here are my specs, how often should I dose ferts?

[Dave M. Picklyk]

Hi! The following are my specs, how often should I dose?

15 gallon wide aquarium / 25-28ppm CO2 / 4wpg

I had 2.5wpg before and was dosing .6ml per day of traces and once a week I
dose 2.5ml of K2SO4 with 50% water change. (Not dosing nitrate since my fish
are supplying enough of that) Now I have 4wpg, should I be dosing the K2SO4
twice a week but only 1.25ml doses? Should I increase my traces dosing or
dose that in bigger quantities less often during the week.

If Tom Barr could prefferrably answer these concerns that would be awesome!!

Thanks alot!

Dave.

[Kenneth Ho]

**** Post for FREE via your newsreader at post.usenet.com ****

With more light, you always need more CO2 and nutrients, but that depends on
your actual CO2 level. And I think we need to know how much you are
actually dosing, we need the concentration of your solution, or prefferably
how much ppm of each element you are bringing up on each dose, and what's
the level of each of your tank, and plants condition... etc.

But generally, you do need more nutrients with more light.

Hope this helps
Kenneth Ho

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave M. Picklyk" >
Newsgroups: rec.aquaria.freshwater.plants
Sent: Tuesday, June 08, 2004 2:00 PM
Subject: here are my specs, how often should I dose ferts?


> Hi! The following are my specs, how often should I dose?
>
> 15 gallon wide aquarium / 25-28ppm CO2 / 4wpg
>
> I had 2.5wpg before and was dosing .6ml per day of traces and once a week
I
> dose 2.5ml of K2SO4 with 50% water change. (Not dosing nitrate since my
fish
> are supplying enough of that) Now I have 4wpg, should I be dosing the
K2SO4
> twice a week but only 1.25ml doses? Should I increase my traces dosing or
> dose that in bigger quantities less often during the week.
>
> If Tom Barr could prefferrably answer these concerns that would be
awesome!!
>
> Thanks alot!
>
> Dave.
>
>
>



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[Happy'Cam'per]

Hello Dave

I'm not Tom Barr, however, I do have some humble advice for you.
4wpg is an awful lot of light, you're growing Marijuana at the base of your
tank are'nt you? :)
There really is no need for so much light.
However, at 4wpg I would definitely start adding N.
Your fish load will not be supplying enough. In a 15 Gallon I would dose
traces 3 times a week.
Macros I would dose 3 times a week aswell. For ball park figures do this:
2 level teaspoons of KNO3, 2 level teaspoons Pottassium Chloride/sulphate.
Dash of Epsom Salts, Dash of crushed Dolomite if your water is on the softer
side. Mix all of this into 50ml distilled water. Each ml of this solution
will give you N at 3,5ppm and K at around 8ppm. Add 3-5 ml 3 times a week.
Also remember to add Phosphate at 10:1 ratio N:P.
Make sure your co2 is stable at +- 25ppm all day long.
And most important, 50% water changes once a week to reset the nutrients,
keep this up until you see the response from the plants then add or subtract
nutrients until near perfect ;) HTH 8P
--
**So long, and thanks for all the fish!**


"Dave M. Picklyk" > wrote in message
news:ABcxc.39122$DV4.28020@clgrps13...
> Hi! The following are my specs, how often should I dose?
>
> 15 gallon wide aquarium / 25-28ppm CO2 / 4wpg
>
> I had 2.5wpg before and was dosing .6ml per day of traces and once a week
I
> dose 2.5ml of K2SO4 with 50% water change. (Not dosing nitrate since my
fish
> are supplying enough of that) Now I have 4wpg, should I be dosing the
K2SO4
> twice a week but only 1.25ml doses? Should I increase my traces dosing or
> dose that in bigger quantities less often during the week.
>
> If Tom Barr could prefferrably answer these concerns that would be
awesome!!
>
> Thanks alot!
>
> Dave.
>
>
>

[Dave M. Picklyk]

The N is my problem, I cut it out after seeing algae appearing on some
stuff. Then I did a test and it was insanely high...the test kits sux...it
was saying like 30ppm or so....maybe who knows the colors were all messed up
(Nutrafin). Anyhoo, after getting rid of some fish I now I'm measure around
5 ppm which is supposed to be the ideal range...but I'm not sure if it's
under 5 ppm like say 2 or 1 ppm...because the test kit sucks so much.

I can't afford the Lamotte kits ($156 CAN each plus ~$175 hazardous goods
freight charge to bring accross the border) but I've heard of Salifert and
some others that are much better than what I have. I think once I have the
higher light cranked I need much more accurate measuring of nutrients in my
aquarium. Everything becomes more difficult :)

Dave.

