Liquid Fertz

[natalie265]

I have a 30 gal planted tank and recently added DIY CO2. I use about 50% RO water. Should i use my liquid fertz as directed or do i need to use more due to CO2 and/or RO water?

 

[Truck]

RO water shouldnt be used, and what is your lighting? DIY CO2 wont really do anything if levels are high

 

[three-fingers]

If you adding CO2, ferts are probably a good idea.

Which ones depends on tank information, give it all to us . Lighting details, water stats, CO2 levels, types of plants, water circulation (or type of filter) and how well the plants are doing.

RO water probably inst of any benefit unless you have very hard water and have fish that want it soft, mixing 50% is the right thing to do so it's nota big deal anyway, though the plants may require extra trace elements to be added.

 

[natalie265]

Okay, here is some more info:

I use RO water because my tap water is EXTREMELY hard. I have 10 neon tetras, 7 Julii corys and 3 African dwarf frogs. And again, this is a 30 gal tank. Plants include: Amazon sword, valisneria, crptocoryn wendtii, elodia (anacharis?), java fern, lobelia and frog bit.

I have four 65 watt bulbs. 8.5 wpg, although my water has an amber tint and the floating plants also block some of the light. Lights are on about 10-11 hours per day.

I use a Fluval cansister filter and a little HOB filter just to filter through peat. PH is about 7 (and that's with 50% RO water!). Nitrates and nitrates are virtually undetectable. And i don't have a test for CO2 levels.

The elodia started out bushy and attractive and although it is growing in height it has become very spindly looking. Algae continues to have an upper hand. The cryptocorin wendtii looks healthy, but doesn't seem to have grown much in the few weeks its been in my tank. The lobelia has some new growth. The java fern looks great, but again, no growth (although i think these are slow growers?), the valisneria is really struggling, although there's been some new growth sinse the addition of CO2. The Amazon sword's leaves are covered in algae.

 

[Truck]

firstly you dont need 8.5 watts per gallon!!!! 2 wpg will get most things going well!

 

[three-fingers]

8.5WPG? That's a lot of unneeded light. All that light combined with CO2 and right now your not doing any ferts?

Your going to want to start an EI dosing regime to keep on top of that algae and keep the plants in good condition with that much light.

Luckily your floating plants will have been helping to block it, but also using up lots of nutrients that your other plants can use.

So basically, with that much light, EI is pretty much essential. Your plants will grow fast though and require pruning a lot .

I would also only run two tubes most of the day and if you must use all 4, blast them on for an hour in the afternoon or whenever you want to take photos of the tank/fish (more light helps).

As truck says, 2WPG would have been better.

With 2WPG and the floating plants to block some of the light, you could have probably got away with something more simple like just dosing Tropica Plant Nutrition +.

EI would still be cheaper though.


BTW, what type of light unit is this? I've been presuming T5 or T8 tubes.

 

[natalie265]

They aren't tubes. They're shop type lights something like this:

lights

With full spectrum plant bulbs.

I moved to this type of lighting because i like the natural way the light looks--like rays of sun filtering through the water, especially when you only turn on two of the four. But i don't think they're as bright as tubes maybe because despite all that wattage, the tank is pretty dim when i only run two of them.

I AM currently using liquid fertz, but only 2xs per week.

 

[three-fingers]

Ah right, so you wont be actually getting 8.5 wpg then, if they are incandescent, halogen or mercury vapour bulbs they aren't as efficient as florescent tubes, hard to estimate how much light you have though...spindly plants can indicate not enough light...

If they are metal halide bulbs then there should be enough light.

It's possible that the uneven spread of light these bulbs give is a problem, but people don't have an issue with halides so I doubt it.

Which liquid fert are you using?

What's your CO2 sitting at?

Anyway, your tank doesn't have a high nitrate levrl, doing nitrates is certainly a good idea for the plants. I would still suggest going full EI though.

 

[natalie265]

Currenlty using a Seachem product called Flourish. What product(s) do you recommend?

(I don't know where my CO2 is at-- i don't have a CO2 test kit)

 

[three-fingers]

I would recommend you switch to EI, for high tech planted tanks (with co2 injection and/or hight light) regular ferts like Flourish don't provide all the right nutrients.

I would recommend Tropica Plant Nutrition +, but I don't know if you can get it in the staes, and you would end up spending a lot more money than it would cost if you went EI.

If you don't want to go full EI, then also buy and dose Seachem Nitrogen, Potassium and Phosphorous. If you follow the instructions on the packets, the your basically doing EI except your paying more for a bottled product.

 

[natalie265]

El? I'm not familiar with that. What is it?

 

[three-fingers]

It's basically just making your own fertilisers from 3 or 4 different powders, then dosing a few times a week so that there is an excess of nutrients in the tanks (which means the plants are unlimited).

You can use all the seachem products for simplicity, but it works out more expensive than mixing your own (the seachem ferts are just the powders ready mixed with water).

You can also just add tea/table spoons of the powders to the tank, it doesn't matter on exact amount, as long as its not wildly too much and as long as you put in more than you need.

Tropica Plant Nutrition + is basically all of the required powders mixed into one bottle already, which also works out more expensive and is less flexible because if you have a particular deficiency, you have to add more of the whole liquid rather than just the nutrient that you need.

There's a pinned article on it here: <a href="http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=104737" target="_blank">http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=104737</a>.

 

[natalie265]

Thank you. You've been very helpful.

 

[three-fingers]

Glad to be of some use .