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GSA should I increase PO4 even more?

Bertie

Bertie

Member
Joined
18 Apr 2013
Messages
489
Hi,
I have 180L Rio which is heavily planted.

After battling brown diatoms and overcoming it, I now have a problem with GSA, which has been in my tank for several weeks.

It started with my Anubias and I upped my PO4 to 2x suggested EI dose, which does not seem to have improved things, so I upped it to 3x suggested EI dosage about two weeks ago. It has now spread to odd leaves on nearly all the plants and it has started to appear in small amounts on the glass.

My flow/distribution and CO2 is the best it has been and I have plenty of surface water movement and my plants are growing freely which need trimming at least once per week.

Apart from some algae under the substrate at the front of the tank (cyno?) my tank appears healthy with plants and fish doing well.

Should I add more PO4? as according to the calculator on James Planted Tank it is about 6ppm already, but I think I read somewhere, maybe on Barr Report? to increase PO4 by at least 3x to eradicate this stuff.

What do others think? Or am I destined to have some GSA at all times?

I am doing a PH profile during the day today.

Just to add that I am also dosing 9ml of liquid carbon daily!

Edit...I also reduced my lighting period from 7hrs to 6hrs.
 
Last edited:
Try dosings &/or double dosing with Flourish Excel for a couple of weeks ?
 
still one hour before co2 off but the following is my PH so far...and just to let you know I have high alkalinity in my water.
co2 on...............7.8
co2 + 1hr..........7.5
co2 + 2hrs........7.2
lights on............7.1
lights on + 1hr...7.1
lights on + 2hr...7.1
lights on + 3hr...7.1
lights on + 4hr...7.1
 
There is no ratio between kno3 and po4 just dose more po4 ferts dont cause algae, you guys can also ask Clive about this.
 
Hi Puntias,
I realise that ferts don't cause Algae, The reason I am asking is really to see if any more would work as I am already dosing 3x suggested EI dosage. ;)
 
I also have to increase my po4 sometimes when I see gsa is on my glass, remember as plants grow more denser and bigger they need more ferts. you can dose 5 x the recommended dosage it wont harm anything, Clive use to dose 10 x the normal dosage levels and the plants actually grew much quicker and faster.:)
 
Not sure why the plants would grow faster, if EI is being dosed correctly, they should always have an abundance of nutrients, so it should make no difference if they have 1x or 100x. The point is they have more than they could possibly use
 
Hi bertie, I've got dreaded green algae again, I've put it down to it being in the area that I pour the fresh water into. I'm sort of stuck as I can't plow ferts in as I'm keeping crs.:( I think I'm going to have to black out soon..
 
Sorry if this has already been mentioned but is the tank in the line of direct sunlight?
 
Bertie,
GSA on Anubias is very difficult to resolve when the light intensity is high. These are true low light plants.
Just remove the affected leaves or move the plants to a more shaded location.

Cheers,
 
Thanks Clive,
I will move the Anubias from where they are currently situated.
 
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