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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. |
#2
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here are my specs, how often should I dose ferts?
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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. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= *** Usenet.com - The #1 Usenet Newsgroup Service on The Planet! *** http://www.usenet.com Unlimited Download - 19 Seperate Servers - 90,000 groups - Uncensored -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= |
#3
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here are my specs, how often should I dose ferts?
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. |
#4
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here are my specs, how often should I dose ferts?
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. |
#5
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here are my specs, how often should I dose ferts?
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 ~$175 hazardous goods freight charge to bring accross the border) but I've heard of Salifert and some others that are much better than what I have. I think once I have the higher light cranked I need much more accurate measuring of nutrients in my aquarium. Everything becomes more difficult Actually you're making it difficult for yourself. The Nutrients can only be in an optimum range, you don't HAVE to be spot on, this indeed would be difficult. Ditch the test kits, they'll only give you grey hair and make your eyes squint. With 4wpg you would probably need to dose 4 times a week instead of 3 etc. Nutrient dosing is not cast in stone, there are only guidelines, it all depends on fishload, plant varieties and light & co2. Every aquarist is different. Be discerning and watch your plants relating to your dosing schedule, if they seem a bit frail at the end of the week then feed more, if they look good then maybe a tad less until you find 'your tank's' optimum schedule. As Einstein said: "Its all relative" HTH. Happy gardening mate. |
#6
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here are my specs, how often should I dose ferts?
"Dave M. Picklyk" wrote in message news:ABcxc.39122$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 |
#7
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here are my specs, how often should I dose ferts?
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 |
#8
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here are my specs, how often should I dose ferts?
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. |
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