty sure that the CO2 is at or around the 30ppm and my co2 hits the desired levle before lights on.

With this in mind, i was thinking of giving tropica tpn+ a go knowing that people have had good results with it. I was going to buy a bottle and then have a go at making my own from James website and compare the difference.

My question is really to do with what people think this would do to the green spot? It really makes my anubias look awful and i've never been able to shift it.

any help apreciated as always.

Lee
 
TPN+ is reported to be quite low in PO4, so for the price I wouldn't bother. Most people who've had really good success with it also have high PO4 in their tap water.

I make my own version of higher PO4 TPN+ using the recipe on James page I increase the PO4 content to compensate for the fact that there isn't much in my tap water and then dose heavily so it's more like dosing EI.
 
Yeh, as I understand it, TMP+ is quite low in PO4. George uses it but his PO4 levels in the tap water are very high which probably compensates quite a bit. I will also add that I used to get GSA quite a bit and was adding 4ppm PO4 3x a week in one of my tanks and it seemed to do little to prevent the GSA, but my flow was quite low in that tank which way have also been a factor.

I have always found anubias to be GSA magnets, even when the tank glass and other plants (even slow growing ones) appear to be relatively GSA free. Never quite figured out why that was.

Sam
 
As per previous posters. changing dosing won't prevent GSA unless you already had something wrong with your dosing.

Anubias are always susceptible to algae especially GSA. In my tank the leaves that are at the top are totally GSA free whereas the ones that are under the others tend to get GSA on them. I think it is down to circulation in that Anubias are always going to be very close to hardscape items and therefore the flow around them won't be as good as for a plant which is free of the hardscape. Ferns although attached to hardscape have their leaves free flowing in the water rather than very close to the hardscape and therefore they can be unaffected when Anubias are.

If your glass and other plants are free of GSA then it would suggest to me your dosing is fine.

I would definately not reduce P by using TPN if you are having problems already.

AC
 
It is also worth remembering that anubias are actually marsh plants, that happen to survive underwater. As such I doubt they are ever going to be a lush as true aquatic plants. GSA on older leaves is probably a sign of the leaves reaching the end of their lives so to speak, which has to be expected when they are underwater. Out of water anubias probably to much better in every respect

Sam
 
I had a similar thing with PMDD + P04 style dosing. Although for me it was my water cabbage that got hit (I don't have anubias). It will be interesting to see if these are also marsh plants.

I cranked up the phosphate a lot. I am currently adding about 2 teaspoons a week to my 160L (with 50% wc weekly). It was about 1/2 teaspoon weekly for a year before that.

The reason I mention it is that I noticed the GSA went away, then came back the same as you.

Recently (after a couple of months of the increased dosing) it has started to go away again.

I think in my case it was a combination of increasing the phosphate and improving CO2 distribution. As during this time I switched from an internal to an external reactor, which is far more efficient and better distributed.

Each time I make adjustments it seems to get worse before it gets better. I look at this (rather unscientifically) as the tank re-adjusting to the new parameters.

I get a feeling that switching to TPN won't make a difference and hope my experience helps you in some way.
 
I've found that my "abandoned" tank which had way too much moss blocking circulation and full of detritus, limited waterchanges and minimal to no dosing/CO2 and relatively low light (50w medium/old tubes over approx 150 litres) has produces some really lovely looking anubias with no algae on them at all. They are growing nicely, considering the state they were in before they went into this tank.

I've since sorted the tank out and cleaned it up a lot. I'm also dosing now including Easy Carbo. The anubias has more light after I ripped out most of the moss. Not noticed any algae yet, but only 2 or 3 weeks into sorting this tank out after its neglected period.

What that tells you? I don't know, but it's the best looking anubias nana I've ever grown 🙂 (I'm sure it will change in time though!)
 
Its not just on my anubias though.. which si really annoying me as i dont seem to be able to rid it no matter what I do. I was thinking about trying EI again but i even had this problem when i was doing this before.

I've seen a scape george did a while back with valis at the back an anubias on rocks and they were totaly clean! Thats something i really would love to acheive.

On top of this i get spots on anything slightly slow growing as well as leafs that are very old (at the very bottom of a stem plant)
 
Aeropars said:
I've seen a scape george did a while back with valis at the back an anubias on rocks and they were totaly clean! Thats something i really would love to acheive.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that tank did look nice - I don't think it was set up for very long though - there is a thread with it on in this forum, so I should check, but I think the tank cracked or something after about a month... so don't beat yourself up too much about your Anubias. As an earlier poster said, it grows fine (but slower) in deep shade, so if you could grow something over it you might get cleaner leaves. It's swings and roundabouts though - if you grow it in good light it actually grows fairly fast - certainly fast enough to keep up with you removing old algae covered leaves - though perhaps not fast enough to really spread all that much if you're having to do that. I love Anubius too, so I keep trying different ways to keep it looking good - haven't found a silver bullet yet though! Let us know if you do!

Mark
 
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