Co2 / Fert Questions

Hey folks,

Would just like to know the views of experienced plant keepers on how I currenlty have my setup running.

I have a 260l tank very heavily decorated with rock and Wood with various Anubias attached to wood / rock. I also have a couple of sword plants for background and christmas tree moss growing on various surfaces. Plants seem to be growing quite well and developing new leaves but they are not looking as good as I would like. I do get quite a few leaves on the anubias with pinholes or brown / black spots on which are removed every now and again. Also the same applies to the sword with several leaves deteriorating with larger holes / yellowing again regularly removed. I am not really getting much algae on very minimum spot algae only the glass occassionally.

I am running standard t5 lights (2 x54w) supplied with the Juwel 260 vision tank on for 8 hours a day.

I also have a Interpet Daylight Plus T5 Power Compact Lamp (36W) which comes on 1 hour before the main lights and goes off 2 hours before main lights. This also coincides (ran off same timer) as CO2 injection.

I use a D&D pressurised canister and regulator, the bubble checker is running around 3 - 4 bubbles per second and diffused via an "UP CO2 Atomiser 20". The diffused bubbles are then sucked straight into the inlet of my external filter and expelled via a spray bar into the tank. The spray bar is pointing slightly down to aviod too much surface aggitation and tiny bubbles are carried to most parts of the tank.

I fertilise daily with Easy life profito (3ml) and Easylife Carbo (5ml). I also add Flourish Trace twice weekly (15ml per time).

I have a drop checker in the tank which remains dark green, (not as light possibly as it should be) with 4dk solution.

I also have an airstone which is on / off at 1 hour intervals during "lights on" (same timer as 36W light and CO2)to ensure enough oxygen is in the water for my denisoni barbs (i know this could be why my CO2 levels arent as high as possible)

My substrate is a mixture of Seachem flourite Dark and Seachem flourite red.

Anyway this is my current setup, I perform twice weekly 25 - 30% water changes at same time I add flourishg trace.

My questions are simply;
1. What should I adjust on my setup and routine to imrove plant growth / General plant health?
2. There must be some sort of nutrient deficiency to be causing the holes, should i use another / more fertiliser than currently used?
3. Is dark green on the drop check showing enough CO2 should I inject more? Reduce surface aggitation further?

Thankyou very much for any advice on how to improve my current setup, I am sure there will be lots of things I am not currently doing right and am quite happy to take on board any suggestions to improve this.

Cheers,

Mark

Anybody??

Bump! Any help on improving my setup and plant health? Do you think my Amazon sword may need more iron? Thought it would get what it needed from the subsrtate and the additional ferts added as stated above but now I am not so sure!

bricko said:

Bump! Any help on improving my setup and plant health? Do you think my Amazon sword may need more iron? Thought it would get what it needed from the subsrtate and the additional ferts added as stated above but now I am not so sure!

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I'm sorry for the delay, what is your macro dosing? I'm not familiar with UK products. Is it the Easy life profito?

I often find that I have to increase my macro dosing from what the directions on the bottle say, because of CO2 injection or plant load. The deficiencies to me sound like a possible macro nutrient problem. Perhaps not enough.

Try to get the dp to read a nice, bright apple green.

Hi lljdma06,

Yes I am using Easylife profito, dosing says 10ml per 100l weekly but I tend to dose daily around 3ml mark. Would you recommend 5ml per day or shall I try 4ml per day for a week or 2 first?

Should I increase my CO2 slightly also as it is quite dark green?

Do you think I should turn of the airstone?

Sorry for so many questions but this is beginning to bug me a little

bricko said:

Hi lljdma06,

Yes I am using Easylife profito, dosing says 10ml per 100l weekly but I tend to dose daily around 3ml mark. Would you recommend 5ml per day or shall I try 4ml per day for a week or 2 first?

Should I increase my CO2 slightly also as it is quite dark green?

Do you think I should turn of the airstone?

Sorry for so many questions but this is beginning to bug me a little

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I would gradually increase the dosage until you are at the level specified by the directions, while also increasing your CO2 level. However, I would increase the CO2 levels first and get them stable before you play with the ferts. You might not need the 10ml per 100l.

CO2 first, then ferts. I'd also consider reducing the photoperiod a bit while the tank undergoes these changes. About 6-8 hours.

How is your surface agitation? Aim for a good amount of smooth little ripples. No breaking waves, but ripples. This will allow for gas exchange. You may not need the airstone. I do not use one and I'll run the dropchecker at times to yellow. No fish gasping because there is good gas exchange.

Don't apologize for asking questions. I wish you luck on your tank. You should post a picture of it. 260l is a nice size.

llj

llj,

Here is a current photo of the tank. Hope you like it. I am thinking of going for the vision 450l so I would like to get to grips with this size of planted tank first

With regard to increasing the macro ferts, I am already dosing near the recomended dosage on the bottle .i.e bottle say "10ml per 100l weekly" which would equate to aprox 25ml and I am currently dosing 3ml per 260l daily which is 21ml per week. I will up to 5ml per day and let you know how I get on. I was originally dosing far too much (around 8ml) per day and started to get a few algae issues so reduced as such. Do you think I should still reduce the photoperiod?

Surface aggitation is minimum as I have two external filters both running from opposite ends of the tank using spray bars, there is only a slight ripple across the surface. The airstone is on for 1 hour then off again for one hour, this process repeats throughout the time the CO2 is being injected. I have never seen any fish gasping for air so maybe this is uneccessary, do you think I could do without it entirely?

Thank you again for your help, it is most apreciated

Well, I put about 4-5ml of TPN+ every day in my 8g when it was in its prime scape, which is way beyond the directions, but my tank at that time was very heavy in plant mass for its size. Moss walls occupy a lot of plant mass. I would aim for small, but pretty constant rippling. It's hard to describe it exactly. You would probably think I have too much surface agitation, but this has worked for me.

How is the turnover for your filtration?

The tank is lovely. What exactly are you complaining about again?

Haha,

Thanks llj, its hard to tell in the photo but I am getting pinholes in the anubias and larger deteriation on the amazon sword leaves, it is a little annoying but at least it makes me prune regularly

Filteration turnover is around 2500lph. I am using an Aquael unimax500 rated at (1500LPH) and a Fluval 305 (1000LPH) as the tank is quite heavily decorated i think I must be quite over the recomended 10x turnover. think I am going to slowly increase the ferts and see what happens. What do you think?

Thanks again for your help

Mark

I think that is a good place to start.

Why are you dosing easylife carbo when you have pressuried CO2? no need. save your money.

wolfwolf said:

Why are you dosing easylife carbo when you have pressuried CO2? no need. save your money.

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Mainly because I have a large bottle left over, but I guessed it would not hurt to add this as a supplement to the pressurised system

bricko said:

wolfwolf said:

Why are you dosing easylife carbo when you have pressuried CO2? no need. save your money.

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Mainly because I have a large bottle left over, but I guessed it would not hurt to add this as a supplement to the pressurised system

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You could swap it to someone with a small tank for something else.

Suppose I could, do you think it is a complete waste of time?

bricko said:

Suppose I could, do you think it is a complete waste of time?

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What does your dropchecker tell you to do? Can you get it apple green without the easycarbo?