Puzzled

[Yo-han]

I think by now I can scale myself into the experienced category, but I can't figure this one out. Even tested it, but maybe I overlooked something. Let me explain:

I use EI in my 100G and this works good, fish even breed but for breeding my Sewellia lineolata I read low nitrates are better. I've a 15G and turned it into a Vietnamese biotope for the Sewellia and added shrimp and Tanichthys micagemmae. For the breeding I wanted low nitrates but still want to grow plants like Utricularia and Rotala 'Vietnam'. So I looked into the ADA system (don't kill me yet ) I understand the mechanism of ADA, heavy nutrient loaded substrate and add potassium and traces daily. So I used aqua soil, made copies of ADA traces and brighty K and this worked quite well.

EI with heavy water column dosing works as well, but when I used this the ADA method in another tank I got quite some algae. I noticed they were mainly on the java ferns, anubias and fissidens moss. All the plants which are not in the substrate I added a copy of ADA green brighty lights to add phospate and nitrate, and it improved. So what I'm puzzled about is how do people with ADA tanks and epiphytes make sure these plants get there nitrates/phosphates, because all the water parameters usual state almost zero nitrates and phosphates?

 

[fplata]

They will need to use brightly lights as it contains no3 and po4

 

[Tom Barr]

Light makes a huge difference, most ADA lights are pretty low light overall in terms of PAR.

CO2 might also be the issue, in other words, there are plenty of examples where folks dose EI or ADA and have bad algae issues, this suggest that in those tanks, it's not ferts.

In your tank, it might be.
Please do not assume that all ADA tanks are algae free, you might see only the nice tanks, I have seen plenty with nasty algae.

 

[fplata]

Tom, I meat to say brightly lights the fertilizer as it contains N and P, which are not found on step 1. I use a full ADA system and have and are dealing with some algae.

 

[Tom Barr]

Tom, I meat to say brightly lights the fertilizer as it contains N and P, which are not found on step 1. I use a full ADA system and have and are dealing with some algae.

They are pretty weak as far as the N and P.
And cost a lot comparatively, all name brands do in terms of liquid ferts.

I think better management is with CO2 and light, ferts are the last thing and telling you have troubles with light/CO2...if you have a strong response from small changes in the ferts.
If you really limit things, or slightly limit things, in SOME aquariums you can see some larger changes with ferts.
But in other tanks, very wide ranges of ferts can be used with no detrimental issues.

Deduction would suggest that it's not the ferts that are the dependency, rather, CO2/light would be the most obvious suspects.
It's mostly(99%) when we reduce and limit nutrients, that we see poor growth, algae etc.
This suggest a plant issue, not a direct algae issue.