Baffled about some fertilizer...

[sguthrie]

Okay, so I tested my nitrate at 10mg/l after a 50% water change, does that mean that I don't need to dose KNO3?

I've been getting about 10-13ppm CO2 from some yeast. I started the jello recipe on August 18. About how long should it produce CO2 at a decent rate?

Can someone(s) help me through all this?

What I have at my disposal are Fleets enema, KCl, KNO3, Flourish

KH=3.36 deg
pH=6.8

It's a 50gal (47g) with 135W CF light.

thanks to anyone for any help.

Sam

 

[djlen]

If you can see your bubble rate, watch it closely and when you see it start to slack off start making up another bottle to replace it so you can keep a relatively stable pH.
I never used the jello recipe personally, and got about 2 weeks of gas out of a 2liter bottle. I always ran 2 - 2liter bottles and replaced one about every two weeks, and it kept a nice even flow.
Download Chuck's Desktop Calculator here:
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/articles.htm
How heavy is your plant mass? You don't want to over dose a lightly planted tank.
Test your tap water for N, P, pH and K. Set out a sample over night and then test for greater accuracy.

Len

 

[sguthrie]

The plant mass is much lower than it should be for starting out. I need to find some decent water sprite to put in there until the rest of the plants grow out some more.

Yeah, the jello recipe is about to fizzle out, I'm fairly certain. I already have another one in the fridge getting ready to put on with the other one. What kind of bubble rate should I be shooting for? It started out at 1 every two seconds, now it's about 1 a second or so.

I remember you saying that the KH drop from a 50% water change wouldn't be an issue, but my KH dropped from 3.36 to 2.24 deg tested a few hours after the change. Is this cause for concern, or is it fine? I'm not exactly sure of the amount of crushed coral that I put in my XP2, but I estimated the 1 tablespoon per X gallons, should I put some more in to raise KH higher so it won't drop so low after the change? My tap water has a KH of around 1 degree.

Thanks, Len, for all your help. You've been quite helpful even before I started asking you questions.

Sam

 

[djlen]

With DIY, in a 50gal. tank, your drop in kH should not be a problem while the coral brings it back up over 3°H. If you've been using it for a while and it's stabilized at 3.36, yes you could add another tbsp. or two at filter cleaning and keep doing so until you can push it up to 4 or 5°H.
In the meantime you could add a tbsp. of baking soda at each water change to help stabilize it until the kH comes up via the coral.

Len