Algae vanished soon as I removed Monte Carlo . .WHAT!!!

[AngelPeace]

Root tabs. Aslong as the soil hasn't crumbled as some do!

is that all related to circulation?

What about POWER SAND ADVANCE, I put that in plastic mesh bags on the bottom, I guess they help with good bacteria cultivation, can I reuse?

[fr499y]

isn't that just overpriced volcanic rock? *edit* oh I see, bamboo carbon...

Yeah reuse it I'm sure it won't hurt

[AngelPeace]

its a way to help ADA's profit margins I expect

[AngelPeace]

noticed its partially crumbled, maybe 70% in tact is it okay?

[AngelPeace]

How on earth does that not cause huge algae blooms, I mean, yes the plants get to thrive, but surely so would the algae. Any thoughts?

My thoughts are yes, that is exactly what can happen, it happened to me eventually in all of my EI dosed, CO2 injected planted aquariums. Since I've changed to using root tabs and only dosing a small amount of micronutrients I don't get any algae problems.

It appears logical to me to reason thus; The plants have roots and algae doesn't, so if you keep the nutrients in the substrate and not in the water column the algae can't make use of it and the plants can get what they need. (Epiphytes, it seems, can get enough macro nutrients from what the nitrogen cycle releases into the water column).

The above approach along with regular water changes to keep the nitrates below about 2.5ppm has worked for me.

was thinking more about this. So I what about NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium) macros. Do you dose those as they may not be present in the soil? Assuming we are not talking Epiphytes, surely plants with roots do also benefit from NPK in the water column to some extent?

I mean your idea sounds perfect, dont have to waste all the time and energy designing a complicated dosing routine.

[Munchy2007]

All I can say is that when I was dosing liquid ferts into the water column, I always ended up suffering from algae problems, irrespective of how strong the lighting was or how much CO2 I pumped in.

Since switching to root tabs and keeping the NPK in the water column very low I don't have the same problems.
I don't know where plants in the substrate will prioritise getting their nutrients from. I suspect however, that given enough ferts in the substrate, their roots will most likely take up whatever they need, otherwise why would they have them?

In any event, it seems that if there's plenty of free NPK in the water column, the algae will make use of it.

So I've drawn my conclusions from all of that.

[AngelPeace]

thanks for sharing your experience, totally makes sense to me, raring to go with just decent soil and root tabs. Would love to hear from someone that has had success with EI too that would be interesting to get their take.

[fr499y]

Plenty of people have success with EI Dosing. I personally stick with a light fert (without phosphate and nitrates) and split the dosage up to daily.

noticed its partially crumbled, maybe 70% in tact is it okay?

It will be fine to reuse it.