Forthejoy

I hope you were successful in your GSA treatment! I am finally deciding to tackle mine and have reduced my lighting which helped with other algae but not GSA. What deets do you use? I have root tabs but my nitrates will rarely rise above 5ppm even with sparse water changes, I expect probably in thanks to the algae farm. I've heard adding phosphorus can help so that's next on my list. All the best 🙂

Oh ok. I'm certainly hesitant to put lead in but perhaps it's a mix or coated. I think Aquarium Coop tests their stuff pretty thoroughly and they have raised orders of magnitude more fish and plants than I ever have so I am inclined to trust them. You're right about pH though, definitely something to keep in mind. I'm thinking the brand has had good results because the concentration of lead leached from this product (specifically) doesn't go over natural levels with regular water changes. Perhaps my poor results were because of using a different product.

Thanks for the follow up! I'll definitely need to find some more floaters for energy saving 🙂

I've never had these moss balls so it might be different but once I left a lead tie around some cabomba I planted and forgot about it. When I wanted to move the bunch, the roots had absorbed a lot of lead and were black and the texture didn't seem right. Bear in mind that the lead was nestled right up to the roots for about two months so you're mileage may vary. You likely won't see any impact immediately. It seems like the other posters have had better luck than I did 🤷🏼‍♀️

This an awesome idea! I like how you're trying with different plants. I'm anticipating there will be a big difference in evaporation loss by using a different plant. When I measured evapotranspiration with land plants, the broad leafier plants often give off a lot more water while they breathe unless they have a waxier coating that prevents water loss. I'm wondering if since the duckweed lays lower in the water with less exposed surface area if it will lose less water than the other floaters 😁 keep us posted!