Dromna

It’s somewhat under control! At least, it isn’t growing anymore. I found some excel and just did normal dosing, I’m not sure how to spot treat and the algae turned quite red after a week of general treatment anyway. The red color was rather surprising, it stands out a lot!

Hmm I'll try balancing other nutrients and increasing fertilizer if indicated in testing, I don't have the logistics for CO2 at the moment, and there's way too much to spot treat.

I doubled the stocking in a tank recently, and there has been a staghorn algae explosion over about two weeks. You can see for yourself: Any suggestions on controlling this kind of algae? It's my first time with this problem.

Hi @tolstoy21, Yep. I didn't see noticeable color changes after the first ~30s though The original test strip photo included a tap water control, which has similar GH/KH/pH to the tanks.

Hi all, I don't have an API drop test kit, and it would take me a while to get one, but I might do so. You're thinking the GH/KH test set, or the reef master kit? I don't know of an outdoor faucet, but it is raining currently, so I took a control sample from a puddle: This seems about what I would expect, so I expect that the test strips are fine. How does the API liquid dGH test differ, such that it would give a dGH of zero while the A-coop tests give a GHppm of >300?

Thanks @Seattle_Aquarist, @modified lung, Hi Roy! I live in an apartment in an area with hard water in general, and I expect that you are right and there is a water softener running. Are there common strategies to deal with this? I'll look around. Oof haha, I guess so. I wonder what the GH and KH actually are then?

I'm somewhat new to planted tanks, or rather I'm new to caring for non-native water plants. I'm also new to testing water parameters. I have a tank that I inherited which is not growing plants very well (Tank 2), and I used aquarium coop test strips to look at the water parameters, but the color readout does not seem to be on the guide? Do I have super high Ph water? Why is the buffer blue when the guide only goes yellow to green? Why is the hardness lavender when the guide only goes dark blue to dark purple? For reference, Tank 1: Tank 2, where I recently lost a rubberlip pleco and plants have not been growing: Tank 3: I'd appreciate any help understanding the test strip results, and advice in general. For the plants in tank 2, I probably need more light? Some softer substrate?