Well, what a day...!!! Visit to Wharf Aquatics and now have three more juvenile Rabbit snails and one new 'centre piece' fish, for want of a better expression... Did look at the Neon Dwarf Rainbows, as planned, but somehow they failed to woo me enough to take the plunge... To my eyes, the stock they had looked a little washed out of colour, just enough to put that little seed of doubt in my mind, so Operation NDR is on hold for the time being... BUT... the new fish, which I am super excited about (
something that will likely make you all chortle at least a little, lol) is a lovely looking (
imho) humble Platy:
Anyways, had the chance to speak with the planted tank guru at Wharf, a smashing lad called Adam, and told him about the various issues that I currently have... Firstly, the excess phosphates, secondly the zero nitrates and then the arrival of the filamentous algae and the green algae where the sand meets the glass... Adam's considered explanation, or theory, is this:
He was of the opinion that what's happening is that all these issues are in fact likely to be directly connected and probably centre around the plants "stalling" in growth because of the lack of nitrates... Combined with the excess phosphates, this has paved the way for the recent growth in the two algae varieties that I'm now seeing and that they will be sucking up any residual nitrates and enjoying the phosphates etc, while the plants are failing to compete with them due to the insufficient and unbalanced nutrients...
I did fill him in on the tank set up details etc with info on plant numbers and types, water parameters, tank size, livestock etc... Also told him about currently using TNC Lite, on the grounds that I didn't want to add extra phosphates... His advice is to switch back to TNC Complete because of the extra NPK and explained that if the plants can get growing properly again, then there will be no need to worry about the phosphates so much as the plants will start to consume them more... He also advised to cut back on the amount of Amazon Frogbit I allow in the tank, on the grounds that it does consume nitrates so readily but also suggested that I can keep using the Seachem Phosguard for the time being... So far as dosage for the TNC Complete, his recommendation is to use two thirds recommended weekly dose, but twice per week - to help avoid that feast & famine type deal of once weekly dosing... Stick to this for a few weeks and see how things progress... He was of the view that getting the plants back on track will have the effect of making them out compete the algae and that it should therefore recede quite naturally etc...
Bizarre in a way, insomuch as I assumed that I had to deal with the excess phosphates as one issue and the algae as an entirely separate issue... After Adam's explanation, it does all make sense and the timing probably does fit what's been happening too...
So, I estimate 150 litres of water in my 170 litre tank and the TNC recommended dose is 1ml per 10 litres, or 15ml total, per week... I have today dosed with two thirds of that; 10ml and will do the same in a few days time... I had been dosing 5ml TNC Lite once a week, so the change in regime is a big one and hopefully things should get back onto something like an even keel as soon as possible, leastways I certainly hope so...