Proper Nitrate levels for a Non CO2 tank

You should have between 10-20 ppm nitrate 1-2 ppm phosphate 1ppm Iron 20ppm potassium. But none of this will do the plants much good without Co2 as carbon is a prime building block. Without the Co2 I do not think the plants will take-up the nutrients and you will only be feeding the algae (witch does not require Co2). . You might at lest try some flourish excel ( a liquid carbon supplement) to start and dose other elements sparingly. I am not a plant guru and I am sure that some of them will be chiming in soon enough with much more solid advice.

Have fun

Tony

if you have a test kit just test your levels and see how fast your plants are eating nutrients... then keep the levels around what was just recommended toyou in the post above.

The growth rate is the most important thing to consider.
When you have a CO2 limited tank, then you have very low CO2 levels.

when a plant is limited by one upstream element, plants are made up of 40-45% carbon, yet only 1.5 % perhaps of Nitrogen, then you can see that you really do not need much N.

Some comes from fish waste/food, often this tends to be enough for most tougher plants.

Now if you want to amplify things without dealing with CO2, there's only so much that can be done here.

Adding KNO3, say 1/4 teaspoon once a week and then skipping a week every 3rd week would be a good way to start out.

If the NO3 levels rise, stop dosing.
But you really should learn how to calibrate the NO3 test kit of get a Lamotte or very high quality test kit, don't skip this/these steps!!!!!!

Most folks eye ball things, adding a tad bit of KNO3 is s lightly limited NO3 tank will relieve the limitation.

I suggest adding 1/4 teaspoon a week of the KNO3, 1 smidge of the KH2PO4(maybe a short rice grain's worth), and some GH booster(1/4 teaspoon) and maybe 5-10mls of TMG would be ideal if you have a moderate to light fish load.

Do not dose after 2-3 weeks and note the plant health for the next 2-3 weeks, if you note anything negative,m add some more nutrients.

Adding SAE's, Amano shrimp etc will help also.

Floating plants will help, raising the light up a little higher also helps if you use PC lighting. No water changes also, only add tap water for the top off for evaporation.

Regards,
Tom Barr