Fertilizer

[spidermen]

Hi Guys,

I am getting confused with all the fertilizer and trace name even though I tried following the thread of in this area. Dun understand it at all.

So far I have brought Dr Millick - K2SO4 and MgSO4 and Sera Florence trace and element, which I faithfully add after every water change. Is this sufficient for my 2ft tank? as riccia still do not bubble?

A.
Can someone please enlighten me on the following, what is that refer to :-

1. K+, N, P? Is this the same thing you are talking about as below?
2. PO4?
3. NO3?
4. NO2?
5. NH4?
6. Ca,Mg?

B.
All I know is that I need to test the above, but what to add to increase or decrease if any of it is short of?

Thanks a lot.

[PeterGwee]

Where is the important CO2? All of the nutrients won't be used up when CO2 is limited. Get the CO2 up to 20-30ppm during the lighting period before embarking on nutrient balancing.

[spidermen]

Hi Peter,

Thanks. Yes, CO2 is very important.

Beginners Info Sheet Information
--------------------
Tank Dimensions (LxWxH): 0.6*0.3*0.36m (2ft tank)
Tank Volume (litres or gallons): 14.2 gallons
Lighting Intensity(No of Watts) : 15w x 2
Type of Lighting (FL/PL/MH) : NEC, FL lights, Twin lights
No. of Hours your light is on : 9-10 hrs
CO2 Injection Rate (bps) : 20bpm
Type of CO2 (DIY/Liquid/Tank) : Tank
Method of Injection (e.g. Diffusor/Reactor): Diffusor
Substrate Used : JBL
How Thick is your base fert : 1" inch (1kg)
How thick is your gravel : 2.5 inch (10kg)
Liquid Fertilizers Used : Sera Florence & Dr Millicks (K2SO4 & MgSO4)
Frequency of fertilization : weekly
Tank Temperature : 29 ~ 30
Type of Filter (overhead/internal/canister) : Eheim 2231
Filter media used : Eheim substrate, Bio Rings, Active Carbon
How long has your tank been set up : 5th April 2003
Other equipment :

Chemical Properties (Fill what you can)
---------------------------------------
Carbonate Hardness (KH):
Total Hardness (gH):
pH :
NH4 (ppm):
NO2 (ppm):
NO3 (ppm):
PO4 (ppm):
Fe (ppm):

Bioload (Your Fish and Plants)
------------------------------

<State what fishes and plants you have to the best of your ability>
Fishes
Cardinal Tetra 30
Tetra - Black Neon 5
Redeye 1
Rummy nose 1
Yamato prawns 4
SAE 2
OTO 2
Corydoras 3
Guppies 3
Platty (colorful) 2

Plants
Ricca 3 mesh
Driftwood with ?
Echinodorus Quadricostatus
Echinodorus Tennellus [Chain Sword]

** I trust that my lighting is not enough.

But beside that, can you enlighten on the macronutrients? dun understand at all.

Me fail in all science subject!

[vinz]

A.
K = Potassium, K+ = K-something (E.g. K2SO4, KNO3, etc)
N = Nitrogen
P = Phosphorus

PO4 = Phosphate. P exist in our tanks mainly as part of PO4.
NO2 = Nitrites. Bad, very bad. You do not want any of this in your tank.
NO3 = Nitrates. Final product of the Nitrogen-cycle. Go read up Nitrogen-cycle, very impt to know if you want to keep fish (even if no plants). www.thekrib.com is a good place to start. Plants take N from NO3 and ammonia. Some NO3 (5 - 10ppm) is good. Less is not good for a typical fast growing planted tank. More may contribute to algae problems, but some ppl have high NO3 with no problems with algae.
NH3 = Ammonia AND
NH4 = Ammonium. Part of the N-Cycle. NH3 is more toxic then NH4. Bad to have in your tank, in general. Plants take some of it, while the rest are converted, if there is enough n-cycle bacteria, to NO2 then NO3.
Ca = Calcium
Mg = Magnesium

B. You don't have to test for all.

Ca and Mg, if your do not see deficiency symptoms on your plants, you don't really have to worry about them

NH3/4 and NO2, maybe during when your tank is cycling, else don't worry too much. If you cycle your tank properly, you shouldn't have to test for it.

Recommendations for:
NO3: 5 - 10ppm. Reduce with water change, fast growing plants, or reduce feeding. Add via KNO3, more fishes, or more feeding. The last 2 are quite trial and error.
PO4: 10% of NO3. Reduce with water change, or fast growing plants, reduce feedng. Add via KH2PO4, or more feeding.

For small tanks, Seachem Flourish Nitrogen and Phosphorus can be considered.

[PeterGwee]

Okay, your light is a bit low for riccia...get a 36W PL set and add to one of your current 15W lamp set (Total 51Watts...about 3.6W/Gallon).

NO3 aka nitrate and PO4 aka phosphate are macronutrients along with Potassium(K), Ca and Mg (GH). This macronutrients are required in larger amounts than micro-nutrients aka traces (Eg.Flourish or TMG). In order to grow plants well, look into the following if you run into problems.

Light (2-3W/Gallon depending on the plants you plan to grow)

CO2 (20-30ppm)

NO3 5-10ppm (Dose with KNO3 or Seachem Nitrogen)

K 20-30ppm (Some dispute over this level but I just stick with it)

Ca/Mg(GH) 3dGH or above (Dose with Seachem Equilibrium or CaCL and MgSO4)
Traces (5ml/20 Gallon : scale up or down according to tank size ...Base on Flourish or TMG....You can also try increasing the dosage but maintain the regime for 3-4weeks to see if addition of extra traces would better growth..)

