At 2 wpg you are at the point where CO2 is not required but CO2 will make a
huge difference in how the plants look. I strongly suggest that is worth
doing.

I use 10 lb CO2 tanks, since that fits under my cabinet and when full is
still a managable weight. The best setup IMO is the dual guage regulator
sold as an all-in-one unit including a solenoid, bubble counter, and needle
valve. Add CO2 proof tubing and your choice of diffuser or reactor. My
set-up cost $75 for the filled steel tank, $10 tubing, $20 diffuser or $50
power reactor, add a nylon washer and tighen it really well, test for leaks
with soapy water and plug it in. I ordered my equipment from
Aquabotanic.com, and there are other great online dealers as well -- why
risk an unknown Ebay seller when there are so many reputable online
companies with reputations to uphold, and they often beat those prices
anyhow?

You don't need a pH monitor, you just need to know your target pH to get the
CO2 level you need in your water -- IMO it is just one more gadget to mess
with and calibrate and tinker with -- more work.

I think you need to cut adding all the salt -- a Tablespoon of salt to a 5
gallon water change? Way too much and that salt is building up rapidly as
you are removing so little water with water changes. Do a little spread
sheet to see what happens if you add 1 tablespoon of salt daily and remove
10% of the tank volume daily -- it is creeping upwards rapidly to 10x the
rate you think you are adding it. Plus that salt is totally not necessary
for discus, and using sea salt adds minerals that may be the source of the
sky high GH you test.

I also think you need to cut out all the chemicals you are adding, discus
need fresh water, and lots of it, and higher pH is fine. I'm keeping discus
in pH of 8.0 aged tap, 7.9 in the tank, doing 50% changes every other day.
No salt unless I suspect parasites. No discus buffers, no neutral buffers.
Don't worry just because the pH is above the test kit, just go get the high
range test kit.

Just be aware that you need to go slowly in removing all that junk from the
tank. For a fish, going from a high GH to a low GH is like a person being in
an space ship and opening the door -- cellular explosion. So, stop adding
the salts and buffers and keep the daily 10% water changes with just aged
tap water. Eventually the tank will reach the GH of tap water.




"Mood" wrote in message
...
Thanks for your advice. My tap water is alkaline off the scale of my pH
kit, over 7.6pH. The buffer, salt, and FloraPride treated water brings the
numbers to:

6.6pH +/-0.1
KH is 4dKH (60ppm)
GH is off the scale +16dGH (400ppm) or my test kit is expired. I find it
difficult to believe my tap water is that bad. I tried the test in my
tank, the tap, and my treated change water. Discus Buffer is supposed to
soften the water by precipitating minerals, so I doubt the treated water
could be that hard.

I have to run a nitrate/nitrite test on the tank again, though I doubt
they will be remarkable with my matanenece routine (now that I've said
that, I'll be in for a suprise). I just stopped adding Seachem Neutral
buffer to the change water, now I'm only using the Discus Buffer to
soften/acidify the water. This takes the amount of phosphate buffer I'm
adding to the water from 2 tsp to 1/8tsp.

I do not have a CO2 system, however I am considering one, and the
pressurized tank kind (Thanks Ian). It seems from what I've read, if the
plants do well, the algae/cyanobacteria won't. I saw some resonably priced
regulators on e-bay, and pH monitors to ensure the pH dosen't change
drastically. Anyone have brand reccomendations? Thanks again



-Jim



"Mood" wrote in message
...
I have kept two discus and some other small fish (Cory, 2 brislenose
plecos, 12 cardinals, 5 otos) in a 55 gallon for over 2 years now. Over
the years, I made some half-hearted attempts at keeping live plants,
mostly Amazon Swords, but never had spectacular results.

Suspecting my poor plant results were due to anemic lighting, I switched
out the old 40w 48" fluorescent tube for a dual 55w 6000K compact
fluorescent setup from AHSupply, and purchased some more plants. Within
a few weeks, the plants were slowly growing, but the algae was growing
much faster. I now have types of algae I have never experienced before,
including this particularly nasty stuff that carpets the tank every day,
and vacuums off the gravel in sheets. It re-grows every day. It grows
on the glass. It smothers the plants. Every few weeks I have a
water-borne algae that I remove with a Diatom filter.

I am using Seachem Neutral Buffer and Discus Buffer to treat/buffer my
tap water to 6.8pH, and I am aware that the phosphate buffers are
probably not helping. My LFS did not have a suitable phosphate free
replacement, insisted that I am probably not changing the water enough or
my tap water was causing the problem, and offered to sell me RO water for
50 cents/gallon. He insisted that the phosphate buffers were different
types of phosphate, and they would not cause algae growth, I should by
his RO water. I think he's full of sh*t. And I'll be darned if I'm
going to shuttle 5 gallon buckets of water around every day.

My matenence includes daily 10% water changes, adding the Seachem
buffers, Tetra FloraPride, and a tablespoon of seasalt to the change
water. I perform a bi-weekly cleaning of my Fluval 304. The lighting is
on for 12hrs a day (down from 15.)

Is there a good chance that using RO inplace of my tap water would
resolve my algae problem? Can reducing the light duration more help?
What would be a good products to buffer the RO with? Are my water
changes not enough, or are the Seachem buffers a likely culprit? I'm
looking for the fastest way out of my algae problem if possible,
including an RO filter purchase if necessary.

Keep in mind, I like looking at my tank more than I like farting around
with it. I've dropped about $100 on new lighting and I'm not stopping now
Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.

-Jim