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BryceM · 06-24-2009, 05:08 PM

Thanks for the kind comments.

I just got done with an enormously frustrating algae breakout. All at the same time I had bad BBA down by the substrate, thick tread algae throughout the top 1/3 of the plants and even BGA in certain areas..... all three at once!!!

Ugggh.

I did a few things which solved the problem. In no particular order I doubled my NO3 dosing, cut back a little on PO4, cut the halides down from 4.5 to 2 hrs per day (only for a week), added 2 rather large SAE's to replace jumpers, and added a Koralia 4 pump to supplement the current. Whatever it was, it worked. I hacked back lots of dead plants.

During all of this I lost the L. 'cuba', L. senagalensis, and the P. helferi. Funny, the tonina is just fine.

It's been going almost three years now. I'll post some photos shortly after the next trim. It's slightly overgrown at the moment. Colors are very nice right now, which is a funny thing to see after increasing NO3 levels. I'm pretty sure low NO3 and too little circulation was most of the issue. It's pretty hard to ensure excellent CO2 distribution in a tank this large, especially as densely as its planted. The Koralia helped tons.

06-24-2009, 05:08 PM	#288 (permalink)
BryceM Administrator Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: South Central Idaho, USA Posts: 4,262 iTrader Ratings: 42 iTrader Positive Rating: 100% Plant Points: 178534	Re: 180 Gallon Setup Journal Thanks for the kind comments. I just got done with an enormously frustrating algae breakout. All at the same time I had bad BBA down by the substrate, thick tread algae throughout the top 1/3 of the plants and even BGA in certain areas..... all three at once!!! Ugggh. I did a few things which solved the problem. In no particular order I doubled my NO3 dosing, cut back a little on PO4, cut the halides down from 4.5 to 2 hrs per day (only for a week), added 2 rather large SAE's to replace jumpers, and added a Koralia 4 pump to supplement the current. Whatever it was, it worked. I hacked back lots of dead plants. During all of this I lost the L. 'cuba', L. senagalensis, and the P. helferi. Funny, the tonina is just fine. It's been going almost three years now. I'll post some photos shortly after the next trim. It's slightly overgrown at the moment. Colors are very nice right now, which is a funny thing to see after increasing NO3 levels. I'm pretty sure low NO3 and too little circulation was most of the issue. It's pretty hard to ensure excellent CO2 distribution in a tank this large, especially as densely as its planted. The Koralia helped tons.