Phosphate 0.5-1ppm (Dose with KH2PO4 or fleet enema. Low concentration of this could seriously limit NO3 uptake.)

[spidermen]

Hi Vinz,

thanks for the englightenment!

However...it leads to my question mark to me? me veri slow lah.

A.
What is ppm stand for? How do you measure it? Like CO2 ppm? like NO3 5-10ppm thought we use Bps or Bpm etc.

B.
1. Is your recommendiations on dosage for NO3 and PO4 on top on weekly my K2SO4,MgSO4 (is it the same as Ca/Mg?)and Traces?

2. what do you mean by reduce with water change, fast growing plants, or reduce feeding?

- do you mean reduce the dosage of NO3 to 5ppm or lower with every water change? grow more fast growing plants and at the same time reduce feeding for my above fishes?

3.
Do I still need to test on Ph or KH? is there any relation to the above?

Thank you for your patience.


[]

[geoffrey]

A.
What is ppm stand for? How do you measure it? Like CO2 ppm? like NO3 5-10ppm thought we use Bps or Bpm etc.

ppm - parts per million. Tells you concentration.
Measurement with test kits. Can buy in lfs (local fish shop).
BPS tells you the flow rate of CO2 but not what is actually in the water.

B.
1. Is your recommendiations on dosage for NO3 and PO4 on top on weekly my K2SO4,MgSO4 (is it the same as Ca/Mg?)and Traces?

Yes, you dose them ONLY if they are depleted or are limiting your plants growth. Depleted does not means zero.

2. what do you mean by reduce with water change, fast growing plants, or reduce feeding?

In water change, you introduce new and clean water into and remove older from your tank. In effect you are diluting your tank's water.

Fast growing plants take up or consume your nutrients faster hence reduce the concentration of your NO3... in your tank.

Food contains N,P,K.... too. Reduce feeding hence reduce them.

3.
Do I still need to test on Ph or KH? is there any relation to the above?

pH and KH will tell you your CO2 concentration in your water.

[bclee]

ppm = parts per million.
(1 out of 1,000,000)

1 ppm = 1mg/L

(1L = 1kg = 1,000g = 1,000,000mg;
therefore 1ppm = 1mg/1,000,000mg = 1mg/L)

NO3 & PO4 Dosing
As per mentioned, the recommended level of this 2 components is:
NO3 5-10ppm or mg/L
PO4 0.5-0.7ppm ot mg/L

First you can do a test on your water to determine the NO3 and PO4 level.

1. If they fall below the recommended level, you can dose accordingly to raise the ppm to the desired level. Calculate the dosage required to raise the ppm. You can use calculator like this to help you on the calculation. Some may advocate increase feeding to raise these values, but personally I do not like it, because it also create more waste which can cause other problem.

2. If the values are higher than the recommeded level, you don't really have to do anything. Just keep up the weekly water changes and monitor the levels.

pH & KH
These values has nothing to do with all the nutrients mentioned. But these values will tell you the amount of CO2 in the water. You can refer to this to understand the pH-KH-CO2 relationship.

BC

[juggler]

Spidermen:
How about reading more at http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/articles.htm, in particular, http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_p...izer_intro.htm.

[spidermen]

Thanks BC and Geoffery,

At least know i understand a bit. catch some balls already!

1. So the first step one should take is test the PH and KH to determine the PH and KH?

2. What is the ideal Ph and KH? to reach the ideal CO2 20ppm?

3. How to do increase or decrease the Ph and KH accordingly? Some thread mention soda carbonhydrate to raise the KH, i thk? Am I right?

Thanks.

[:0]

[geoffrey]

Did you read the links Juggler and BC suggested? The answers are there.

Or you may want to try here and then click on "water care".

[spidermen]

Hi Geoffrey,

yes, I have read the links.

but it did not mentioned how to increase or decreaes the PH or KH accordingly to reach the ideal CO2.

How you guys do it?

[bclee]

Increase CO2 ---> lower pH; KH no change
Decrease CO2 ---> increase pH; KH no change

Add KH-plus or baking soda ---> increase KH & pH

BC

[spidermen]

Hi BC,

you mean increase the CO2 bubble per minute or second accordingly?

Cheers!

[bclee]

yes.

BC

[geoffrey]

Spiderman,

You ought to be hang. Increase CO2 by increase your bubble rate per seconds. That will increase your pH hence your CO2ppm will increase too.

[bclee]

Geoffrey, reduce pH... reduce...

BC

[geoffrey]

Guess I'm the one ought to be hang!!!!

[spidermen]

Hi Geoffery,

Thanks. Yeap I got to be hang! Definitely for asking silly question again.

Okie, will go buy the PH and KH test kit this weekend.

If you all dun mind, i will come back if I got further question on this. (scratch head)

Thanks you all of you for making my planted experience less miserable and more happy now.

CheerS!

[spidermen]

Hi Guys,

I have tested the PH and Kh over the weekend.

KH : 3 ppm
Ph : 6.5 ppm ~ 7 ppm (as the green colour is in between the Tetra PH test kit indicator).
Checking the PH/KH/CO2 chart, the CO2 seem to be ideal.

However, I realised that riccia and some plants is infested with BBA. Oops, what should I do to remove this?

Is my weekly dosage enough? or Causing the problem?

Any advice?

[:0]