[Wet Thumb Forum]-BGA revisited

[captain]

I'll second what ekim and Tom said. I have been reading a lot of posts by Tom because I too HAD a BGA problem. I didn't do a black out but I have been
1) "harassing" the algae by removing
as much as possible.
2) Doing frequent (about) 40% water changes
3) and making sure my micro and macro
nutrients are in place
The BGA is in full retreat and is only on a few plants now instead of on a lot of plants and all my driftwood. I expect to deal the final blow when I get pressurized CO2. This regime has been very successful in my case.

-Steve

[Doomer]

What Tom is saying is what I have been doing all along. I do 50% water changes every weekend and add KNO3, K2SO4, traces (Plantex CSM) and PO4. During this blackout is the only time the co2 has been off. Apparently what I've been doing isn't cutting it so I'm trying some different things.

Nitrate 20ppm
Phosphate <>1ppm
Potassium ??
Iron ??
Traces ??
PH 6.8 (KH=5 = co2 - 23ppm)

What I plan to do is starve the tank for a week after the blackout then start the dosing again. I'm always open to suggestions. I'm sure that what Tom is saying is correct, I just have to get to the point where it will work for me. i.e. plants growing, managable algae, no BGA.

My other 2 tanks aren't getting anywhere near the attention the big one is getting and they are doing great. I suspect that the rules are different for large tanks and I have to figure out what those differences are. I'm still in the exploratory stage hence the different approaches. But reast assured that once I figure out what works I'll hold steady from then on.

I'd also like to point out my 2 biggest problems.

1. Diatoms. Looks like dirt has been sprinkled all over the plants. I've never seen this before so don't know how to deal with it.

2. BGA. Really bad BGA. It was threatening to overrun the entire tank, hence the blackout. It will be gone by the weekend but the "dirt" has resisted all my efforts. It's impossible to remove. I can't vacumn it, can't remove it by hand. All I can do is hope that it eventually clears up.

[Doomer]

The blackout ended this morning. The BGA is gone. Checked nitrates and they were at 5ppm. Dosed enough to bring them to 15ppm. I'm still trying to figure out what's causing the problem and plan to take it slow for a couple of weeks to see if I can connect the BGA to something I'm doing or dosing. There's not much of any real algae in the tank at present, just a little black spot and the usual on the back wall.

Plants made it Through the blackout just fine. The wisteria grew remarkably well during the week. Hope this is a good sign. If I can get the rest growing I think I'll be out of the woods.

BTW: Thanks for the spell checker Rex. Works great.