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Thread: FERT or NO FERT

  1. #1
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    FERT or NO FERT

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    My new tank is closing to a month old now...they seem to be growing but in a slow pace..I have ADA soil,pressurized co2 and 5.4wpg . Should I add fert to speed up the growth. If so liquid or tablet form? In the other hand I am worry about algae breakout if too much fert is added.. please comment on this.

    I have the following plants :

    1) Tonina belem (Background)
    2) Limnophila aromatica (Background)
    3) Rotola indica
    3) Swordplant ??need id?? (Background) to cover my filter inlet
    4) java moss (Foreground)
    5) Cryptocoryne ??need id?? (Middleground)
    6) red lotus ??need id??










  2. #2
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    hi tman, I like your setup! I think the ID for the red lotus is Nymphaea lotus ("zenkeri") but not 100% sure... Are you thinking about adding fish? just wondering. it looks pretty good!
    Breeding golden snakeskin guppies

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    Hi tman,

    with high lightings and CO2 setup, i advise you to add NPK consistently. Otherwise algae problem will come due to nutrient limitation.
    For me i am dosing my 1.5ft co2 setup with seachem flourish 3x/week, seachem excel daily, seachem trace 2x/week, KNO3 3x/week and KH2PO4 3x/week. Different ppl have different dosing regime

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    Quote Originally Posted by DazzleDiscus
    hi tman, I like your setup! I think the ID for the red lotus is Nymphaea lotus ("zenkeri") but not 100% sure... Are you thinking about adding fish? just wondering. it looks pretty good!
    TQ I check on the net.. it seems like zenkeri still too young to tell... I amk still thinking of what fish to add since I am shrimp and maybe shrimplets in the future.. really unsure what kinda fish . any recommendation

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    Quote Originally Posted by hirowen
    Hi tman,

    with high lightings and CO2 setup, i advise you to add NPK consistently. Otherwise algae problem will come due to nutrient limitation.
    For me i am dosing my 1.5ft co2 setup with seachem flourish 3x/week, seachem excel daily, seachem trace 2x/week, KNO3 3x/week and KH2PO4 3x/week. Different ppl have different dosing regime
    Hi hirowen, what is NPK? is there a simple one type "all in" fertiliser that I could use.. really it seems difficult by using so many kinds of ferts for a beginner like me

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    In my 2feet tank, I use ADA Aquasoil Amazonia with CO2 on high, and daily dosage of Ferka's Aquatilizer and Balance-K. Weekly water change of 50% with Seachem Equilibrium 1 teaspoon added.

    Aquatilizer and Balance-K takes care of my micros and potassium nutrients, while Equilibrium takes care of the rest.

    I depend on the substrate and daily fish feedings for nitrogen during this early period. Later on I might have to supply nitrogen.

    NPK stands for Nitrogen Phosphorous Potassium, the three "main" nutrients needed by plants in larger amounts compared to the rest needed.

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    Quote Originally Posted by tman
    Hi hirowen, what is NPK? is there a simple one type "all in" fertiliser that I could use.. really it seems difficult by using so many kinds of ferts for a beginner like me
    As what terrence has said, NPK refer to Nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, which are the most impt nutrients to plant. Hmm, from my personal view, every brand of liquid fert, there is a so called "all in one" fertilizer, eg. seachem flourish, tetra flora pride, ferka aquatilizer and etc. What they do is they only provide the plants with micro nutrients and trace element, there is still lack of something in it, eg seachem flourish contain low amount of nitrogen, tetra flora pride and ferka aquatilizer contain no nitrogen and phosphorus. Of cuz your plant will still grow, but if you include the macros(NPK), the result will be BETTER! Greener and lusher plants, fast growing and broader leaves. And if you look closely, every brands confirm will come out some side supplements, for seachem, there are seachem nitrogen, seachem phosphorus seachem potassium and seachem equallibium. For ferka, which is ferka Balance-K. Dont ask me why they dont want to mix all into one cuz i also dont know . Maybe this is due to their marketing strategy? Or maybe due to some chemical reaction that cannot be done? So if you really love this hobby, you gotta LEARN , i believe every bros here will help you.

