chemistry measurements

[magsdez]

AAAAGGGGGG. HELP (said with a pleading voice). I'm not sure what I'm missing. My KH and pH haven't changed a bit and I waited 3 days to test. I can see co2 bubbles leaving the filter outtake and even settling on the leaves, but I'm having a terrible time with algae and the tank just doesn't look well. Fish look and act fine, but the plants don't seem to be there. Is there anyone I can bribe to come out and look at our set-up? I would love to talk to someone in the know cause I'm struggling. In additon to the co2, I'm having a problem with high nitrates, even with the low fish numbers, weekly water changes, and feeding every-other-day. I'm just at a loss.

PS. I'm running the co2 at 1bps.

Thank you!!

[Cristy Keister]

How much/what type of light is over the tank? What type of algae is growing (see algae article)?

[magsdez]

Ok, now I'm at home, here's the specs of the tank:
Lighting: Plant Grow T5 54w
Daylight T5 HO 54w (just removed thinking maybe too much light)
2 All Glass Flor. 32w each (came with hood)
On for 12 hrs
Substrate: Flourite Black Sand w/ sm gravel mixed. Substrate heater

2 fluval 205
5lbs co2 tank running 1hr before lights start

Plants: Frogbit
Crypt Wendtii Green & Red
Java fern
4 moss balls
2 Crinum thaianum
hygrophila corymbosa
Jungle Val
Crypt crispatula var balansae

Tests: Nitrate: >110 ppm even after frequent water changes
KH: 130ppm
pH: 7.5
GH: 120ppm
Nitrite: 0
Iron: 0
Phosphate: unknown-need new kit

Supliments: KSO4, Flourish comp, Flourish Iron

Fish: 5 zebra danios
2 SAE
7-8 SP & Harliquin Rasporas
5 Poka-Dot loaches (the kids-loves these guys)
1 Pearl groumi
1 Beta male (amazingly, he loves the tank!)
2 Java Loaches
Possibly 1 Kuhli Loach, but I haven't seen him in a bit.

Following EI dosing, so I'm fertilizing 3x's week, weekly water changes, filters cleaned EOW

As for algae, I think we have BBA, something that looks rust colored, and something that looks almost fern like with thin branchings. As soon as I figure out my camera, I'll post pics.
Thanks you for any help

[magsdez]

How do you post pics?

[Cristy Keister]

There's no way those few fish are causing that much nitrogen. Test your tap water for ammonia and nitrate. If you're using a chemical to reduce ammonia (ie, Ammo Lock), stop. Most likely you need to dose Phosphate. Reduce light to 9-10 hours, but use both T5 bulbs. Use Flourish Excel for a week - at half dose or it will kill the val. Don't trust Iron test kits. You may need to cut back on the amount of Iron you're dosing.

[magsdez]

I've had the tap water tested because we're on well water with 0 for ammonia and nitrate. I'm not using anything to prep the tap water. Also, we're using peat moss in the filter to try to reduce pH.

[Jeff120]

The peat may be the problem. It buffering the water and you arent getting a true reading of your CO2. A drop checker with a solution of 4dkh will tell you when your CO2 is @ 30 ppm. The high nitrates Im not sure, I dont think the peat will add nitrates. You may have a bad test kit.

[magsdez]

What's a drop checker? As for the test kits, hopefully they aren't bad. They are new kits and are made by Hagen. I've already put back the light as per Cristy's suggestion and reduced the lighting to 10hrs. I'll pull the peat moss tomorrow and retest the following day.

[Aaron]

To post a picture put the url of the picture in between these tags, but without the spaces in the brackets. [ img ] www.mypicture.jpeg [ /img ]

[Cristy Keister]

Take a water sample to your LFS to compare results. Jeff's right that your test kit could be bad. If their test reads the same, something very funky is going on in the tank to cause that high a reading.