"Happy'Cam'per" > wrote in message
...
> Hello Dave
>
> I'm not Tom Barr, however, I do have some humble advice for you.
> 4wpg is an awful lot of light, you're growing Marijuana at the base of
your
> tank are'nt you? :)
> There really is no need for so much light.
> However, at 4wpg I would definitely start adding N.
> Your fish load will not be supplying enough. In a 15 Gallon I would dose
> traces 3 times a week.
> Macros I would dose 3 times a week aswell. For ball park figures do this:
> 2 level teaspoons of KNO3, 2 level teaspoons Pottassium Chloride/sulphate.
> Dash of Epsom Salts, Dash of crushed Dolomite if your water is on the
softer
> side. Mix all of this into 50ml distilled water. Each ml of this solution
> will give you N at 3,5ppm and K at around 8ppm. Add 3-5 ml 3 times a week.
> Also remember to add Phosphate at 10:1 ratio N:P.
> Make sure your co2 is stable at +- 25ppm all day long.
> And most important, 50% water changes once a week to reset the nutrients,
> keep this up until you see the response from the plants then add or
subtract
> nutrients until near perfect ;) HTH 8P
> --
> **So long, and thanks for all the fish!**
>
>
> "Dave M. Picklyk" > wrote in message
> news:ABcxc.39122$DV4.28020@clgrps13...
> > Hi! The following are my specs, how often should I dose?
> >
> > 15 gallon wide aquarium / 25-28ppm CO2 / 4wpg
> >
> > I had 2.5wpg before and was dosing .6ml per day of traces and once a
week
> I
> > dose 2.5ml of K2SO4 with 50% water change. (Not dosing nitrate since my
> fish
> > are supplying enough of that) Now I have 4wpg, should I be dosing the
> K2SO4
> > twice a week but only 1.25ml doses? Should I increase my traces dosing
or
> > dose that in bigger quantities less often during the week.
> >
> > If Tom Barr could prefferrably answer these concerns that would be
> awesome!!
> >
> > Thanks alot!
> >
> > Dave.
> >
> >
> >
>
>

[Happy'Cam'per]

MIDPOSTED

"Dave M. Picklyk" > wrote in message
news:uEtxc.556$Dr.465@edtnps84...
> The N is my problem, I cut it out after seeing algae appearing on some
> stuff. Then I did a test and it was insanely high...the test kits sux...it
> was saying like 30ppm or so....maybe who knows the colors were all messed
up
> (Nutrafin). Anyhoo, after getting rid of some fish I now I'm measure
around
> 5 ppm which is supposed to be the ideal range...but I'm not sure if it's
> under 5 ppm like say 2 or 1 ppm...because the test kit sucks so much.

Dave, maybe its just me and you, but due to events like living in a third
world country I simply do not have access to all those groovy test kits I
hear all of you talking about. Either they're non-existant or have simply
been sitting on the shelf too long and are rendered useless. Test kits are
highly overpriced here and as you say can sometimes be very difficult to
read!

Anyhow, I've given up on test kits and just use ranges. Here's what I do:
Sunday: 50-70% water change on a 10 gallon.
You can safely assume that with this w/c the nutrients have been reset to
"very low". Lets consider them all zero. If you take my nutrient dosing from
the post above I would dose a good 4ml's sometimes more depending on how I
feel the plants are doing. 5ppm N is way too low (IME) and I try to push it
up to between 15-20ppm N. I dose fleet enema (4-6 drops) and then dose
traces (locally manufactured and cheap) 3-5ml. Mix up a new batch of co2 (I
have 2 2litre coke bottles fed into the intake of an AC filter on a 10
gallon tank), new bottle bi-weekly. Ferts are dosed again on Wednesday night
at lights out and again on Friday at lights out. This pretty much keeps my
tank in top notch condition, sometimes I slip and don't change the bottle
only to have small outbreaks of BBA. Otherwise the tank is pristine :). I
have 2 15watt cool white clip on desk lamps which work like a bomb. Every
Sunday I do some vigorous pruning and then only have 1 of the lights on till
say Thursday, by that time my Sessiflora has reached the top and is trailing
over the water surface blocking light to the plants below (Windelov,
anubias, crypts, java fern & Monnieri) this is when I switch on the 2nd
light and blast 3wpg until the next Sunday water change.

