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Old 10-06-2004, 12:11 AM
 
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Default here are my specs, how often should I dose ferts?

"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