So, I'm dealing with a new setup, and I'm still fairly new to plants. I am having some minor trouble with algae. I bought a plant with Cladophora and BBA on it, I figured my tank was healthy enough that it would just go away on its own. Ooops, it didn't! 
The BBA is receding, but the Cladophora continues on, and I now have several little bushes of it, and the occasional 10" long strand. A small amount of BGA also just showed up a few days ago on the growing tips of my Rotala macrandra right near the lights.
From my research I came to the conclusion that my tank must be low in nitrate and CO2. I'm not currently adding CO2, and don't plan to. I tested nitrate (Salifert kit), and it came out at 0.2 ppm. So I did my first dosing today of 1.4 tsp KNO3 which bumped my nitrate up to about 5-7 ppm. I hope I did the right thing there?
Is there anything else I can do?
Also, does anyone know why I have a pH off the chart (over 7.6) when my KH is 4 dKH, and my GH is 210 ppm TDS (using TDS meter)? I use 100% RODI source water with Kent RO Right and Kent pH Stable. Since I use RODI water is there anything else i should be adding?
One more thing, my Rotala macrandra has recently gone from having nice plump bright red leaves to having less than paper thin pinky leaves. What would cause this?
For full tank specs please check here: http://www.barrreport.com/general-plant-topics/6034-planted-atasuki-trophy-journal.html#post38783
Thanks for any help!
The BBA is receding, but the Cladophora continues on, and I now have several little bushes of it, and the occasional 10" long strand. A small amount of BGA also just showed up a few days ago on the growing tips of my Rotala macrandra right near the lights.From my research I came to the conclusion that my tank must be low in nitrate and CO2. I'm not currently adding CO2, and don't plan to. I tested nitrate (Salifert kit), and it came out at 0.2 ppm. So I did my first dosing today of 1.4 tsp KNO3 which bumped my nitrate up to about 5-7 ppm. I hope I did the right thing there?
Is there anything else I can do?
Also, does anyone know why I have a pH off the chart (over 7.6) when my KH is 4 dKH, and my GH is 210 ppm TDS (using TDS meter)? I use 100% RODI source water with Kent RO Right and Kent pH Stable. Since I use RODI water is there anything else i should be adding?
One more thing, my Rotala macrandra has recently gone from having nice plump bright red leaves to having less than paper thin pinky leaves. What would cause this?
For full tank specs please check here: http://www.barrreport.com/general-plant-topics/6034-planted-atasuki-trophy-journal.html#post38783
Thanks for any help!