Redish type algae??

Lupin

Use the airpump to aerate the water.

notsonewguy

well i dont have an air pump to put in there and am pretty broke at the moment. I tested my tap water, unaireated of coarse. and everything seems normal, i assume airating it would provide different results. anyway I've done 2 water changes this week, one about 30% then a couple days later nearly 50% with dechlorinated tap water, the results are the same, lvl. 10 nitrites, and high nitrates.... how long would it take for it to lower. and as for the distilled water, how come its a NO NO to do a water change with it? other than price. i've read of people in here using distilled. so I'm just curious of the reasons. thanks for all the help and my fish are still amazingly hanging in there, i also (when i have money) want to buy the master tester kit i seen, but i have lame dip strips, 5 in one.... i'm not too happy with them, but at least they let me know a little of whats going on.

FDStation152

The only problem with distilled water is that you have to reconstitute it with some trace elements before you add it to the tank. Distilled water is too pure and fish will suffer from certain deficiencies if kept in pure distilled water. It also has no buffering capacity so it is extremely vulnerable to pH swings. However you can buy products that will add the necessary elements back to the water and stabilize the pH at whatever value you want. I use distilled water on my main tank and its not a problem as long as you remember to do those things. As for cost its really not any more expensive than RO water in most places.

notsonewguy

well just reporting back, the redish algae is red, and spreading, i cleaned most of it, its not majorly outta control yet, but its spreading, still have a Nitrite reading of 10!!!!! wont budge, done about 40% water changes every 3 days...is this too much maybe? or should i be more patient, just wondering how long this red ugly stuff will be around for, should i try using RO water maybe? i tested my tap water and it seems alright, i use prime. this stuff is frustrating, i just wanna add a few more fish, perhaps shrimp or something, but i need to get their environment back up to par.. any additional guidance is appreciated. :D

notsonewguy

Everything is great, i got my levels nice and stable and added 3 blueberry algae eating shrimp, they got rid of EVERYTHING!!!
but my Cabomba plants dont look so well anymore and i'm now looking into a DIY C02 setup, think that may help, they grew so fast when i first got em, anyway thanks everyone for the help again :)

musho3210

thats good to hear, there are some CO2 threads around here that talk about how much CO2 your tank needs, those might be able to help with sustaining proper amounts of CO2