phosphates causing algae bloom?

[DiscusLoverJeff]

Hello friends,

I am wondering if the cause of my recent algae attack is phosphates in my planted discus tank? I starting using acid buffer about 5 months ago but my recent outbreak started about 2 months ago. In my holding tanks, I use acid buffer to lower and stabalize the ph to 6.3/6.5. I age my water from 24 hours to 48 hours using a powerhead and airstone. The water consists of 80/20 RO/Tap. Pressurized co2. 3 65 watt 10k CF bulbs (wave tank)

My water parameters are:

TDS - 90/100
PH - 6.5
KH - 2
GH - 4
Phos - .5/1.0
Am - 0
Nitrate/nitrite 0
Temp 84/86
Fert - Flourish & Excel Have dry ferts, not used them yet, they just arrived.

My ph from the RO is about 6.0 but after aging without buffer it shoots up to 8.0/8.2. the tap ph is about 7.5.

Should I eliminate the use of buffers and concentrate more on keeping the TDS stable? This might lower the phosphate? Am I aging my water to long? Too much airation? Too much water movement?

Thanks for your help.

[flyman767]

Don't have much experience with planted tanks but I always thought you couldn't use a 'phosphate' based buffer with plants. Seachem does make a 'non-phosphate' for planted tanks; however, when I used it in the past I found the Ph to be very unstable. Therefore, counter productive and not really much of a buffer!

You can test your phosphates with a phosphate test kit. When I used buffers in the past I could not control the diatoms due to high content of phosphates. When I tested for phosphates they were literally off the scale. IMO..not worth the effort.

...Ray