Congrats, least ure water and all is clearing up.
About your bba...welcome to the club![]()
Good News
-After introducing UV filter for just 6 hours, reducing of cloudiness was awesome, finally manage to see more of my plants(about 6 inch of clarity finally, was only able to view clearly 2 inch).
-Bought a new Mr Clean(works like vacuum cleaner), use of a scrub, manage to clear atleast 70% of the over grown hair algae(some as long as 4cm).
Bad News
-Finally able to take a good look of my Alternanthera reineckii converting to submerse form, was happy to see it turning redish purple until.... baby BBA spotted all over them!!!!
Finally joined the BBA company....
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Congrats, least ure water and all is clearing up.
About your bba...welcome to the club![]()
BBA huh....![]()
They are worst of the lot. In my tank of four years, the only algae that seems impossible to get rid of...
Have tried barley straw from dupla but heck, the BBA are still there.
Honestly, the infestion is getting better these days as I notice their growth slowing down. Wonder what is the condition that promotes BBA growth?
Excessive phosphate levels perhaps? Anyone care to comment?
Wynx's Planted Tank
Check out Wynx' Blog
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When fate hands you a lemon, make lemonade.
Dale Carnegie
"Who cannot love Her smallest things cannot stand in front of Nature" 隆あまの
Goondoo, remove as much of the infected leaves as possible and then look into your fertilization regime. Basically to combat against algae, promoting strong growth of plants is the best way to go. Might want to buy some test kits to test for presence of N and P. You need them for the plants to grow other than traces.
Recommend levels
NO3: 5-10ppm (depends on your plants consumption rate)
PO4: 0.2-0.5 (do not let it drop below 0.2 as say by Tom Barr as he say the uptake of NO3 would drop drastically)
Plant Physiology by Taiz and Zeiger
Billy,
Steady lah.... I'm sure you and your wife is relieved with the clear water now.
Do start a ferterlization regime ASAP.... if you're not sure on what to use, try those off the shelves e.g. Tropica Master Grow or Dennerle. Both of these products come highly reputable.
Billy,
You should recount the problem with your KH and pH levels. Maybe got more insight from other forumers.
Vincent - AQ is for everyone, but not for 'u' and 'mi'.
Why use punctuation? See what a difference it makes:A woman, without her man, is nothing.
A woman: without her, man is nothing.
Firstly, Vinx!!!! My tank clarity is about 70% liao... haha... UV rox----------------
On 2/16/2003 3:04:22 PM
Billy,
You should recount the problem with your KH and pH levels. Maybe got more insight from other forumers.
----------------
As a planted tank newbie, I don't really know that a problem even exist... hehehe *paiseh*
My tank size is 4x2x2
Before adding Seachem PH Acid Buffer
With CO2 injection of 3 bps, KH 4, my PH maintained between 7.8-8.2 depending if CO2 is on or off.
After adding Seachem PH Buffer,KH 3, PH 7.4-7.8
My tank consist nothing else except Lapis gravel, JBL base ferts, some plants.
My Atman EF-4 Filter contains Bio Ceramic Rings(dunno brand), those plastic balls with spikes(dunno what you call that) and filter floss.
Vinz commented my tank's PH is still too high. Should I add more buffer salts? I understand it will reduce my KH but I could easily raise my KH with baking soda again, right? Any comments anyone?
This is what I had already tried.
1) Tried adding peat moss(amount about a pack of chicken rice packet) into the filter but did not help reducing the PH. The NTUC in AMK don't sell peat moss, so I actually got this from the flora shop beside the AMK library)
2) Tried increasing the CO2 to 4-5bps but the internal reactor could not dissolve those gases fast enough. And the Sera CO@ tester already indicate too much CO2 in the water. It turns very light green to be exact.
Advice really appreciated but will be able to tried them next week. Leaving for KL soon![]()
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BBAi had this problem for several months
until I read a book call ECOLOGY OT THE PLANTED AQUARIUM,
it recommends that that best way to conter any alage is to add some floating plants as they will take in excess nutrients from the water through the roots which is faster than submerged plant.
