Dosing Schedule Needed

[ghent_3rd]

I am looking to start adding elements into my tank because despite the fact I am using a good substrate, root tabs, liquid ferts and CO2 I am still getting brown/yellow spots on the amazon swords.

I put this down to lack of iron and am getting some Seachem Flourish Iron to add to the system but I would also like to add some trace elements and nitrate and phosphate if required. Gf225 has asked me to post my tank parameters here so that the plant experts can take a look and suggest a weekly dosing schedule for my tank to get the plants growing at a nice steady rate. I don't want an absolute jungle as I have 2 kids under the age of 4 and wouldn't have time for the upkeep!!!

TANK PARAMETERS

Amm 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10
kH 5.04
gH 7.84
pH 7.5

I am using 2 lamps at the minute but will be adding a 3rd and 4th in the next couple of weeks. CO2 is via 2 x CO2 optimat units and I am adding the Nutrafin with my own mix today.

I know pH is a bit high, especially as I am keeping South American tetras and catfish but I plan to add Seachem acid regulator to drop this down below 7 if the CO2 doesn't have the required effect.

Thanks for all the help

John

Please look here for sample of bad plant

 

[simonbrown403]

Try and stay away from products with phosphate buffers ast they will mess with the KH/PH relationship, and could give you false reading.

 

[Bloo]

Are you sure you've got the right kH reading there ? With that pH and kH, you have a mere 5ppm CO2. My guess would be that that's the root of your problem (seeing as you've ruled almost everything else out that I know of). I keep amazon swords in a low light tank with root tabs only and they seem to do really well. Even though that's a non-CO2 tank and only around 21ppm. You need to up your CO2 bubble rate to get a pH of about 6.6 which will give you a CO2 level of 38ppm. But, that said, I don't know that much about dealing with a fairly low kH

So see if you can get some input from those with a low kH. You can obviously add bicarb to up the buffer but those are things I've not dealt with so can't really speak from experience I'm afraid.

 

[ghent_3rd]

I thought my pH needed dropping as well. Am I right in saying though that if I use a buffer to drop my pH it will also drop the kH as well so I will just be defeating the object?? Whereas if the pH drops courtesy of CO2 then I shouldn't suffer the same thing??

 

[Bloo]

Nope the bicarb will only up your kH hence you don't need to try and adjust your quite pH that low.

If you don't have it already, download Chuck's planted calculator to easily check your levels

 

[ghent_3rd]

Hey bloozoo,

Just checked out Chuck's calculator, what a great tool!!

I have also found somewhere online where I can buy Potassium nitrate and all the other chemicals that I might need so I think I am going to give the EI method a try where you heavily dose during the week and then perform a 40% to 50% water change at the end of the week to clear anything out.

Thanks again bloozoo

 

[ghent_3rd]

OK so I have been doing some mega research over the last 36 hours and come up with a schedule that should hopefully with a bit of help from bloozoo and gf225!!! (thanks guys)

Does this seem OK to you??

Day 1 dose potassium nitrate and potassium phospate
Day 2 trace elements and iron
Day 3 dose potassium nitrate and small amount of phosphate
Day 4 trace elements
Day 5 nitrate and small amount of phosphate
Day 6 trace and iron
Day 7 large water change (40% to 50%)

The reason I am planning on keeping the phosphate dosing a little lower is that my LFS tested my water and said the phosphates were sky high!! I have algae starting to grow in my tank now as well so I must be short on one nutrient somewhere. The leaves on some of the plants are also starting to get a bit yellow in places.

I hope I make a success of this tank, I have tried so hard!!!

 

[Bloo]

Great tool isn't it ! and makes life a lot easier - reading a lot on that site (way back when) also helped to understand a lot. In fact it took a lot of reading of a lot of things to help it all sink in and there's still a lot of sinking in to do I think ! I've spent many a commuting train journey pored over print-outs ! It's a never ending learning process

I'm no dosing or EI expert so will leave that to George to confirm if you don't mind

 

[ChrisP]

Do you really need to dose more Fe? I would have though you will be getting enough from the trace.

