Plant leaves curling downwards

[SnailPocalypse]

One more question.This wonn't cause algae dosing micro and macro back and forth each day right?

 

[DutchMuch]

Good question, in my experience, no, if you do experience algae even the slightest more than you have had before, adjust your lighting and experiment with that.
But for a straight answer: 95 percent no, just follow the instructions precisely.

 

[SnailPocalypse]

Ok one more thing.If anything will this help with algae?

 

[DutchMuch]

nope, ive seen your tank and its heavily planted, your good

 

[SnailPocalypse]

Ok well good thing I dont got algae and I have adjusted my lights.

 

[DutchMuch]

swag

 

[SnailPocalypse]

Now im done.

 

[DutchMuch]

sureee

 

[StevenF]

While I agree that you May have a nutrient deficiency I would delay order another fertilizer until we do a little more digging. Let me explain:

Plants need macro and micro nutrients in the water for them to grow:

• Macro nutrients are Nitrogen (N), Phosphorous (P), Potassium (K), Calcium (Ca), Sulfur (S), And Magnesium (Mg)
• Micro (trace) nutrients are Boron(B), Chlorine(Cl), Manganese (Mn), Zinc (Zn), Copper (Cu), moybdenum (Mo) Nickel (Ni), and Cobalt (Co)

I have found it very helpful to assume your water has none of these in it. This assumption is certainly true if you are using distilled, RO, or have very soft water. It is also possible to have deficiencies in soft to medium hardness water.

Look at the Nilog labels:

• The Macro fertilizer has Nitrogen and phosphorous. Ca,S,Mg are not listed.
• The Micro fertilizer has B, Mn, Zn, Cu, Mo. Ni, Co, and Clare not listed. The bottle does list Mg and GH.

The Nilog fertilizer ingredients list is typical of 90% of all fertilizers on the market. Most fertilizers are typically sold to farmers and gardeners. Soil typically has Ca, S, Mg,Ni, Co, and Cl. But putting soil in any aquarium is not a long term solution since soils typically leach out all there nutrients in about a year.

I am glad Dutch is doing OK with it. But that likely means he has the missing ingredients in his tap water. Not all tap waters are nutrient rich. Some are nutrient poor. This simple fact explains why some people have no problem growing plants without fertilizer while others have a lot of problems.

Note I have looked at EI fertilizers and at pressent I have not found any that have Ni, Co, CL. and some are significantly worse than I have lister here.

Seachem flourish, isn't a good brand period.

If you look at the Seachem Flourish comprehensive fertilizer you will find it is deficient in only 1 nutrient (Ni). Seachem Flourish comprehensive works for most people because it is one of 2 fertilizers that I know of that cover almost every nutrient. Note, Nickel was added to the nutrient list only about 30 years ago. Apparently Seachem has not updated there formula. Also Seachem deliberately reduced NPK levels in there fertilizer because most tanks have these in abundance (from fish food). If you have good growth with Seachem you might be shorts a macro nutrient.

The one other notable fertilizer is Brightwell Aquatics Florinmulti. It covers all nutrients except N and P. They designed there fertilizer with the asumption the user would adjust N and P as required by their tank.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001LUJLAS/?tag=ff0d01-20

This exercise points to one possible deficiency, Nickel. However that said plant nutrient uptake can very significantly from plant to plant. So it is possible that plant growth has depleted something in the water and fertilizer. Do you know what your GH and KH, PH numbers are? Also what are your Ammonia, Nitrite, nitrate number That may help pinpoint a cause.

 

[DutchMuch]

I am glad Dutch is doing OK with it. But that likely means he has the missing ingredients in his tap water. Not all tap waters are nutrient rich. Some are nutrient poor. This simple fact explains why some people have no problem growing plants without fertilizer while others have a lot of problems.

Just had to correct this (ocd got me like that)
Im doing great with it LOL, I don't use tap water, I use well water get tricked fam

 

[StevenF]

I don't use tap water, I use well water

Well water is typically mineral rich. My utility reports may water is a mix of surface, well, and an increasing amount of RO water. It's hard and tasts terrible but meats EPA requirements.

I installed a RO system before I decided to set up a tank. When I set up my tank I used RO and not surprisingly all my plants died. When I figured out I needed fertilizer I went to the fish store and purchased Aqueon fertilizer. Initially it worked well but plant growth slowed and then stopped. NO symptoms. Aqueous doesn't contain copper but otherwise is similar to Sachem. I switched To Sachem and plant growth returned but an algae bloom took advantage of the nutrient deficiency and that has been a problem ever since.

 

[SnailPocalypse]

Yeah I dunno I still think I may try the dry.See how it goes.Im using tap water also.And levels of tank are
0 ammonia
0 nitrite
10-15 Nitrate
PH is 6.9-7.0
Don't got a GH or KH test so no I can't do that.

 

[DutchMuch]

Well let me be more specific, in one of my tanks (both five gallons) I use distilled water, then the other is well water. I find that these fertilizers work best on the plants when the water is distilled that is in the tank.

 

[SnailPocalypse]

Im confused now.So is it ok to use this stuff when my tank has tap water in it?

 

[DutchMuch]

yes, if you need to though get the GH booster
ClownPlanted has good information on this product as well in his journal (he uses it)
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/1...gallon-heavy-planted-high-tech-co2-build.html