Fertilizer Question

[betty]

Hi!

At last my 65 g plants are growing and not totally covered in algae. Took 6 months. This is what I am dosing. Have I missed something? Am I overdosing?

I mix a batch for two weeks and add daily.
Excel - 6ml day / 42 week
Flourish - 10ml wk
Potassium - 20 ml week
Nitrogen - 10 ml week
Iron - 30 ml week

It's easy to add daily and the algae is under control with the help of Ottos, farlowellas and forida flag fish. I do not add any phosphorous, Should I? Am I over fertilizing?


CO2 is 2 pop bottle system and in the low acceptable range. I use crushed coral in the sump area to bring the KH up but it brings the PH up also. I use a combination of mostly RO and florida tap water.

Ph - 7.2 to 7.4
Nit - 5
GH - 140
KH - 70
FE - 0
Phosphates - .25
CO2 - 4

Thanks and any suggestions are appreciated.

[pl*co]

Congrats! I'm no expert, as I just recently started paying attention to fertilizers and macro/micro nutrients. I believe you have it covered but the readings seem a little low(?) especially where the iron is concerned, but I am guessing using more is where the algae problem came in. Using Chuck's Planted Aquarium Calculator, I looks like if the pH was a tad lower, you'd have a better Co2 reading, but as I have read here multiple times, a stable pH is better than optimum pH. I also use the diy method and have never achieved higher than a reading of 4, though I have read here that it should have been much higher.

I've been reading the bottles of fert I use and they indicate more than what you are using, based on the size of the tank. I am anxious to hear what the experts around here have to say. :) I'm sure one will say it depends on what you're shooting for. Plants over fish or fish over plants. That is, are you planting for show or just deco in your fish tank.