I have two fish tanks and both of them have been in operation for more than a year. I am big on floating plants and a lot of light, 3 plus watts per gallon of CFL light, 5000 or 6500 K. For water I start out with the local hard water and then add rain water after that to account for evaporation. By keeping only a few fish I have been able to use the bio-filtration of the plants to avoid water changes. In the past I have commonly gone three months or longer without removing anything from the tanks but plant growth.

A few months ago the fish started dying in one of my tanks. I ran through the water testing you can do with the Tetra test kit thing. The PH was on the basic side because it always is, but also it was a calcium desert. Apparently the floating money-wort had pulled all the calcium out of the water. The short run solution was to remove some water and replace it with the local hard water. Now I am wondering if there is a better way. I run a little salt in my tanks and I am tempted to get some calcium chloride for ice removal and enrich the water with it. Also, if the tank was depleted of calcium I am thinking maybe there are some other mineral shortage issues. Anybody have any ideas about this?

Also, the current problem I am having is that I want to move more toward underwater plants for decorative reasons. I have a little algae in my tanks and it often accumulates on the plants, degrading their appearance and growth. Sometimes it is green but brown algae that looks like dust seems to be the thing just now.

I put some barley straw concentrate into a ten gallon tank with a puffer. It knocked the crap out of the light green filament algae and set back the brown algae, but got the puffer so upset I ended up doing a lot of water changes to get everything settled down. I run a little ocean salt in this tank. Because this tank has no snails I am tempted to use Tetra Algae Control from Wal-Mart. It is poly-something-something-ethylene-dichloride.

I put a little barley straw concentrate in my bigger tank with no apparent effect. I am thinking of low dosing it on a regular basis to discourage what algae there is.

Also I am wondering about plants and water motion. Currently I am running low levels of water movement. In the past I had more and I can not see any difference one way or the other.

You can buy a bottle of calcium supplement for freshwater at your LFS. Or you can go all the way and get a bottle that replaces needed minerals for plants but it may attract algae growth on your plants(happened to me)

It never hurts to have a little water motion.

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36 Gallon Saltwater reef tank
Ocellaris Clown, Scooter Dragonet, sandsifter star, Decorator crab, emerald crab, coralline snails, blue leg hermit crab, and horseshoe crab.
Zooad's and shrooms
40 pounds of Live sand, 20 pounds of LR

On my "beaslbob builds" I do no water changes and use peat moss, play sand, and pc select for a substrate. Plants are anacharis, vals, small potted crypts/swords and a few amazon swords.

kH remains a 4 degrees and gh remains at 9 degrees for over two years. With just a play sand substrate kh and gh rise to high levels.

My water is hard as the water authority reports it is a limestone aquafier.

In FW tanks very very little calcium is needed compaired to the much higher marine levels. And ditto for magnesium.

you might try some iron supplement. I use a ferris gluconate pill dissolved in a soda bottle (12-20 oz) then dose a capful each week.

for the algae issues I would recommend killing the lights an stopping fish feeding to let the algae die off then adjusting lighting and fish feeding so the plants grow but not the algae.

some report algae blooms are sometimes a cyano bloom caused by nitrogen starvation. The cyano can get its nitrogen from the dissolved nitrogen gas vrs ammonia/nitrate.

just some random thoughts.


Worth at most .02

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden

Beaslbob, what benefits are provided by the iron supplements?

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jemassjr - I think the first thing is you have a little too much lighting for your tank. The best thing to do to control algae is to control the light time. Less lighting should produce less light and maybe even impact what is present now. You are getting close to needing CO2 to be able to control the algae. You can reach a point where the light is driving the plant to grow so fast, that it also causes the plant to need some of the vital things to grow at a higher level, CO2 being the main thing, but also includes ferts as well. If those things aren't available to the plant, it will suffer and soon be coated with algae. Algae very rarely covers a perfectly healthy plant. I would definitely not use any chemicals at all. They aren't very good for your fish or anything else in your tank.

Your tap should have plenty of calcium and other nutrients your fish need. I would just do your topoffs every so often with your tap and you should meet your needs. But, I go back to the higher light causing a demand for more nutrients from plants.

What is your ph exactly?

Use of iron as a plant supplement should be based on the plants you have and whether or not they need extra iron to thrive.

Iron is one of the more important minor nutrients. It is possible for plants and marine macro algaes to be "iron starved". By preventing that you help insure the plants and macro algaes can out compete the algaes and cyano.

One poster here I sent some plants I also sent some ferris gluconate pills with instructions to add one pill to a 12oz coke bottle I also sent. Add water, shake the add a capful each week. What they did was add a cupful instead. so a little bit of an overdose from my intructions.

Prior to that the plants had been browning and not doing well. Almost immediately after that the plants all greened up and started growing like weeds. So I guess that helped or the plants I sent helped as well.

That being stated for years and years I did no iron dosing. Plants did fine. I also use untreated tap water and just replace evaporation. Which could also provide iron and other things.


still just my .02

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden

The simlpest way to add Calcium to your tank is add a litte Rift Valley Salt to your tank. You can also use a little Ocean Mix if you environment is Brackish. Most fish don't need much Calcium in their water, they get it from their food. In my mind water changes are essential in a fresh water tank. They remove bad things like Nitrates and Phosphates and replace trace nutrients like Calcium.

FWIW

what is do is no water changes and then use peat moss in the substrate which seems to keep KH and GH constant for years. Indicating carbonate (kH) and calcium/magnesium remain in acceptable regions.

(both kh and gh rose in tank with just a sand substrate).

but just my .02

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden