I am new in plant aquarium.
Have just set up my 17"L x 8"W x 9"H plant aquarium for 2 weeks, keeping some hair grass, riccia, taiwan moss and some un-identify plants (i don know the name).
Fauna wise, got 12 neon tektra and 2 guppy.
I am using ADA aqua soil (amazonia), DIY CO2 with around 1 bubble per second with CO2 difuser, 36W PL light.
My filter elements are sponge, ceramic rings and zeolite stone.
Supplements using :
Seachem Flourish Nitrogen
Seachem Flourish Phosphurus
Seachem Flourish Potassium
Seachem Flourish Iron
Seachem Flourish Trace
I have started to dose liq fert, but don know am i using the correct fert or miss out anything. May i know the Seachem Flourish Excel is a must ?
Thank you very much.
Artificial Intelligence
Hi Wfc 31,
Yes, excel is important to your regiment. Its organic food to your plants and very effective against algae when use 'properly'. Its more important to have excel then phosperous, nitrogen or trace but they work best together. I have been using seachem for sometime now and found the results.There is a regiment table somewhere in a older thread where I ask about the dosage program and the Mods were kind enough to give me the link.
Something about the water & the fishes that calms me down.
Renew your DIY CO2 mixture regularly and diligently, and your plants should be good-growing!
You might be refering to this...
http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...ad.php?t=13467
guys, thanks to ur advices and the link.
so, i will go and get the Seachem Flourish Excel today, C328 is my favorite LFS.
from the day i dosed the liquid supplements, my plants are in healthy grow, somemore got bubble all over the leaves.
the main problem now is the hair alge on the plant leave and aquarium glass, read form the previous articles, dosing of Flourish Excel could help in reduce or prevent the hair alge, am i rite?
actually not really true, you dont have to remove get the seachem excel as they provide inorganic carbon for you plants, and this acts as supplements for tanks that do not use co2. So unless you have the cash, why not? But if you are asking fr absolute necessity, i doubt so, you dont have to get excel
And yea, as long as you continue your fert regime plus the diy co2, it is already sufficient,
Why not post a pic let us see your tank and maybe some pple here can help identify and let you know what plants you have. Also fill out the tank specs form so pple can have a better understanding of your overall tank specs
Holy is the Lord, God Almighty ! The Earth is filled with His Glory !
90 x 50 x 50 cm tank: Eheim 2217; ANS CO2 Solenoid with 60mm intense bazooka; Zetlight 6400; Teco 500 Chiller; Borneo Wild Steel inlet/outlet
Ferts: Dry Mixture/Dr Mallicks. Temp: 26 degrees Substrate: ADA Amazonia
this my the view of my ~1.5ft planted tank.
the plants in my tank.
the un-identify plant at the rear seem to be not healthy at all. the leaves become transparent spot, any idea? but the still green parts are bubbling ler, any idea to get restore the greenish?
thanks again for ur help.
For the nutrients part, you can still use Seachem Nitrogen (target 10ppm per dose), Phosphorus (2ppm per dose) and drop the Potassium, Trace and iron. Get the Seachem Equilibrium and Flourish to replace the three.
Now, you have everything well except for the CO2 part which is the weak link (its the most important issue of plant growth actually). Unless you keep up on the bottle changes for the DIY CO2 such that the riccia pearls very well 2-3 hrs into the photoperiod or by mid-day, the nutrients are not going to do its work. You are likely going to have plant growth or algae issues. Go with gas CO2 or consider non-CO2 with less light.
Regards
Peter Gwee
Peter,
Thanks for ur suggestion for the gas CO2, but the complete set of proper CO2 cost a bomb for me now, maybe will invest in sooner later.
Actually my Riccia and Moss and Hairgrass able to pearls after 2hrs i on the light, that means my Ferts dosing is working?
I have got my Seachem Flourish Excel. Just wanna to know Excel really help to remove algae? Current i have algae attact, green color hair type, and read from the previous article, some members here overdose the Excel to get rib of algae, can it works?
The initial cost is high but its well worth it and the chances of success is higher especially since you use a lot of light. I'm just afraid you might give up due to fustration before you even get the CO2 tank.Originally Posted by wfc31
You have loads of light...the effect I'm afraid would not last since excel does not cut it at that intensity of light.
I have told folks over the other forum that excel is not an algaecide (seems like they think it is) but a plant nutrient (carbon in a complex form). Adding it helps the plant to grow and thats about it. It will not kill the algae for your info. The algae is a good indicator that your tank needs improvement since they are very good bio-indicators of tank conditions.
My advice is to either get the CO2 tank fast or lower the intensity of the light to around 9-13w (FL/PL with good spread of light though) and add excel. Remove what is there manually as much as you can, clean filter, do a large 50-80% water change and then add back nutrients.
Tell me which you route you really want to go and I will try to suggest something for you.
Regards
Peter Gwee
Last edited by PeterGwee; 27th Nov 2005 at 22:48.
Peter, i don really understand what u meant about this :
"You have loads of light...the effect I'm afraid would not last since excel does not cut it at that intensity of light."