I would dose without the additional and see if the plants look like they need the extra once it has settled.

 

[ghent_3rd]

OK Chris P I'll give it a go like that, apart from that what do you think to the rest of the schedule?? Just going to order my nutrients from aqua-essentials now along with phosphate test kit.

 

[ChrisP]

Yeah it looks fine to me, let us know how you get on with that aqua-essentials trace, I am thinkng of giving it a go myself as soon as my Tropica MasterGrow runs out which will be very soon.

 

[ghent_3rd]

CHANGE OF PLAN!!!

The girlfriend is getting a bit unhappy about be spending so much time sorting out the aquarium!!

Think I am going to use the liquid fertilisers from Seachem instead of the dry ferts, will this make any difference apart from it being a bit more expensive??

I will use the dosages that are suggested on the bottles and will hopefully get some results from it. To be honest I am not really looking for an absolute jungle in the tank, I just want the plants to be healthy and at the minute they are clearly not as the Amazon Swords are now starting to really struggle, quite a few brown/yellow patches on leaves and some are developing pin-holes and I know that that is not good!! Should be up to 2 WPG by the end of the week aswell so that should help matters, I then might see about upgrading that further to 2.6 WPG. Hopefully that coupled with between 20-30ppm of CO2 should make a difference in itself.

Any feedback from anyone??

 

[Themuleous]

Sounds to me like this tank is going to be a high-tech tank, with lights, CO2 and everything, seems a shame not to do EI ferts, as everything else will be there! And the dry ferts are soooo cheap compared to premade stuff, which is just the dry ferts mixed with water! So you're paying for the privielage of not having to add water!!!!!!

Could you not show her some pics of the members tanks, and say 'but it'll look like this! Thats why i need to spend a bit more on it'

That said, you'll get lots of sympathy from people on here (including me) re hassel from the other half as so how much it costs, the time taken, etc etc

Sam

 

[ghent_3rd]

Believe me, I have tried the "It will look nice when it's done" line and it has worked up to now but the novelty is wearing off I think!!

On a serious side though, will the pre-made ferts do just the same job as the dry ferts???

I hope after going high-tec that my plants start to grow now!!! It is soooooooo stressful after I spent all this time and effort, and cash as well, setting all this up, only to see your trusty Amazon Swords go down the pan!!!

I am putting most of it down to lack of light and CO2 but what the hell, lets just chuck some Seachem nutrients in for good measure!

I will hopefully keep you all updated on my journal when the time is right.

P.S

And can some one please answer my question regarding pre-made ferts, it won't take 1 minute!!

 

[Themuleous]

The reason I am planning on keeping the phosphate dosing a little lower is that my LFS tested my water and said the phosphates were sky high!! I have algae starting to grow in my tank now as well so I must be short on one nutrient somewhere. The leaves on some of the plants are also starting to get a bit yellow in places.

I take it your LFS doesn't know about EI? If not then 2ppm PO4 is probably really high to them! I would keep it at 1-2ppm. Yellow leaves can also be due to a lack of Nitrogen. What NO3 you reading?

Think I am going to use the liquid fertilisers from Seachem instead of the dry ferts, will this make any difference apart from it being a bit more expensive??

Depends which ferts you mean, if its for PO4 and NO3 and that is what the bottle says will be added, I would have thought they would be ok. If it’s the trace mix, make sure its got all the necessary elements in it, as my leaf zone only contains iron. Elements you need include;

Boron
Copper
Iron
Manganese
Molybdenum
Zinc

It’ll prob work fine.

One word though, if your girlfriend is getting annoyed at the cost, pre-made ferts surely cant be the way forward? They work out loads more expensive.

Just my thoughts, other people might be able to offer more advice.

Sam