1 month old planted tank

nfinit1

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Jan 12, 2003
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Greetings
Finally my 75 gal s up and running with live plants and 5 otos, 4 green corys, 6 school of red tetras!!!!!
USing a ehiem wet/dry around 11/25/2003, added plants and fish 12/5/2003. Fast growing plants were added 12/12/2003
Changed from wet/dry(wet/dry depletes CO2)
to 2215.
1.73watts per gal 2x65 6700k bulbs 10 to 11 hours a day, Eheim2215, No CO2 yet. Flourite/Eco Complete substrate
Plants
Swords, Sag, dwarf sag,microswords, Crypt wendtii, Red Ludwigia, Bacopa, Myrio, Hygro(tropical Sunset), Alternanthera Reineckii

The myrio, Hygro, and red Ludwigia are growing
Bacopa doesnt seem to grow fast but roots are growing...

Last water test
NH3/4 = 0
NO2 = 0.3
KH = 4/5
GH = 8/9
pH = 7.4
Dont have a test for Nitrate yet

Small out break of algae, otos are working it
What is it that I need to add to help the plants compete pver the algae??? is it Kor KNO4?????
I dont think I need to add Iron, because substrate is flourite and laterite balls were added to substrate
Should I do a water change tomorrow??? Did a 15% water change 12/9/2003

Pics soon
Thanks
 
Sounds like you're doing ok. Weekly 20-50% water changes are good, you don't want to go less frequent than that.

As for fertilizing, you definitely want potassium (K). You can get this in many different forms, including bottled. Flourish potassium is fine at first, but gets expensive (note: you need to dose 10 to 20 times what the bottle recommends. you want 20ppm). I use KCl (potassium chloride), which is NoSalt (or NuSalt), found in the salt isle of grocery stores. People also use K2SO4, not sure where to buy that..... maybe gardening stores. Do a search, you'll find it. Commonly used. And potassium in nice cause the danger of overdose is not so bad.

A little phosphate would also help. Works wonders. Start with 0.5ppm, and work up to 1ppm as you feel it's needed. The bottle gives an equation to calculate how much to dose.

You should also start adding traces. Seachem Fourish is common, I like Tropica Master Grow.

Good luck.
 
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