Date: 2/1/06
pH: 6.8 (morning)
Temp:
KH:
GH: 10
NH4:
NO2: 0
NO3: 0 < x < 5 color almost 0
PO4: 0.2 (morning), 0.1 (evening, before dose)
Iron:
Dosing: 5 mL Flourish, 50 mL NEW Flourish Iron, 5 mL KH2PO4 (0.15 ppm). Evening: 15 mL KNO3 (3 ppm NO3), 10 mL KH2PO4 (0.3 ppm PO4)
Notes:
I’ve noticed this week that the surface film is getting especially thick. I tried sponging it up with paper towels, but it came back very quickly. I’ve been thinking maybe there’s a relation between Iron and the surface film, since I never really had the surface film until I switched over from the regular aquarium epoxy coated gravel to Flourite. And since I’ve been mega-dosing the Iron this week, the surface film seems even thicker. I gave up on the black mollies cleaning up the surface film and ordered an Eheim Surface Extractor for about $30.
The stargrass seems to be improving just slightly, and there are still black patches developing on the leaves. I will continue the heavy iron dosing till the next water change at the end of the week, and then I will switch to increase the Flourish dosing and decrease the Iron dosing next week. I have noticed, though, that the leaves that are sprouting are significantly bigger than before.
The day after the water change, the plants have stopped pearling. The java fern shows a bit of pearling, but the others have stopped. At 1 bubble/sec, the CO2 stopped escaping the reactor, but I decided to increase the CO2 back to 2 bubbles a second, even if some of it escapes the reactor into the air. According to Tom Barr, higher CO2 rates are also supposed to help any algae problem. There’s not much algae in my tank, though I have noticed very small green spot algae on some of the tank walls, and a couple wayward strands of hair algae on the rotala.
By the evening, when I measured the nitrates and phosphates, the levels had dropped to near zero. I don’t know if adding the extra phosphates had anything to do with it. I added some KNO3 and KH2PO4 to bring the levels up a bit. I will measure again tomorrow to see how much the plants uptake.
Tonight, the Eheim canister filter kept air locking from the CO2 escaping past the reactor into the canister. I finally shut everything down and switched the reactor from the intake of the filter to the output of the filter. I set the CO2 bubble rate to 1.5 bubbles/sec. I also ended up filling up about 5 gallons of new water into the tank to replace the water I had lost through priming the filter several times. I also cleaned the canister filter while I was at it and added a round teaspoon of baking soda to raise the KH back up one degree. Hopefully, this switch will rid me of any more CO2 in filter headaches.
pH: 6.8 (morning)
Temp:
KH:
GH: 10
NH4:
NO2: 0
NO3: 0 < x < 5 color almost 0
PO4: 0.2 (morning), 0.1 (evening, before dose)
Iron:
Dosing: 5 mL Flourish, 50 mL NEW Flourish Iron, 5 mL KH2PO4 (0.15 ppm). Evening: 15 mL KNO3 (3 ppm NO3), 10 mL KH2PO4 (0.3 ppm PO4)
Notes:
I’ve noticed this week that the surface film is getting especially thick. I tried sponging it up with paper towels, but it came back very quickly. I’ve been thinking maybe there’s a relation between Iron and the surface film, since I never really had the surface film until I switched over from the regular aquarium epoxy coated gravel to Flourite. And since I’ve been mega-dosing the Iron this week, the surface film seems even thicker. I gave up on the black mollies cleaning up the surface film and ordered an Eheim Surface Extractor for about $30.
The stargrass seems to be improving just slightly, and there are still black patches developing on the leaves. I will continue the heavy iron dosing till the next water change at the end of the week, and then I will switch to increase the Flourish dosing and decrease the Iron dosing next week. I have noticed, though, that the leaves that are sprouting are significantly bigger than before.
The day after the water change, the plants have stopped pearling. The java fern shows a bit of pearling, but the others have stopped. At 1 bubble/sec, the CO2 stopped escaping the reactor, but I decided to increase the CO2 back to 2 bubbles a second, even if some of it escapes the reactor into the air. According to Tom Barr, higher CO2 rates are also supposed to help any algae problem. There’s not much algae in my tank, though I have noticed very small green spot algae on some of the tank walls, and a couple wayward strands of hair algae on the rotala.
By the evening, when I measured the nitrates and phosphates, the levels had dropped to near zero. I don’t know if adding the extra phosphates had anything to do with it. I added some KNO3 and KH2PO4 to bring the levels up a bit. I will measure again tomorrow to see how much the plants uptake.
Tonight, the Eheim canister filter kept air locking from the CO2 escaping past the reactor into the canister. I finally shut everything down and switched the reactor from the intake of the filter to the output of the filter. I set the CO2 bubble rate to 1.5 bubbles/sec. I also ended up filling up about 5 gallons of new water into the tank to replace the water I had lost through priming the filter several times. I also cleaned the canister filter while I was at it and added a round teaspoon of baking soda to raise the KH back up one degree. Hopefully, this switch will rid me of any more CO2 in filter headaches.
posted by RY at
10:39 PM
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