To many tannins?

Pictus said:

Good to know. My window is a north facing window, so indirect sunlight. I don't think heat should be an issue. As for oxygen I have bubbles. Do bubbles add oxygen. Also I need a co2 setup for a 75 but have only been able to find setups for 50 gallons at the pet stores. Does anyone know where I can get a co2 system for my 75 gal?

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StevenF said:

You need to know is that most fertilizers on the market don't have all the nutrients plants need. According to Aquarium coop their fertilizer doesn't have Calcium, sulfur, copper, and nickel. Most of the time yap water supplies these nutrients. But if you live in a place with very soft water or use RO water there fertilizer will not work.

Copper and nickel are trace nutrients and you likely have some in your water. calcium magnesium, and sulfur in my opinion are possibly your problem. You might want to try a GH goose such as SeaChem Equilibrium. That will provide calcium, magnesia, and sulfur. You only need to add enough to increase your GH by 1 deegreee. The GH (general harness) test only detects calcium and magneisum. so if the test indicates no GH you need to use a GH booster.

California water can have seasonal GH levels. Right now moct of california is getting a lot of rain and snow. This water has little to no GH. however during years of low precipitation ground water is often mixed with river water. Ground water is rich in GH. Also since your water supplies some of the nutrients plants need. Be sure you do weekly water changes. If you don't do a water change the plants will deplete the few nutrients that are in your water. Water cchanges replenish the water as well as removes fish waist products and unused fertilizer.

CO2 does reduce PH but you need a lot to make any reasonable drop in PH. And that much CO2 can kill your fish. and it gets expensive. Plants and fish need CO@ and oxygen. One easy way to insure you have oxygen and CO2 levels is to use water surface agitation or and air pump. You want to so surface water ripples or movement to insure excess gases in the water get out and if there isn't enough in the water it will pull those out of the air. And air pup that creates bubble in the water also does the same.

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StevenF said:

You need to know is that most fertilizers on the market don't have all the nutrients plants need. According to Aquarium coop their fertilizer doesn't have Calcium, sulfur, copper, and nickel. Most of the time yap water supplies these nutrients. But if you live in a place with very soft water or use RO water there fertilizer will not work.

Copper and nickel are trace nutrients and you likely have some in your water. calcium magnesium, and sulfur in my opinion are possibly your problem. You might want to try a GH goose such as SeaChem Equilibrium. That will provide calcium, magnesia, and sulfur. You only need to add enough to increase your GH by 1 deegreee. The GH (general harness) test only detects calcium and magneisum. so if the test indicates no GH you need to use a GH booster.

California water can have seasonal GH levels. Right now moct of california is getting a lot of rain and snow. This water has little to no GH. however during years of low precipitation ground water is often mixed with river water. Ground water is rich in GH. Also since your water supplies some of the nutrients plants need. Be sure you do weekly water changes. If you don't do a water change the plants will deplete the few nutrients that are in your water. Water cchanges replenish the water as well as removes fish waist products and unused fertilizer.

CO2 does reduce PH but you need a lot to make any reasonable drop in PH. And that much CO2 can kill your fish. and it gets expensive. Plants and fish need CO@ and oxygen. One easy way to insure you have oxygen and CO2 levels is to use water surface agitation or and air pump. You want to so surface water ripples or movement to insure excess gases in the water get out and if there isn't enough in the water it will pull those out of the air. And air pup that creates bubble in the water also does the same.

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TwoTankAmin said:

Ingredients in Tropica Premium Nutrition taken from the bottle label:
N = 0.0%
P = 0.0%
K = 0.8%
Mg = 0.4%
S = 0.9%
B = 0.004%
Cu = 0.006%
Fe = 0.07%
Mn = 0.04%
Mo = 0.002%
Zn = 0.002%

The Ingredients for Tropica Specialized Nutrition from the bottle label (only the NPK change from above):
N = 1.3%
P = 0.1%
K = 1.0%
Mg = 0.4%
S = 0.9%
B = 0.004%
Cu = 0.006%
Fe = 0.07%
Mn = 0.04%
Mo = 0.002%
Zn = 0.002%

I use these both and have for used Tropica ferts for over 2 decades. When I could in years past, I would buy the 5 liter size. The first iteration I had was called Mastergrow, if I remember right.

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seangee said:

@Pictus - while everyone is throwing a lot of chemistry at you don't get hung up on it. You don't have any particularly demanding plants. I have no experience with the co-op fertiliser you are using but since you are seeing an improvement give it time. If you aren't using root tabs try putting one at the base of each rooted plant (or cluster of plants). I happen to use the Seachem ones and they work well. Whatever you do it will take several weeks before you see the impact.
You can also experiment with light intensity and duration, but as with most things change one thing at a time and give it time to assess so you know what made the difference. It takes time to establish the right balance and no two tanks are the same.

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Essjay said:

API root tabs don't usually do any harm, but other brands have been known to. @AdoraBelle Dearheart had one brand which caused a nitrite spike but I seem to remember those root tabs were cheap unbranded ones.

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AdoraBelle Dearheart said:

Yep. Stick with brand name fertiliser tabs. I was feeling poor after buying a load of aquarium plants, so tried to cheap out and buy some random cheap Chinese root tabs from Amazon. Big mistake. I added tabs that looked like these, but the balls inside were a bright yellow, and I was adding them to dark sand, but since I bury them deep in the roots of the plants, I figured it would be fine.
View attachment 313476


The capsules melted immediately, and sent my nitrites sky high. The outer capsules had melted so I had to do frequent massive water changes, and comb through the sand, removing as many of those tiny yellow balls as possible, and remove almost all of them before the tank started to stabilise.
Stick to a known name brand in fishkeeping, not worth cheaping out on something going into the tank.

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Essjay said:

I use Seachem Flourish root tabs and have never had a problem.

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Pictus said:

I added some iron in liquid form last weekend after my water change.

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