fert recomendation

77710

The alpha fish
Sep 7, 2005
105
0
0
41
Church Hill, TN
www.patrickcobb.com
So i am right in the middle of the third week with my new planted tank, in the beginning i moved all the plants from my other tanks into the big one and am noticing that the plants are looking a bit "weak" the colors are light green instead of dark, the leaves are not doing too great, but on the flip side the plants are growing great roots. its a 140gal tank with 500W of MH lighting at 12000K and (though I know its useless, I'm saving to replace them) 260w of actinic CF.
i am using pressurised CO2 to drop the PH from 9 to 7.2 the

other tank specs are
GH = 13
KH = 11
PH = 7.2
Nitrates = 20
nitrites = 0
amm = 0

as for ferts i am using the stuff i found in the stickie at the top
and to mix and dose im following chucks fert calculator.

so long story short , is there anything i can change to help the plants green up and grow "better".
if there is anything else you need to know just ask?

Thanks ahead of time
 
I use flourish excel, Iron and potassium in my low light tank, and DIY co2 and Iron and potassium in my 3 wpg tank. My plants grow like weeds
 
Time namely, they may be adjusting to the new very bright lighting.
Do this for yourself:

Add MH's only for 3-4 hours max per day, run the PC's for 10 hours.
This assumes that you have daylight PC's and the 12K ought to be fine unless it's really a garrish color to your eyes.

5000-10000K ranges are fine.

No more light than this.
Add CO2 about 45 min prior to the lights coming on and off about 30 in before the lights go off.

Add the following:

KNO3 1.25 teaspoon 3x a week
KH2PO4, 1/3 teaspoon, 3x a week
Traces, SeaChem Flourish or Tropica: 30 mls 3x week
Ask the water company what the Mg and Ca levels are in the tap.
 
will just cutting down on the MH time help because i dont have the cash to replace the actinics right now? if so still like 4 hrs or longer since i wont be leaving the CF's on
 
If the atinics are the entire PC light bank, I'd just run the MH's alone and not use the PC lights at all.

Run the MH's for about 7-8 hours.
No more and crank the CO2.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 
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