# phosphate levels are nuts, due to miracle gro?



## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

In my 90 gallon community tank the phosephates just won't go down.

Substrate is a few pounds of red pottery clay on the bottom, then an inch or so of miracle gro organic choice potting soil, capped with gravel.

Lighting is quad T8 48 inch.

Recently adjusted plants a bit and waiting for some to bouce back to life, a few hurting vals from another tank.

Ever since I set this tank up, a few months now, I have had high phosphates. I did about 50 percent wc just a few days ago and already lots of algae on the glass, just tested phosphates and looks like the level is about 1.0.

Is miracle grow organic choice that high in phosphates that it is going to take many months to get the levels down?

I used some other brand of potting soil in my other 90 and the glass stays clear unless I don't do water changes for a couple months, it is also much more planted. But even when I had lots of plants in the first 90, algae was nuts.

Only major difference is one has clay and miracle grow and the other just some other organic potting soil. Also the miracle gro tank is quad t8 but the other tank is dual t5ho, so I would guess the light levels are not that different


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

pyrrolin said:


> Only major difference is one has clay and miracle grow and the other just some other organic potting soil. Also the miracle gro tank is quad t8 but the other tank is dual t5ho, so I would guess the light levels are not that different


Actually, I would guess that the light levels are pretty different. 4 T8 bulbs have a much bigger footprint than 2 T5HO bulbs, which means a lot of light will be lost restriking the bulbs.

Although I haven't used a quad T8 fixture, I did use a 2x65W PC fixture. 4x48" T8 is I believe 128W total, while the PC is 130W total. The PC is definitely not as bright as the dual T5HO that replaced it.

Have you tested the nitrates in this tank? If you have high nitrates as well, then the simplest explanation is that there isn't enough light for the plants to consume all the nutrients.

What kind of algae are you seeing on the glass?


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## GAT (Oct 8, 2011)

I have miracle gro as well. I have no way to test the phosphate levels but I have ton of green hair algae. I used to have black hair algae but that went away once I added mini water lettuce but green hair algae taking over. I had to throw away ton of mini water lettuce because i had no way to clean them.


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

GAT said:


> I have miracle gro as well. I have no way to test the phosphate levels but I have ton of green hair algae. I used to have black hair algae but that went away once I added mini water lettuce but green hair algae taking over. I had to throw away ton of mini water lettuce because i had no way to clean them.


Ottos and SAE will clean up green hair algae really fast.


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## GAT (Oct 8, 2011)

damn, I didn't know that. I'll keep an eye out for them. How do you find True SAEs?


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

GAT said:


> damn, I didn't know that. I'll keep an eye out for them. How do you find True SAEs?


Check out this article:

http://www.fishlore.com/aquariummagazine/may08/siamese-algae-eater-id.htm


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## aniroc (Aug 23, 2012)

Two months ago I found true SAE at Big Als Mississauga. They were labelled "algae eater sharks". I purchased 9. Well, one turned out to be a flying fox (they were all in the same tank). And the flying fox is very aggresive and always separates itself from the group. 
They cleaned my tank of hair algae but not the green spot algae.


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