fertilising the plants, am I doing the right way

[carlfsk]

Hi all, like to have some advice.

I had a tank by the size 5ft by 1ft by 1ft and is planting only pellia.

I am dosing with KNO3 home made concoction (concocted based on the chuck's calculator) at 5 drops, Seachem Fe at 3 - 5 drops(based on the instruction), Lushgro Aqua at 6 drops, and Lushgro Micro at 1 drop. All is dosed on an alternate day basis except for Micro which is on a weekly basis.

I have a chiller to maintain the temperature at 26 degrees.

Is my fertiliser dosing regime right?

I could see some thread like algae growing on the pellia and I was wondering what is wrong.

Lighting I'm using 2 * 36watt FL tube hanging above the water level around 6inches.

CO2 is 1bps using a ph controller to maintain a PH of 6.4. Kh is ard 4.

Can anyone advice?

[Slaigar]

Hello Carl,
Getting the right fertilizing routine at first is difficult because the amount of nutrients used depends on what(and quantity) plants you have. Even with CO2 injection, your Pellia may not be using all the nutrients. You may want to start fertilizing with longer intervals. Try one doing it weekly and see if the algae still persists. I cannot comment on the fertilizer brands as I have not used them before (I use a wacky array of cheap fertilizers).

As you start filling your tank with more plants, slowly starting adding either more fertilizer per dose or adding smaller quantities more often. It is a bit of guess and check.

Big water changes will be your best friend! From this guess and check method, there will usually be an excess of some nutrients that are not used up. Water changes can help reduce the build up.

[carlfsk]

Ya Mark. thanks. Maybe I should change the dosing routine.

I have a whole full tank of pellia growing as a landscape. No place for other plants. They are growing well initially with bubbles, so are the algae...haha. The algae do look nice on the rock works but definitely not on the pellia. lately, some patches of the pellia is growing brown and I'm not sure why is that so too.

By-the-way, the tank is about a month old.

[PeterGwee]

Double check your pH probe of the controller...something fishy here. 1bps is way too little for a 5 footer in my opinion and experience. It should take around 3-4bps for a ballpark value and even a higher bubble rate for a pH controller due to the "catchup" routine it needs to deal with. Work on the overall tank circulation as well for this big tank..you will need it for the nutrients and CO2 to circulate well through the tank. Personally, I would drop the usage of a controller...the pH probe is only measuring one side of the tank..if the circulation is poor for some reason, you might risk overdosing and kill your critters. Calibration is also critical for such stuff so you will need to keep up on things. I would rather get a good responsive CO2 reactor and a pH test pen instead..cost less and even if the reading is out, the OD only happens when the light is on.

As for the nutrients, way too low...
50-70% water change per week
Try slight more than 1/4 tsp of KNO3 after the water change
2-3 rice grain of KH2PO4 after the water change
6ml of Lushgro micros 1-2x a week
Keep the CO2 at 30ppm and error on the higher side of things for the pH. Calibrate the pH probe regularly..double check on things whenever you notice little to no pearling towards the end of the day.

Regards
Peter Gwee :wink:

[carlfsk]

Hi Peter, I guess my water circulation is fine. I'm using eheim1250 to draw water into the chiller while another Sicce Indra to drive the reactor.

The plants seems to be growing well as they are bubblings well.

Thus I was thinking is it because of excessive nutrients being dosed that cause the algae. I am also wondering if my combi of fertiliser is ok?

I did do a water change weekly and the probe is calibrated just recently.

[PeterGwee]

Since the CO2 seems right, you only need to work on the nutrients then which is too little instead of too much. By the way, set the target pH of the controller to 6.6 instead of 6.4.

Excess nutrients does not cause algae as many folks seems to think so unless it is ammonia. Folks that get algae usually have issues with CO2 or insufficient nutrients..not too much unless it is ammonia from too many critters. Give the plants what they need to grow and trim off the algae. Focus on growing the plants and forget about the algae.

Regards
Peter Gwee :wink:

[carlfsk]

Peter, can you comment on the fertiliser I'm dosing?

Is the combi good enough?

Don't have much in the tank, only a few fishes. So Ammonia should be low. Didn't test for it though.

[PeterGwee]

Just try the routine I suggest for you in the earlier post.

Regards
Peter Gwee :wink:

[FC]

Hi Carl,

Your tank's water nett volume is about 100 litres. Did you get this right when you calculate all the dosages?
I have Pelia endivifolia in my tank too. For the thread algae you are refering, are they cotton-like thread (white) and grow under the leafs?

Regarding your fertilizer mix, my opinions are:
1) You need not add KNO3 if you are using Lushgro Aqua as it has enough N already. However, it does not have Ca, PO4 and has negligible Mg, add Ca, PO4 and Mg.
2) Lushgro Aqua dosage for your tank is 10~15ml per week (e.g., Monday). Lushgro Micro, 1ml per week (e.g. Thursday).
3) You need not use Seachem Fe as combination of LGA & LGM already yield enough Fe.

Tune the CO2 bubble rate to 1.5 bps. I suspect 1 bps is not enough during the light on period. To confirm this, check if the solenoid is on all the time during the light on period (4 hours after light on till light off) and check if the PH rises during such time.
Your KH is 4, how did you get it? Did you add baking soda? I do not recommend this. Stop this and add coral chips (half feistful) to your filter medium. Keep the PH at 6.4.

[carlfsk]

Hi Freddy

Thanks for your guidance.

The algae is on the leave of the plants. There are in fact few types around. Some stick in between that look like the roots of those floating plants.

Maybe I'll try your dosing advice and see if it works. Hope the algae will be gone soon.

It's not really that bad, but if we see closely, I could see the algae and I just feel I need to do something about it.

By-the-way, why is it that we should not use bakig soda to raise the KH and instead, use coral chips? Any particular reason?

Thanks.