When to start fertilising?

[Mordred]

Full tank specs are in my sig.

Put some laterite substrate in with the gravel.
Also added a CO2 device. Tank is now 6 weeks old.

Plants seem to be growing strongly now, and the algae is almost gone.

At what point should I begin to add any plant food, and are there specific types of food I should try to add?

 

[djlen]

Check the Sticky at the top of the page for info. on nutrients. It should be helpful and then you can ask more questions based on what you find there.
Your stats page reports plenty of N and a little P in the tap water.
Are you getting N in the tap water as well? Ideal levels for P are .50 - 1.0ppm and for N 5 - 10ppm.
Test your tap water for both after leaving sample sit for a minimum of 2hrs. You may not have to dose these two Macros if they're supplied in your tap water.
K and Traces are of need based on your reported parameters.
I would start dosing them immediately.

If you mentioned the wattage of your lighting, I missed it so what is your WPG ratio. Even 20mins. of direct sunlight can cause algae issues, so you might want to keep an eye on that.
Doesn't appear that you are getting much production out of your CO2 injection. This becomes more of a factor, the brighter the lighting, but CO2 will improve plant performance regardless of lighting.



Sounds like you're off to a good start.

Len

 

[CHINABOY1021]

you didnt list your lighting or your co2 levels. BUT, if your plants are growing strongly now and algae is going away, why add fertilizer? if its not broken, dont fix it. i kow this from my own experience, i had extremely good growth with 4.5wpg, high co2, flourite. no ferts. frequent water changes help plant growth too.

 

[Mordred]

Thanks for the comments.

I've read the sticky - will be a useful guide (but I suspect I'll have a few more questions),

In terms of the additional questions:
I think that both of the tubes are 30W.

Not sure what the CO2 levels are; not sure how to test for that.

The CO2 device that I bought claims that it is good for upto a 250L tank (mine is about 200L), and it seems to be the major make in all the shops around here.

 

[Captain Hook]

If your bulbs are standard 36" fluorescents then they will be 30 watts. 2 foot bulbs are 20 watts and 4 foot bulbs are either 32 or 40 watts.

CO2 is measured by testing for pH and KH I believe. There is a table that you use your values to read how much CO2 is in the water.

 

[Mordred]

Thanks - anyone any idea where I can track down a table to help me calculate my CO2 levels from pH and kH?

 

[djlen]

Go to the below link and scroll down to 'measuring CO2 in a planted tank'. You will find a calculator there and also a chart for pH/kH/CO2 calculations.
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/articles.htm

Somewhere on that site he has a link for a down loadable calculator which I find very useful, not only for CO2 but for dosing nutrients.

Len

 

[Mordred]

Fantastic!

Thanks