Chrona?

[Lady Hobbs]

How much Soil Master Select did you say was needed for a 55 gallon tank? I found a Lesco Dealer about an hour from me and it's where I have to go to get my tank so thought I'd swing by and get me a bag or two.

[Algenco]

1 bag should be more than enough. If you are wanting the charcoal color , from what I've heard you need to order online to be delivered to your dealer

[Algenco]

Hobbs, be advised, SMS will lower PH and KH for a couple of months

[zackish]

well it's a 50 lb bag and I have heard 1 lb per gallon before but I am not sure how many inches of substrate that will give you total.
Are you building a sick planted tank hobbs!!??

[Chrona]

Well, the whole issue with SMS lowering pH seems to be off and on, meaning that some experience it and some don't. As far as I know, it's supposed to be inert, so it may be some bad batches? (like the bad batches of Ecocomplete a while back). In any case, lower kH and pH at the root regions encourages plant growth. It's part of how Aquasoil grows plants so well. As for amount, a 50lb bad of SMS fills up a 75g and then some.

[Lady Hobbs]

I might get two just to have the other one around but heard the bags are huge and my apartment is getting sufficiently full of fish stuff now. Like every closet! I could also possibly mix in some Eco-Complete?

I found a Lesco Dealer in Traverse City, an hours drive from me. Same drive I have to take to get ANYTHING because my nearest town (Cadillac/ population of nearly 18,000) has NATTA, ZIP, NOTHING.

I found a pool supply store (silica sand), the place I need to go to get my fish tank, PetSmart and Lesco all within 5 miles in Traverse City.

I was reading about the ADA Amazonia Soil and would like to get that but it's too darned expensive and comes only shipped. I want my pH dropped so that would be great. It's 7.6 and fish do fine but I would be happier having 7. Instead of paying that kind of money for substrate I will go with peat pellets in a bag!

I woke this morning to another major problem and it's a repeat of a terrible problem I had a few months back. I go to bed about 2 AM and wake at 8 AM to my tank totally covered in a sticky slime coating everywhere. It has to be literally scrubbed from the glass. The last time this happened, 10 fish were dead from suffocating in the slime. I could not see to even scoop them out of the tank.

It was thought that the line inside my DIY CO2 bottle was too long and it had sucked the contents out into the tank. I cut the line down so that would not happen and have had no more episodes of that. (Haven't used the CO2 continuously, tho, as I keep tearing my tank apart.)

This morning here I go again. Another tank covered in slime but the fish were ok this time out. This slime not only smells sweet but has the same consistency of Karo Syrup and just as sticky. I just don't get it. I just have the bubbler and was noticing it really wasn't bubbling all that much.

I can only think now that perhaps my filter was situated too near the bubbler and it sucked out too much CO2. ??? Two huge water changes, filter media changed twice, glass scrubbed and an air stone put in tank to drive off any remaining CO2. My new plants are covered in slime! blah

[Lady Hobbs]

Thanks Chrona. I will get only one then.

[Lady Hobbs]

bumping to get some answers to my CO2 slime problem

[Dave66]

Hobbs
Its cyanobacteria, that slime, and its toxic to fishes, as you've found out. There's a nutrient imbalance in your tank, likely excess phosphate, that's getting it going. Phosphate can come from the food you feed as its part of the fish waste.
I don't think there's a hobby grade kit to test for the low amount of Phosphate to get cyno going (something over .02mg/l, if I recollect correctly.) Large partial water changes, increase the circulation, and you'll be that devil.

Dave

[Chrona]

What color is the slime? Can you take a picture? Given how it popped up (and en masse) overnight, I'd say it seems to be CO2 related again. Cyano doesn't spread through an entire 55g tank in a few hours, and the other clues (slow CO2) point to CO2. The sweet may be due to the sugar? Furthermore, the presence of cyano is not harmful. The toxin is in the algae itself, which is why there aren't any fish that will eat the stuff. Thus, as long as the fish aren't literally swimming in it/sucking it up/breathing it in, they will be fine. Sugar/alcohol/yeast mix, on the other hand....tends to fill the entire tank with nasties.

Cyanobacteria is easy enough to treat though, just dose some nitrates and your plants will pick up the slack. Only time cyano can grow is in zero-low nitrates situations where it's ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen gives it an edge. That's why is ideal to keep nitrates at 5-10 ppm instead of 0.

0.02mg/l phosphates is way too low. Then you'll be dealing with green spot algae, not to mention ailing plants. And you won't be able to find a hobby level test kit with that high of accuracy anyways. Even with a Salifert PO4 kit, it'd barely register at the very bottom of the scale. Cyano = not enough nitrates, not too much phosphates.

[Lady Hobbs]

Thanks both for responding. I'm not messing with this CO2 again. I will get the fizz factory or a reactor or another type that I won't have that problem.