fertilizer questions... the sticky scared me!

[LiLangeL181]

I have a 12g planted guppy tank with high wpg and no co2 dosing. Bill was nice enough to send me some Plantex CSM+B and some KNO3 but how much of what should I use? will it be filtered out in the bioweel?

here are my water parameters (in ppm)
Nitrates 70
nitrites 0
hardness 100
alkalinity 170
pH 7.3

please, any lamens help I can get would be greatly appreciated!
thanks!

 

[Watcher74]

All I can tell you is if you aren't adding any CO2 there is no need to have high light and little need to dose very much fertilizer of any kind.

 

[jhj]

I have a 12g planted guppy tank with high wpg and no co2 dosing. Bill was nice enough to send me some Plantex CSM+B and some KNO3 but how much of what should I use? will it be filtered out in the bioweel?

here are my water parameters (in ppm)
Nitrates 70
nitrites 0
hardness 100
alkalinity 170
pH 7.3

please, any lamens help I can get would be greatly appreciated!
thanks!

Nitrates 70?? Do you mean 70ppm. That is very high and not to mention stressful and dangerous........

 

[LiLangeL181]

but how do I get it down?

 

[jhj]

but how do I get it down?

What test kit are you using? Reducing the nitrates to about 20ppm would be ideal. Gravel Vac (thoroughly) and perform a 50% water change, and take a reading after you refill.

With your nitrates at 20ppm, you would ideally want PO4 at 2ppm and K at 20ppm. Dosing KNO3 gives you the added advantage of dosing K as well...around 62% of NO3.

Do you have a PO4 test kit?

 

[kveeti]

Have you tested if there is any nitrate reading in your tap water?

 

[Watcher74]

What size tank do you have? What are the inhabitants? Filtration? What exactly? What is the substrate? How deep is it? How EXACTLY do you feed, how often, and with what?

We need information to help.

 

[LiLangeL181]

I have a 12 gal acrylic tank with biowheel, medium to small gravel substrate about 2 to 3 inches deep (there are also a few petoskey stones for decoration), lighted 12-14 hours a day. living there are 9 guppies, 2 snails, 2 small algae eaters and a few shrimp (I got the shrimp today). its planted with corkscrew vals, java ferns (on driftwood), water sprites, dwarf onions, and sagittaria subulata (also got those today). They are fed 2 pinches of ocean nutrition brand 'formula two' around 11am every day, and some shrimp pellets as a treat to the bottom feeders once or twice a week. I measure with mardel 5 in 1 test strips.

 

[jhj]

If you get the opportunity, I would recommend getting the API test kit- they are much much more accurate. As someone else suggested, please let us know what the nitrate levels are from your tap water.

I would highly recommend reducing the nitrate levels down to about 20ppm.

Off-topic: Do you have a source of CO2 in your tank? DIY would be ideal for that size and the plants will be able to use up more of the nitrates as well.

 

[LiLangeL181]

I currently dont have any co2. (Ill make a new thread for DIY plans) I tested the waterfountain down the hall (thats where I usually fill my jar) and the nitrate levels were very low. I did a 1/3 water change instead of 50% since my back started to give out, but Ill do another 1/3 in the afternoon and let yall know what the readings are then. thanks.