As u mentioned, increase the CO2, yes, i'll surely do it as fast as i can, but u suggest me to cut down the light intensity from 36W PL to 9-13W PL, why? From my knowledge, plant will only grow if supply with sufficient light, my tank is ar 1.5ft, 13W PL is sufficient? Previosly i used 18W PL, look very dark and plants die off very fast.
1.5 ft standard? I need the whole volume of the tank in US gallon. Generally, I use the W/G rule to determine how much to dose. You mention your tank size is 17"L x 8"W x 9"? Isn't that only a 5 gallon tank?
Regards
Peter Gwee
yes, my tank size is 17"L x 8"W x 9", from what i calculated, it is about 18.8 liters of water volume.
I think you made some mistakes in your tank measurements because a standard 1.5 ft tank should at least be 12-13 US gallon. Your tank dimensions is very odd. Perharps stating it in cm would be better.
Regards
Peter Gwee
sorry bro, my tank is not a standard 1.5ft tank as i custom made it to suit my table desk.
L 17" - 43.18 cm
W 8" - 20.32 cm
H 9" - 22.86 cm
Not sure about the exact dimension of the 18W PL though but if coupled with a good reflector and the light is well-spread, it should light up your tank good. You can keep your 36w PL if you wish but you need to keep up on changing the CO2 brew or you will always face issues.
Recommended Regime
50%-80% weekly water change after trimming and prunning of tank/algae removal/filter cleaning
10ppm of NO3 from Seachem Nitrogen or KNO3 3x a week
2ppm of PO4 from Seachem Phosphorus or KH2PO4 3x a week
1ml of Seachem Flourish 3x a week
Add 1/16 teaspoon of Seachem Equilibrium after the water change only.
CO2 - target 30ppm from pH/KH measurements. Try to keep it at 30ppm throughout the photoperiod. (This will be your biggest headache with DIY CO2).
Regards
Peter Gwee
ok ok, millions thanks for ur help, really appreciate.
The green hair algae growing crazy in my planted tank. Look at my Moss and Hairgrass full with green hair, feel dissapointed with it.
But i won't give up, take two hrs to trim and cut and haverst the infected Moss and Hairgrass and other plants.
i have increased the CO2 injection and reduced the 36W PL lighting with cover by green mesh, the light now seem to be 40% reduced compare to un-cover lighting.
for liq ferts, also reduce it to half of the recommended dosing, but don know is it correct or not.
Seachem recommended dosing chart :
Day 1 : Flourish Excel 5mL/40L
Flourish Iron 5mL/200L
Flourish Phosphorus 2.5mL/160L
Flourish Nitrogen 2.5mL/160L
Day 2 : Flourish Trace 5mL/80L
Flourish Excel 5mL/200L
Flourish Iron 5mL/200L
Day 3 : Flourish Potassium 5mL/120L
Flourish Excel 5mL/200L
Flourish Iron 5mL/200L
DAy 4 : Flourish Trace 5mL/80L
Flourish Excel 5mL/200L
Flourish Iron 5mL/200L
Flourish Phosphorus 2.5mL/160L
Flourish Nitrogen 2.5mL/160L
Day 5 : Flourish Potassium 5mL/120L
Flourish Excel 5mL/200L
Flourish Iron 5mL/200L
Day 6 : Flourish Excel 5mL/200L
Flourish Iron 5mL/200L
Day 7 : 5% of water change
As i have calculated my tank volume is around 20L of water, so the dosing chart for me is :
Day 1 : Flourish Excel 2.5mL/20L
Flourish Iron 0.5mL/20L
Flourish Phosphorus 0.3mL/20L
Flourish Nitrogen 0.3mL/20L
Day 2 : Flourish Trace 1.25mL/20L
Flourish Excel 0.5mL/20L
Flourish Iron 0.5mL/20L
Day 3 : Flourish Potassium 0.8mL/20L
Flourish Excel 0.5mL/20L
Flourish Iron 0.5mL/20L
DAy 4 : Flourish Trace 1.25mL/20L
Flourish Excel 0.5mL/20L
Flourish Iron 0.5mL/20L
Flourish Phosphorus 0.3mL/20L
Flourish Nitrogen 0.3mL/20L
Day 5 : Flourish Potassium 0.8mL/20L
Flourish Excel 0.5mL/20L
Flourish Iron 0.5mL/20L
Day 6 : Flourish Excel 0.5mL/20L
Flourish Iron 0.5mL/20L
Day 7 : 5% of water change
So, i have reduced the dosing to 50% from the above 20L chart to fight for the hair algae.
Anything more need to be improved or take action?
Hi Bro, I am also using Seachem's ferts (basically all of them besides equilibrium).
I do not dose according to their chart, though it is a good reference.
I dose according to the ppm level that I wish to achieve. For example on the label of Seachem Nitrogen, the formula is 0.25vn=m. I try to hit 2-3ppm per dose (I dose a few times a week). So with my 6 gallon tank, I have to dose about 5ml each time.
So far it has been working fine for me, though I am open to ideas on fine tuning it, especially as to reducing the dosage since it's pretty ex.
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