Fert/co2 Dosing After Water Changes

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Livewire88

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Hi everyone,

I am looking for some advice, The NitrAte level in my tank is rather high at the moment, I have been doing a 50% water change every sunday, to sort this out I am going to do a 50% water change tonight and the normal 50% water change on Sunday.
I have been dosing the tank with 9mm of TPN+ and 4mm of Excel each day, and my Plants seem to be growing well.

I would like to know if I should keep the dosing at the same level on water change days? or should I up the dosage of both the TPN+ and Excel??

Thanks
Dan
 
NitrAte level is reading around the 120 mark using a (well bashed up beforehand) API master test kit.

I do find it hard with the colours as I am colourblind, but with a little help from the misses I get by :good:
 
NitrAte level is reading around the 120 mark using a (well bashed up beforehand) API master test kit.

I do find it hard with the colours as I am colourblind, but with a little help from the misses I get by :good:

ok, sometimes you see posts where the high nitrates turns out to be below,say 100.
I guess that if you're doing water changes after the lights are out (?), and because Excel has a limited time span, there's not much point dosing till the next morning.
Unsure how much nutrient uptake, if any, is at night, so again, is there any point till the morning.Not expert in these things, so may well be corrected.
Sorry if not much help.
 
Cool thanks for the advice, I change water in the morning so before lights go on, (I didnt know it was best to do water change after lights out!)

I assume I should up the doseage by 50% on the days I chage water so it will give the clean water a little extra kick of ferts and Co2.
If I dont get any more advice before I will just give that a go and see how I get on.

Cheers
 
Cool thanks for the advice, I change water in the morning so before lights go on, (I didnt know it was best to do water change after lights out!)

I assume I should up the doseage by 50% on the days I chage water so it will give the clean water a little extra kick of ferts and Co2.
If I dont get any more advice before I will just give that a go and see how I get on.

Cheers

sorry i misunderstood, i thought you meant that's when you do yours
rolleyes.gif

water changes before lights on will add co2, from the tapwater, don't forget.If you're current regime is working, then i'd stick with whatever it is.

Edit.if you're doing large weekly changes.why are nitrates that high?
 
The first question that should be asked is what are your nitrate levels in your tap water!

If high nitrate levels are the problem, then you should be looking for the source of that ie. too much ferts, too much nitrate in the water to start with, instead of guessing about when to change your water.

Is your test kit perhaps too old to be reliable?
 
Edit.if you're doing large weekly changes.why are nitrates that high?

Agreed. Your nitrates should not be that high. What is the level of nitrate in your tap or source water? Even if your tap had the maximum safe levels for nitrate in drinking water(44ppm) it would still be very difficult to reach the levels you are stating in a well maintained tank.
 
Hi, thanks for the advice.

A bit more info on my tank, it is 200l and planted, as mentioned in first post I am dosing 9mm of TPN+, and 4mm of Excel every day, am I over dosing my tank for the amount of plants I have? Will the TPN+ raise the NitraTe level?

Here is a photo of the test of both my tap water and my tank water, also a photo of my tank which shows how many plants I have (big amazon sword behind bog wood not realy visable)

P1000548.jpg


P1000523.jpg


Thanks again for all the help/advice offered so far :good:
 
the only advice i would offer is...put the nitrate test kit in the bin and then you're on a winner. :good:
 
the only advice i would offer is...put the nitrate test kit in the bin and then you're on a winner. :good:


Thanks,

The guy at my LFS was saying not to worry about the Nitrate levels, and the fish all seem happy and content so I will not worry about it and just stick to my once a week 50% water change.

I would still like to know if I should up the doseage of ferts/co2 on the days I do the 50% water change??

I also have some lovely Java Moss, but dont know where to put it in the tank? any ideals??
 
just dose what you would normally dose. :good: Those plants still look relatively newly planted in your tank...so keep an eye on the sword leaves for browning. As they are grown out of water, they need time to adapt and the browning leaves need to be removed as they won't repair themselves.


as for the off the shelf nitrate test kits, they have been proven to be really inaccurate and IMO worthless. It has also been proven that inverts and fish can tolerate nitrates at a really high ppm before death occurs.
 

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