Advise on my fert regime..

[poopoobud]

Tank Dimensions (LxWxH, specify units): 60cmX45cmX33cm(exact water vol.)

Lighting Intensity(No of Watts) : 110Watts(55W X 2)
Number and type of Lighting (FL/PL/MH) : 2nos of PL55W
Age of light bulbs : barely new
No. of hours your lights are on : 9hrs

CO2 Injection Rate (bps) : 47.8ppm (4dKH-pH6.4)
Type of CO2 (DIY/Cylinder) :Cylinder
Method of Injection (e.g. Diffusor/Reactor) :Reactor

Liquid fertilisers Used (Product name. E.g. Seachem Flourish) :Lushgro aqua and lushgro micros
Fertilization regime (Frequency and amount per dose) ne week one drop each normally during WC

Other fertilisers (Product name. E.g. Root Monster) :Root Monster on certain heavy rooted plants

Other additives (Product name. E.g. Seachem Prime) lant hormones from canadian cousin for fast growth(no brand)

Type of Filter (overhead/internal/canister, Product name/model if possible) :canister Eheim ecco 2234
When was the filter last washed :3-4mths ago
Filter media used :as per original in package
When was the media last changed :every wash change the white wool only.
What was changed : as stated above sentence..

Age of setup (i.e. since initial setup or last major re-do ) : many major re-do.. age=3yr

Water change frequency : 1-2 week once or when fed live feed frequency closer
Amount changed lus minus 50%

Water surface movement (None/gentle/turbulent) :gentle
Circulation (None/gentle/turbulent) :additional of eden 304(new 2weeks) to circulate bottom soil debris on top of cannister as my plants get too dense sometimes and too much fish dropping due to heavy bioload.. now okay liao... whiter lapis sand...

Tank Temperature :25chilled by cooler

Chemical Properties (Fill what you can)
-------------------------------------
KH (dKH): 4
GH (dGH)
pH :6.3-6.6
NH4 (ppm)
NO2 (ppm)
NO3 (ppm): ?
PO4 (ppm)
Fe (ppm)

Bioload (Number and type of fish and plants)
------------------------------------------
many many wild caught fishy(60-80fishes) with shrimps(40-50) heavily planted with rare plants and high req. plants.. only few fast growing plants behind..
Describe your problem :
----------------
Used to get all algae problems(even bga-used very little erythromycin to cure in two days.) when i first started with 12hrs of non stop lighting then i change to spilt my light timings to 0600-1030 and off and 1530-1930... most algae stop.

few months will spot 1-2 small clumps of bba(removed manually) on c.parva and near ground plants,
top mosses tend to get freshgreen hair algae (infected moss removed every wc-problem solved when i pasted black tape on top of my plastic clear cover to block light from the mosses right at top near water surface.) due to intense high directly above i tink..

I am not really bother by this little algae problem as really my plants are growing very fast(even slow grow and rare plants) and bubbling on every single leaves... sometimes the bubbles stays under the leaves so long til the next morning even thou i off my lights in the night..

I just need some advise on whether i should put nitrate and phosphate from DR malick and seachem potassium as i already have them for a year liao but not sure how to use... oso is it normal for mi to add so little liquid fert and traces--as i see many ppl are using 1 capful or more.. i tried adding more drops, i will see green spot algae on my tank glass... if i wana increase my light hr can i do so without algae? pls advise.. thks in advance..

[hirowen]

Hi Poopoobud,

Just my humble and personal suggestion

Wattage of light:

I used to have 2 x 55watt PL too for a 2ft planted tank. Problem very quickly arise. BBA, spot algae, hair algae, combo together give me! Actually, 1 x 55watt is sufficient already. But 1 good thing about 110w of lighting is that it grows plant very quickly, sometimes too fast until i lazy to trim. So its up to u whether u want to stick to 110w.


Duration of light :

Are you using a timer? i dunno about the splitting of lighting duration. But it would be better to have a straight 7 ~ 10hrs of lighting duration, more natural i think Or if u dun mind to spend on 1 more timer, and u still insist on using 2 x 55w, you can set the time to maybe 0900~1200 55w, 1200~1500 110w, 1500~1700 55w again.

Fertilising :

I am using Dr mallick lushgro Aqua, KNO3 & H2PO4. I am running the same 2ft tank, this is my personal regime, 2 x 2.5ml LushGro Aqua, 3 x KNO3(1/5 teaspoon), 3 x H2PO4 (1/30 teaspoon)

[poopoobud]

thks Michael, i have another timer oso.. i started of with one 55W at first but it was not enough to lit my whole tank as it was too dense sometimes and my tank is 1.5wide.. i dun seem to have enough light.. that's why i invested on another.. after that my plants stop dieing on me and grew well... i like the idea of ur lighting method for mi, but i change my ballast to a single ballast to on two lights at once as my old magnum ballast failed... anyone can advise more for mi? i would like to hear some words from ppl like Peter,Terence & others please.. thks again.

[ranmasatome]

PPB,
Your bioload is immensely high for that tank is it not??
That makes it a big headache when it comes to dosing... i feel that it is something that oyu have to experiment to see what is best for your tank. IF co2 levels are well and what you say.. then you can concentrate on others... use a fert calculator... what you want to hit is is probably 5-10ppm for no3. 2ppm for po4. 0.5-1 ppm for fe...depends though... i'm running a tank with 2.4ppm of iron.. and about 10-20ppm of k. dont forget the traces..
i dont know how helpful that was...sorry...lol..
bet i also suspect that you have a co2 problem.. if your co2 is as high as you say..and your bioload is that high.... shouldnt some or at least 1-2 of yout fishes be gasping for air??

[poopoobud]

Sorry ranmasatome, when u say probably 5-10ppm for no3. 2ppm for po4. 0.5-1 ppm for fe is one shot or slowly dosing everyday til it reach that amount before the next WC? as for CO2, i did not face any problem and that i have hardly anything that will bring down pH except for driftwood which is not much i tink.. thks for ur input too..

[PeterGwee]

You seem to have multiple issues going on there.

1) Bioload is way too heavy even for your slightly large than normal 2 feet tank. (The source of nitrogen by critters is NH3/NH4 first! The main cause of algae issues.)

2) BGA (Either very low NO3 or a badly clogged filter from too much muck.)

3) BBA (Low CO2/variable....you need to work on getting more flow through the reactor and better mixing when the CO2 rich water comes back into the tank. If the reactor is used inline with the external filter, clean the filter often or consider using a dedicated powerhead for it. How fast does the CO2 get to optimal level say 30ppm from ambient level (3-4ppm) in your case?)

4) Hair algae (poor nutrients/low CO2 does seem to induce it.)

Regards
Peter Gwee

[ranmasatome]

Sorry ranmasatome, when u say probably 5-10ppm for no3. 2ppm for po4. 0.5-1 ppm for fe is one shot or slowly dosing everyday til it reach that amount before the next WC? as for CO2, i did not face any problem and that i have hardly anything that will bring down pH except for driftwood which is not much i tink.. thks for ur input too..

i meant it as to keep those levels in the water daily.. not dose daily but on an average, thats what you want your water to contain daily.

[|squee|]

So therefore you have to estimate... for example for my Anubias dominant tank, I dose less often than I would for a tank full of stemmed plants because uptake for nutrients is slower in my tank than the other (Anubias are slow-growing, while stemmed plants eat up nutrients like crazy).

I'd say for your tank, at least twice a week. One after your water change, and the other mid-week (depends on when your water change was).