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    The range of products for most manufacturers are meant for you to tailor to your tank needs because your tank is always growing and the proportion of nutrient needs for different plants are different.
    So how to tell what to put?
    Watch the plants for signs of deficiency.
    Generally speaking of aqua plants-[which I think is slightly different with terrestrial because nutrient uptake can be from the leaves/stems as well]
    Pinholes in the leaves-could be potassium deficiency,
    New leaves yellow-dying -iron deficiency.
    Small stunted leaves/plants and slow growth could be N or P deficiency

    Please refer to Chuck's ND page which I found very useful.

    Maybe should create plant deficiency page/gallery? Yo Benny...
    Maybe your plants don't have but members can post theirs so experts can give their diagnosis? Pictures would be great.
    You can if you dare to fail - Stan Chung

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    Tman,

    I think the plants on your right corner tank is amazon sword, & you have windelov in the center.
    As for fishes, generally fishes will swallow living / moving things which are smaller than their mouth, so if you want to keep fish that safe for the shrimplets, try to choose very small fishes, or “slow moving” fishes so they can’t chase on the shrimplets.
    In my experience clown killifish (aka : rocket panchax) is safe because they spend most time below water surface & they aren’t fast swimmer.
    I also have botia sidthimunki but I’m not sure whether it eats shrimplets or not since it has very small mouth.
    Chocolate gouramy is a fish with very small mouth too & not fast swimmer, but I haven’t enough time to observe if it danger the shrimplets or not, before the gouramy died suddenly
    Other fish you might want to try is rasbora maculata, which is the smallest fish (max 2.5 cm), but I still have no experience with them because we can’t find them here in Indonesia
    Also algae eater fish will be safe


    For sure, you can’t keep tetras (neon, glowlight, etc) & guppies… I’ve witnessed they live happily with “daily shrimplets party” in my tank previously…

    For ferts, like Hirowen said, you have to learn by doing, since every tank have their own parameter / condition, me myself still learning

    Hope that helps you…
    Last edited by Sweet Angel; 10th Sep 2006 at 12:45.

  10. #10
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    The CO2 seems off from the look of things and the light doesn't look to be 5.4w/g though. You need to supplement NPK and traces if you are going with that much light and high CO2 regime or else the plants will stunt and algae will take the opportunity to strike.

    Regards
    Peter Gwee
    Plant Physiology by Taiz and Zeiger

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    Thank you very much for all the advise... time to buy some seachem product

    will the product harm the shrimps.. .since i can see some copper contain in the Seachem flourish ingredient

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    Quote Originally Posted by tman
    Thank you very much for all the advise... time to buy some seachem product

    will the product harm the shrimps.. .since i can see some copper contain in the Seachem flourish ingredient
    Not at the amount we are dosing and if you keep up on the weekly water changes. You might consider looking for sources like KNO3, KH2PO4 instead of the seachem line which is basically diluted version of it. (Cheaper for the powder KNO3 and KH2PO4 in the long run.). Just look for the Seachem Equilibrium and Seachem Flourish would do for the Seachem line of product for the GH and general trace mix.

    Regards
    Peter Gwee
    Plant Physiology by Taiz and Zeiger

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by PeterGwee
    Not at the amount we are dosing and if you keep up on the weekly water changes. You might consider looking for sources like KNO3, KH2PO4 instead of the seachem line which is basically diluted version of it. (Cheaper for the powder KNO3 and KH2PO4 in the long run.). Just look for the Seachem Equilibrium and Seachem Flourish would do for the Seachem line of product for the GH and general trace mix.

    Regards
    Peter Gwee
    oh yes, sorry i forgotten to include dry fert KNO3 and KH2PO4 It is cheaper. So much cheaper! But dun forget to do 40-50% water change per week. I'm not sure in Malaysia where to buy it, but in Singapore, you can get Lushgro drt fert from NA @ Thomson road blk 1 just opp Thomson medical centre

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