But Of Course!

On the one hand, I'm not being very patient with my treatments, but on the other hand, I'm seeing new hair algae bits where there were none before. Anyway, because their planted 20-gal always looks so good, I decided to drive by Alamo Aquatics on my way home from a Saturday at the office, just to see if there was something they were doing that I should consider. I really wanted to see how many watts/gallon they had going.

Sure enough, they had about 3 watts/gal, just like me, so I was complaining to them that it was amazing that their tank never had algae with basically the same setup as myself. I started questioning them about their fertilizing habits, and they said they used liquid fertilizers, so I immediately started regretting my decision of a few days ago. However, upon further questioning, I discovered that they used a nitrate-free solution I had heard glowing reviews of before: Flourish Excel organic carbon. It is nitrate free, but provides a form of carbon to supplement CO2 and participate in photosynthesis. It also helps convert iron ions into a form more useful for plants.

I explained to them that I had used liquid ferts (Kent's two supplements) to no avail, and the guy explained that they probably made a bad recommendation in suggesting that. Apparently, while they've never had much of a problem with algae at the store, but he had noticed problems at his home using those fertilizers. Since switching to Excel, he's had no problems anywhere. But did they offer me a bottle for free to make up for hosing me in the past...? Of course not. I bought the Flourish anyway. I'm supposed to dose every day, and it still falls in line with my new plan of keeping nitrates out of the water column. I'm hoping this is the last bit I need to get the tank over the algae hump. I'm almost scared this will work... then what will transpire when I'm gone for X-mas?