>
> I can't afford the Lamotte kits ($156 CAN each plus ~$175 hazardous goods
> freight charge to bring accross the border) but I've heard of Salifert and
> some others that are much better than what I have. I think once I have the
> higher light cranked I need much more accurate measuring of nutrients in
my
> aquarium. Everything becomes more difficult :)

Actually you're making it difficult for yourself. The Nutrients can only be
in an optimum range, you don't HAVE to be spot on, this indeed would be
difficult. Ditch the test kits, they'll only give you grey hair and make
your eyes squint. With 4wpg you would probably need to dose 4 times a week
instead of 3 etc. Nutrient dosing is not cast in stone, there are only
guidelines, it all depends on fishload, plant varieties and light & co2.
Every aquarist is different. Be discerning and watch your plants relating to
your dosing schedule, if they seem a bit frail at the end of the week then
feed more, if they look good then maybe a tad less until you find 'your
tank's' optimum schedule. As Einstein said: "Its all relative:)" HTH. Happy
gardening mate.

[tcbiii@NOSPAMearthlink.net]

"Dave M. Picklyk" > wrote in message news:<ABcxc.39122$DV4.28020@clgrps13>...
> Hi! The following are my specs, how often should I dose?
>
> 15 gallon wide aquarium / 25-28ppm CO2 / 4wpg
>
> I had 2.5wpg before and was dosing .6ml per day of traces and once a week I
> dose 2.5ml of K2SO4 with 50% water change. (Not dosing nitrate since my fish
> are supplying enough of that) Now I have 4wpg, should I be dosing the K2SO4
> twice a week but only 1.25ml doses? Should I increase my traces dosing or
> dose that in bigger quantities less often during the week.

Why did you change the lighting to something higher?
There is no plant I know of that will not grow at 2.5w/gal.
In general, 95% of most folks have MORE trouble with MORE light.

Happy Camper and others have suggested good methods.

I'll give you a simple routine, you might want to further tweak it
through observations over time.

Water Change 50-70% weekly.
Add KNO3: about 1/8 teaspoon every other day.
Add KH2PO4, about a rice grain's worth same frequency as KNO3
Add traces, TMG, Flourish or CMS, etc at 3-4mls on off day you dose
the macro's.

Is your GH and KH good? Over 3 degrees/~50ppm?
Prune well each week and [pick at the tank and fluff any left over
leaves and net these out, keep the tank good & clean and well tended.

Keep up on things and you'll do fine. If dosing 3x a week works well
for you, just scale the dosing up to that also.
You can also make liquid dosing mixtures as suggested.

You do not need a test kit and I'd not pay much attention to them
anyway. Call the tap water company up.See what the PO4 and N-NO3
levels are.

You may not need to dose some things if you are lucky. But excess
NO3/PO4, does not cuase algae in relatively high ranges.

Regards,
Tom Barr

[Dave M. Picklyk]

> Why did you change the lighting to something higher?
> There is no plant I know of that will not grow at 2.5w/gal.
> In general, 95% of most folks have MORE trouble with MORE light.
Well here's why: I finally got around to making a proper light reflector out
of mirrored acrylic and decided to throw in another bulb...little did I know
this would not help matters :)

I also wanted to keep NO3 lower since I'm trying to bring the red out in my
rotala and ludwigia. I have noticed a huge increase in the reds but plant
growth (vertical height increase) is only about 1/2 as fast as it used to
be.

Thanx for the routine Tom, I will try it. I was assuming that I was getting
too much NO3(from fish) and that's why the algae was beginning to show so I
stopped it altogether. Looks like I shouldn't trust that cheap test kits.

Dave.
" > wrote in message
om...
> "Dave M. Picklyk" > wrote in message
news:<ABcxc.39122$DV4.28020@clgrps13>...
> > Hi! The following are my specs, how often should I dose?
> >
> > 15 gallon wide aquarium / 25-28ppm CO2 / 4wpg
> >
> > I had 2.5wpg before and was dosing .6ml per day of traces and once a
week I
> > dose 2.5ml of K2SO4 with 50% water change. (Not dosing nitrate since my
fish
> > are supplying enough of that) Now I have 4wpg, should I be dosing the
K2SO4
> > twice a week but only 1.25ml doses? Should I increase my traces dosing
or
> > dose that in bigger quantities less often during the week.
>
> Why did you change the lighting to something higher?
> There is no plant I know of that will not grow at 2.5w/gal.
> In general, 95% of most folks have MORE trouble with MORE light.
>
> Happy Camper and others have suggested good methods.
>
> I'll give you a simple routine, you might want to further tweak it
> through observations over time.
>
> Water Change 50-70% weekly.
> Add KNO3: about 1/8 teaspoon every other day.
> Add KH2PO4, about a rice grain's worth same frequency as KNO3
> Add traces, TMG, Flourish or CMS, etc at 3-4mls on off day you dose
> the macro's.
>
> Is your GH and KH good? Over 3 degrees/~50ppm?
> Prune well each week and [pick at the tank and fluff any left over
> leaves and net these out, keep the tank good & clean and well tended.
>
> Keep up on things and you'll do fine. If dosing 3x a week works well
> for you, just scale the dosing up to that also.
> You can also make liquid dosing mixtures as suggested.
>
> You do not need a test kit and I'd not pay much attention to them
> anyway. Call the tap water company up.See what the PO4 and N-NO3
> levels are.
>
> You may not need to dose some things if you are lucky. But excess
> NO3/PO4, does not cuase algae in relatively high ranges.
>
> Regards,
> Tom Barr

