Dave Spencer
Member
Six months ago I moved house, a distance of approximately 10 minutes by car. The water in my previous house was very soft, and I didn`t expect the new house to be much different. Due to the softness of the water in the previous house I would add a little GH booster to my tanks at water change, just in case.
Over time, I reduced what I added to see if it was necessary. Lo and behold, I found that I didn`t need to add any, so I stopped adding it to all my tanks. Thinking my new water source was very similar, I refrained from adding GH booster to a new 120l I set up in the new house, plus the 60l which I had set up and matured in the old house, ready for moving my fish.
The 60l continued to flourish in the new house, whilst the 120l turned in to a bit of a disaster, with a type of brown fuzzy algae clogging up my Eleocharis parvula. It is a type I have never seen before in my tanks. My initial thoughts were to blame it on the very low plant mass I was starting out with. The 60l continued to thrive, being topped up daily with 1 litre of water to make up for evaporation, so I never suspected the change in tap water. There were signs, though. My two girls blonde, curly hair was behaving differently after being washed, but I didn`t give this much thought.
My 120l had CO2 levels way beyond yellow, yet nothing pearled, and the algae was taking over the tank. Flow was good, ferts were good, light was controlled for an immature tank, it was seeded with mulm, the filter had Purigen and Zeolite. The plants were out of my propagator, and none of the Crypts had melted. All I was achieving was a huge algal bloom, and a mysteriously dormant plant mass, yet still the 60l thrived.
Thinking of what the cause of the algae could be, I started to think about how Alison was adamant our water was softer, due to a change in the curls in the girls` hair. Going back to adding GH booster was the conclusion I came to. The 60l was doing fine without GH booster, but that had probably been able to build up Ca and Mg reserves from the previous house.
So, I added a pinch of GH booster to the 120l. That evening, when I came home from work the whole tank was fizzing like a lemonade bottle. I would never have believed that adding GH booster would have had this effect on my tank. I have also been able to pull the CO2 right back, too.
I took me two months of algified frustration to work out this simple solution. 🙄
Dave.
Over time, I reduced what I added to see if it was necessary. Lo and behold, I found that I didn`t need to add any, so I stopped adding it to all my tanks. Thinking my new water source was very similar, I refrained from adding GH booster to a new 120l I set up in the new house, plus the 60l which I had set up and matured in the old house, ready for moving my fish.
The 60l continued to flourish in the new house, whilst the 120l turned in to a bit of a disaster, with a type of brown fuzzy algae clogging up my Eleocharis parvula. It is a type I have never seen before in my tanks. My initial thoughts were to blame it on the very low plant mass I was starting out with. The 60l continued to thrive, being topped up daily with 1 litre of water to make up for evaporation, so I never suspected the change in tap water. There were signs, though. My two girls blonde, curly hair was behaving differently after being washed, but I didn`t give this much thought.
My 120l had CO2 levels way beyond yellow, yet nothing pearled, and the algae was taking over the tank. Flow was good, ferts were good, light was controlled for an immature tank, it was seeded with mulm, the filter had Purigen and Zeolite. The plants were out of my propagator, and none of the Crypts had melted. All I was achieving was a huge algal bloom, and a mysteriously dormant plant mass, yet still the 60l thrived.
Thinking of what the cause of the algae could be, I started to think about how Alison was adamant our water was softer, due to a change in the curls in the girls` hair. Going back to adding GH booster was the conclusion I came to. The 60l was doing fine without GH booster, but that had probably been able to build up Ca and Mg reserves from the previous house.
So, I added a pinch of GH booster to the 120l. That evening, when I came home from work the whole tank was fizzing like a lemonade bottle. I would never have believed that adding GH booster would have had this effect on my tank. I have also been able to pull the CO2 right back, too.
I took me two months of algified frustration to work out this simple solution. 🙄
Dave.
