A NEW??? & Significant?? Fertilization Question?

[Dopey]

Hmmm.

I think I'll unplug my rear light set, and leave the front one in place. And if I do a little tinkering with the reflector mounting, I can tip it ever so slightly towards the rear of the tank to, perhaps, give a semi-even illumination front to back.

I'll continue to monitor macros and CO2 levels, and give a small does of micros on Saturdays.

What are your feelings on supplementing potassium and magnesium in this situation? Should I continue with the NuSalt as a macro, a micro, or not at all? I'm not dosing w/fleet enema at the moment, since phosphates seem to be present enough in my tank w/out it.)

 

[djlen]

There are alway options. Your other one is to work hard at building plant mass to match the wattage supplied.
With a ton of plants in the tank, you are working from a position of strength and face a less critical balancing act from a fertilization stand-point. I've got a 55 with 210 watts over it and Anubia leaves that are very clean.
Is your fish load heavy or light? What are the numbers on the NPK? Do you dose traces?
I don't 'micro-manage' anything, but I can tell, within a few 10ths, whats in my tank most of the time.

Len

 

[beviking]

This won't help directly, but is pertinent anyway...I think.
I have a 90g with 4-4' T8 bulbs which I was overdriving, CO2 injection, daily dosing, plants growing like weeds, and the water was GREEN. As per Lens suggestion, I trimmed and replanted what I trimmed. The tank was plants front to back top to bottom. So much shaded that the glosso has shot up off the bottom. More plants definitly helped, but I also cut back to normal output on the bulbs. I didn't touch anything after replanting the trimmings and within 3 days, the water started clearing. I did a water change after a week (which the water was clearer than it had been in about 2 months!) and minor trimming.
I tried bumping up nutrients, limiting nutrients (even though I knew better), cutting duration of lighting, praying, dancing, you name it (except chemicals).

Mg? What is your GH? Adding potassium shouldn't cause any problems. You can have a "balance" with little algae but it sounds like you want "balance" w/o any algae. I have yet to accomplish this. My anubias need bleaching every other month or so, glass needs cleaning every month or so. Maybe you could get Len to come over and tell you what you need :laugh:

 

[Leopardess]

On a related note:

You may want to get a water report from your water company. If you have some nutrients in higher or lower concentrations than "normal" (whatever that is) you will constantly be working against them. I think a lot of it has to do with what's in your water to start with. I run 10g planteds with the ah 36w kit, with CO2 and profile, but no water column ferts and don't have any algae. I also have a similar set up in a 55g with 3wpg. But I also know people who have tried this and get an algal mess.

 

[plantbrain]

I agree with both of you. But the crux of my question is this...

If I keep a pristine water column, can I not more efficiently fight algae on my plants than by walking the tightrope of fertilization. If I can keep the water column at basically 0-0-0, and fertilize only the substrate, is this not a better option?

Why?
Algae are better adapted to low nutrients, very low ones than plants are, it's hurts the plant's growth more than anything.

You cannot test or know for sure the nutrients in the substrate, they are finite.

I ask this because I have been unable, by any means, to achieve the "crisp, clean" plant growth I see in photos. While my plants flourish, I always have an ongoing battle with algae on my plants.

Given your lack of success, (I've been down this path myself years ago), don't you think you might want to back off that approach and try something else?

Go non CO2 or go CO2. Pick one of these.
Then decide if you want high, med or high light.
Low= less work
Med =some work
High a fair amount of work

But you can pick weeds that are slower growing to make your life easier, you can add wood/rock and other things that don't need pruning also

Non CO2 tanks look good over the long term once they get going well.

All of these methods produce vibrant show quality results.

You just need to do a few basic things, first is to decide what you are using now and what routine you'd like. Non CO2 tanks don't need pruning much, they also grow very slowly and it'll take a long time oty grow some plants.

If you chose CO2, I show you a very simple method that produces a very accurate range of nutrients without any testing except fhe pH/KH.

You can control the water much better.
These plants you mention are weeds, they grow extremely fast in rich water nutrients.

I seldom use swords since they get so big in about 3-6 months, they take over a 1/3 of a 135gal tank.

I have a 2x90w AH BrightKit, I fertilize these days w/individual nutrients (stump remover, fleet enema, epsom salts, NuSalt, Flourish Trace and Flourish Iron). I have a CO2 injection system.
While I admit to being fuzzy on the "correct" levels (this seems a subject of much debate) I have tried all sorts of combination with similar results.... great plant growth, but not "clean."

If you do the estimative index routine, then you should not have issues.........unless you are not pruning/water chanmges/filter cleaning etc, or.................

CO2, CO2 and CO2.

The CO2 needs to be high, 20-30ppm , I usually shoot for 30ppm for the entire photoperoid.
Many times people check the CO2 in the AM when it's high(plants have not started really using a lot), but by midday, the CO2 is depleated.
Testing at night before the lights go off also help, but many plants are slowing down at this point.

So test at when the lights come on, about 4-5 hours in, and at 10-11 hours later. Compare the CO2 levels during these readings.

If things still seem funny, add more CO2, watch your fish, a little more will not hurt most species and you can dail, it back down easily.
I've never killed fish with CO2, a few have so just be careful when "eyeballing" it.

At 2 w /gal, you should not have any problem.

Add to this 90 gal:
1/2 teaspoon every other day of KNO3 and 15 drops or so of Fleet
Add 15mls of traces on the off days.
Do weekly 50% water changes.

Nothing runs out from frequent dosing, nothing builds up from frequent water changes.

So now you have plenty of nutrients and light, all that's left is the CO2.........

Regards,
Tom Barr