[Dave M. Picklyk]

Thanx Happy Camper...good stuff to keep in mind. Everything was going
perfectly (I had my nice routine and perfect balance) until 1. I noticed
some algae growth 2. Stopped dosing NO3 (Assuming I had too much) 3.
Increased light from 2.7wpg to 4wpg

Jeez, I hope I can fix this mess.

Dave.
"Happy'Cam'per" > wrote in message
...
> MIDPOSTED
>
> "Dave M. Picklyk" > wrote in message
> news:uEtxc.556$Dr.465@edtnps84...
> > The N is my problem, I cut it out after seeing algae appearing on some
> > stuff. Then I did a test and it was insanely high...the test kits
sux...it
> > was saying like 30ppm or so....maybe who knows the colors were all
messed
> up
> > (Nutrafin). Anyhoo, after getting rid of some fish I now I'm measure
> around
> > 5 ppm which is supposed to be the ideal range...but I'm not sure if it's
> > under 5 ppm like say 2 or 1 ppm...because the test kit sucks so much.
>
> Dave, maybe its just me and you, but due to events like living in a third
> world country I simply do not have access to all those groovy test kits I
> hear all of you talking about. Either they're non-existant or have simply
> been sitting on the shelf too long and are rendered useless. Test kits are
> highly overpriced here and as you say can sometimes be very difficult to
> read!
>
> Anyhow, I've given up on test kits and just use ranges. Here's what I do:
> Sunday: 50-70% water change on a 10 gallon.
> You can safely assume that with this w/c the nutrients have been reset to
> "very low". Lets consider them all zero. If you take my nutrient dosing
from
> the post above I would dose a good 4ml's sometimes more depending on how I
> feel the plants are doing. 5ppm N is way too low (IME) and I try to push
it
> up to between 15-20ppm N. I dose fleet enema (4-6 drops) and then dose
> traces (locally manufactured and cheap) 3-5ml. Mix up a new batch of co2
(I
> have 2 2litre coke bottles fed into the intake of an AC filter on a 10
> gallon tank), new bottle bi-weekly. Ferts are dosed again on Wednesday
night
> at lights out and again on Friday at lights out. This pretty much keeps my
> tank in top notch condition, sometimes I slip and don't change the bottle
> only to have small outbreaks of BBA. Otherwise the tank is pristine :). I
> have 2 15watt cool white clip on desk lamps which work like a bomb. Every
> Sunday I do some vigorous pruning and then only have 1 of the lights on
till
> say Thursday, by that time my Sessiflora has reached the top and is
trailing
> over the water surface blocking light to the plants below (Windelov,
> anubias, crypts, java fern & Monnieri) this is when I switch on the 2nd
> light and blast 3wpg until the next Sunday water change.
>
> >
> > I can't afford the Lamotte kits ($156 CAN each plus ~$175 hazardous
goods
> > freight charge to bring accross the border) but I've heard of Salifert
and
> > some others that are much better than what I have. I think once I have
the
> > higher light cranked I need much more accurate measuring of nutrients in
> my
> > aquarium. Everything becomes more difficult :)
>
> Actually you're making it difficult for yourself. The Nutrients can only
be
> in an optimum range, you don't HAVE to be spot on, this indeed would be
> difficult. Ditch the test kits, they'll only give you grey hair and make
> your eyes squint. With 4wpg you would probably need to dose 4 times a week
> instead of 3 etc. Nutrient dosing is not cast in stone, there are only
> guidelines, it all depends on fishload, plant varieties and light & co2.
> Every aquarist is different. Be discerning and watch your plants relating
to
> your dosing schedule, if they seem a bit frail at the end of the week then
> feed more, if they look good then maybe a tad less until you find 'your
> tank's' optimum schedule. As Einstein said: "Its all relative:)" HTH.
Happy
> gardening mate.
>
>
>