Stupid questions from a stupid guy

[yohann976]

First things first. I have a 90 gallon tank with four discus. I've been attempting to successfully grow plants in the tank for about six months now. I now use Greg Watson ferts and Seachem Excel for a carbon substitute. For substrate, I have eco-complete. Actually, I have made great steps forward, but I still suck!

For the most part, my plants are growing great. My water sprite and riccia have shown ridiculous growth since my switch to the GW ferts. They are the only plants that don't have algae growing all over them. This algae is brownish in color and looks like fine tangled spiderwebs. It can form into these clumps that are a couple inches high and wide. What is it? That honestly is about the only algae I have left in the tank that is out of control. I still have staghorn algae (I think) that occasionally grows on the edges of old leaves, but I just cut the dying leaves off. I also used to have a cyano outbreak, but that went away as soon as I started using the GW ferts.

Now here comes a couple of stupid questions. Since this is a planted tank, should I just do a 50% water change once a week so that my dosing schedule will be easier? I've been changing 25% to 30% twice a week so far. Now I need to know how in the heck do I do a dosing schedule. I know that you are supposed to dose Macros everyother day and Micros on the opposing days, but I need to know how much. I know how to, with the dosing calculator, get to the proper levels but I don't how to take it from there. If I could just get an idea of how much of each fert to dose each day, I could tweak the system.

If I have left anything out that could help you guys help me, please feel free to ask. Oh yeah, I don't test my water parameters for phosphates and I use very very little of it in my fertilization.

[yohann976]

I have solved the problem on my own. I tested my parameters and my phosphate and iron levels were through the roof. I've cut back on both ferts, and so far I haven't had any new algae growth.

I must say that I am a little disappointed that nobody in the forum even attempted to give me any advice. I know that you probably get stupid questions like mine all the time, but I thought that this forum was supposed to help people.

[DR.V]

Hi, first of all, there is not such thing as stupid questions.

In regards to no reply to your post, maybe no one know the answer to your problem. Or people just dont see your post.

Now to your problem:
I think you have brown algae. You haev done the right thing by reducing the fert to reduce phosphate level in the water. You can also get a true siamese fish, this fish will eat brown algae.

From my expericence, most planted tank received once a week water change.

[DR.V]

If you have a planted tank, it would be great if you have a complete water test.

For planted tank, you would need to test more than pH.

Hope that helps.

[Xtreme]

yohann976,

I actually did reply to your post, and to another one, and both didnt go through, so sorry for that. :?

I was going to say to test you ater for everything, and how long do you leave your light on for?

And every question you ask gains you more knowledge, so never think that they are stupid. I have been into fish for 10 years, own and run my aquarium, and I ask questions everyday! :wink:

Cheers
Rebecca

[yohann976]

Thanks for the replies everyone. My lighting is on for about 12 hours a day. I have two 65 watt pc bulbs at 12000K and two 65 watt blue pc bulbs (they are not actinic). I don't think that the blue bulbs do anything for the plants, but they do bring out the color in my fish. So I am working with only 130 watts in a 90 gallon tank. If I switch the blue bulbs out, I would get 260 watts which might be too much lighting for a tank without CO2 (I only use Seachem Excel). I could go for a 50/50 bulb though which would give me 195 watts.

I'll be getting my camera back in a few days which has some pics of my tank stored on it. I'll post them here because it shows how bad my tank looked. It still isn't good, but it has shown some improvement.

[DR.V]

12 hours a day it too long. Cut it down to 8 hours a day.