Overdose?

Liz

Liz

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Mar 25, 2005
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What happens if I overdose on liquid fertilizers or carbon? I just kind of dump a little bit in every day to every other day, and I don't have carbon in my filter to remove extra (I figured I shouldn't have carbon in the filter of a planted tank...?)... could it build up in my water and hurt my fish?
 
Thats why regular large volume water changes are important. (lets say 50% a week)
Even if you overdose a little (within limits of course) - the 50% waterchange at the end will help you to reset things to a "safe(r)" level.

When in doubt don't dose. I've found that giving my tank a few days of being left alone every now and then has helped things to stabilise and also helped me to develope a feeling of whats needed when.

I've now been runing a heavily planted tank for over 3 months completely algae free.
 
If you are using Excel for carbon it breaks down (according to Seachem) and does not buildup. I use it with minimal water changes without any problems. Other times I have dosed up to 3x the recommended dose without any problems although I was doing weekly water changes.
As for liquid ferts you would have to let us know what you are using and how much.

Bill



Liz said:
What happens if I overdose on liquid fertilizers or carbon? I just kind of dump a little bit in every day to every other day, and I don't have carbon in my filter to remove extra (I figured I shouldn't have carbon in the filter of a planted tank...?)... could it build up in my water and hurt my fish?
Click to expand...
 
I use "Leaf Zone" or whatever for ferts, and Flourish Excel for carbon. I am thinking of switching the ferts because it only contains like 2 or 3 nutrients, I think...?

I just kind of drip a bit in every other day or so, I didn't think it could hurt my fishes.... but sometimes I notice they're kinda darty and such so I was wondering....

I know there are a lot of different nutrients and all, but if I don't really want to worry too much about mixing different ferts to get different nutrients, can anyone suggest an all-around good liquid fertilizer that will get in a decent amount of everything I need? I also have plant tabs in the gravel but I don't think I'll use them again, I've been getting algae and I've heard those can contribute.
 
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There really isn't any commerical "all-in-one" fertilizer that I know of. A commerical brand I recommend is Seachem's Flourish line. There are 4 products other than Excel which you should have on hand, Flourish (for micro nutrients), Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium.
 
Why doesn't anyone make an all-in-one?
 
People don't make an all in one fertilzer or carbon source because the chemicals are reactive to each other and will render one chemical useless or change it completely.

It's actually better that each individual fertilzer and carbon is dosed and packaged separately because we can identify a nutrient deficiency when a problem arrises and dose that specific chemical without having to over increase the others. For example, plants show a potassium deficiency, we can add Seachem Potassium.

Overdosing nutrients is not a problem provided that the tank will be moderately planted, and high light to enable them to consume the nutrients. A large weekly water change will help reset/flush the system of excess nutrients. Continuous overdosing without the reset can kill fish.

-John N.
 
I'm just curious why you "drip a little bit in" as opposed to reading the directions on the bottle about dosing? Maybe an unbalanced amount of carbon, nutrients, and lighting is leading to your algae, not your plant tabs. It is a fine line you need to walk to get plants to grow without algae being present, and the biggest part of walking that line is knowing what you're doing.
 
Goatman said:
I'm just curious why you "drip a little bit in" as opposed to reading the directions on the bottle about dosing? Maybe an unbalanced amount of carbon, nutrients, and lighting is leading to your algae, not your plant tabs. It is a fine line you need to walk to get plants to grow without algae being present, and the biggest part of walking that line is knowing what you're doing.
Click to expand...


Well the tank is only ten gallons and the dosing instructions aren't for ten gallons, I don't think.
 
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