root tabs, lightly planted tank

[p0tluck]

hello, i only have a small amount of plants in my tank, 3 swords and 4 anubias that are attached to my driftwood, i got flourish root tabs that i put about 4" away from the swords, but i also have liquid flourish, i added the tabs in yesterday should i also add the liquid as well or no?


i will start making my own caps after my tabs run out with osmocote and dosing with liquids to fill the nutrient gaps, i shouldn't have to run flourish excel (co2) with this little amount of plants should i?

 

[tanker]

Swords take very little nutrients from the water and does need root-food.
Anubius take nutrients from the water, but very little and very slowly.

 

[fishorama]

I agree with tanker, root tabs for swords & let the slow growing anubias just do their thing...nothing makes them grow fast, they don't need special help beyond snipping off very old leaves...as do swords sometimes. Sounds like you're good to go with those 2 plants.

If the swords start to get dwarfed they're likely hungry for ferts or light IME.

 

[p0tluck]

well the thing that has happened is my plants started getting holes in their leaves, so i didn't realize i had the crowns buried on my swords in the gravel so i pulled them up a bit to expose the crown, added flourish tabs and have flourish comprehensive liquid, i was told to get excel but i dont in my own opinion think i need co2 with as little plants as i have , now when i start scaping after i replace my gravel i will need co2 i do believe heres a pic of the holes, every plant even the anubias have them. i do still have some snails i hand pick daiily.

 

[p0tluck]

i should probably add that i do have high nitrates and cannot get them down no matter what i do, i have tried 100% gravel vacs , 2 50% gravel vacs , filter cleaning every 3rd week, feeding only 4 times a week, lowering the amount of food i feed and my nitrates are still over 60 this has been going on for over 2 years , but i have been told by hundreds of people that nitrates are not a big deal unless over 100 for a long long period of time, and it is extremely difficult to test nitrates even with lab grade analytical equipment to get the correct reading.

 

[FreshyFresh]

In regards to your nitrate problem, how large of water changes do you do and how often are they performed? 60ppm nitrates is about 3x higher than recommended for long term fish health.

 

[p0tluck]

In regards to your nitrate problem, how large of water changes do you do and how often are they performed? 60ppm nitrates is about 3x higher than recommended for long term fish health.

i do 2 per week at about 1/3 gravel each time and about 25-30% water ( so i dont disrupt my bio bed ) i have also learned there have been no studies on warm water fish when it comes to nitrate only cold water fish like trout etc etc only one on fry and it took 900 ppm to kill them, i know the lower the better but for the last 2 years i have never been able to get it below 60, so in short combining my 2 x per week water changes i do 2/3rd's gravel and 50 - 60% water, i feed 4 x weekly 2 small feedings per day the food is gone way before 3 min and feed blood worms one day in place of my flake.

 

[FreshyFresh]

IMO, your nitrate issue would be resolved with larger volume water changes or more frequent low volume changes. It works out to be basic math in the end. If your nitrates are at 50ppm and you do a 50% water change, you're going to be left with ~25ppm nitrates.
Water changes will not effect your nitrogen cycle given those bacteria reside on all the hardscape and in the bio portion of your filtration. They are not in the water column itself. You can take the water level right down to where your fish can barely swim, which is what many people with heavy bio load setups do, and it does nothing but help the water parameters.

 

[p0tluck]

IMO, your nitrate issue would be resolved with larger volume water changes or more frequent low volume changes. It works out to be basic math in the end. If your nitrates are at 50ppm and you do a 50% water change, you're going to be left with ~25ppm nitrates.
Water changes will not effect your nitrogen cycle given those bacteria reside on all the hardscape and in the bio portion of your filtration. They are not in the water column itself. You can take the water level right down to where your fish can barely swim, which is what many people with heavy bio load setups do, and it does nothing but help the water parameters.

I dont have a heavy bio load , i have a 55 gallon tank with 12 fish , all tetras.

 

[FreshyFresh]

I dont have a heavy bio load , i have a 55 gallon tank with 12 fish , all tetras.

I didn't say you did. I'm just suggesting a way to reduce your nitrates and keep them down. I've got a little heavier bio load in my 55g w/ plants that has 9 fish, 4 of which are fairly large. I keep my nitrate creep over the course of 7days to <20ppm with a 50% WWC. I only gravel vac (lightly) a few times a year because of the rooted plants in my gravel substrate.