True enough, i have no BBA now.
I brought 2 trapa natans [] [
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Yup. That book is by Diana Walstad. Quite informative. Esp the part which talk about limiting algae growth.
A pointo note about floating plants. Allowing them to overgrow will reduce light to plants thus limiting the growth. If this happens, wee're back to square one in out battle against algae. Floating plants help but just don't let them overgrow.
Goondoo,
Eh, check your pH test kit... maybe it's not accurate or your not using it properly.
Vincent - AQ is for everyone, but not for 'u' and 'mi'.
Why use punctuation? See what a difference it makes:A woman, without her man, is nothing.
A woman: without her, man is nothing.
Agree with Vinz... something wrong with the pH reading if you are really getting the CO2 into the water.----------------
On 2/16/2003 8:25:32 PM
Before adding Seachem PH Acid Buffer
With CO2 injection of 3 bps, KH 4, my PH maintained between 7.8-8.2 depending if CO2 is on or off.
----------------
Seachem pH buffer will screw the KH/pH/CO2 reading.----------------
After adding Seachem PH Buffer,KH 3, PH 7.4-7.8
----------------
If you add baking soda, you will raise the pH. These 2 is on the opposite side of the see-saw. The idea is to reduce the pH by CO2. Like Vinz said again, check you pH reading.----------------
Vinz commented my tank's PH is still too high. Should I add more buffer salts? I understand it will reduce my KH but I could easily raise my KH with baking soda again, right? Any comments anyone?
----------------
Actually peat moss is like acid buffer, it will reduce both KH and pH.----------------
This is what I had already tried.
1) Tried adding peat moss(amount about a pack of chicken rice packet) into the filter but did not help reducing the PH. The NTUC in AMK don't sell peat moss, so I actually got this from the flora shop beside the AMK library)
----------------
Signs that your pH/KH reading is out.----------------
2) Tried increasing the CO2 to 4-5bps but the internal reactor could not dissolve those gases fast enough. And the Sera CO@ tester already indicate too much CO2 in the water. It turns very light green to be exact.
----------------
My advice is that re-confirm your KH/pH reading before you try anything else. Forget about acid buffers or peat for the time being.
BC
Hmmm... I think the only thing I could do now is to purchase those PH buffer solutions to re-calibrate my PH tester... but I'm rather sure it is fine as it still test PH 8 on my smaller tank, which is supposed to be so.
I will try it this weekend anyway...
Question: How do you know that the pH in your smaller tank is correct?
Vincent - AQ is for everyone, but not for 'u' and 'mi'.
Why use punctuation? See what a difference it makes:A woman, without her man, is nothing.
A woman: without her, man is nothing.
Why don't you juz borrow a pH test kit from someone to confirm your reading. If I'm in town, you can borrow it from me.
how about using your ph tester on tap water?
will tell you whether your tester is accurate.
thomas liew
Tawauboy,
That won't work either... our tap water range from 7 to 8 pH... so unless he knows specifically the pH of his tap water.
Vincent - AQ is for everyone, but not for 'u' and 'mi'.
Why use punctuation? See what a difference it makes:A woman, without her man, is nothing.
A woman: without her, man is nothing.
Vinz,
that won't work either... I measure my tap water ph from time to time, and that fluctuates as well.
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Allen
Hmm... the water from my tap stays 8 flat no matter when I test it, since day one I bought the digital tester from Rainbow, unless it was already out of syncronization since then. Tested my tap water recently and it is still 8. Had tested it for atleast 10 times since bought the tester... well, maybe I will just pick it up a PH tester from either Sherwin or Vinz to test then. Or I will just purchase those buffer solutions to recalibrate my tester... Vinz, just don't ask me how I know those buffers' PH indication are correct huh
.
Buffers, if not contaminated, always stay at the specified pH base on the make up.
BC
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