What's going on?!

[Byron]

Thankyou for this info

I'm aware that my water isn't ideal for some of the species I have. I wish I was aware of this at the time I got them. I wasn't very clued up and went on the advice of my LFS (bad idea)

Long term I want to get the soft water species into a separate tank and have my 180 as a livebearers tank. Currently trying to raise funds for this and find some space!

We (and other members) can discuss the soft water tank in time. I will just say that the only safe way to do this with hard source water is to dilute the tap water with "pure" water. Pure water meaning Reverse Osmosis, distilled or rainwater. This is not difficult initially, but the problem then is that water changes need similarly prepared water, and emergency major water changes might be needed, so this gets a bit cumbersome and/or expensive.

LFS all too often give less than accurate advice, unfortunately.

 

[james.ritch]

We (and other members) can discuss the soft water tank in time. I will just say that the only safe way to do this with hard source water is to dilute the tap water with "pure" water. Pure water meaning Reverse Osmosis, distilled or rainwater. This is not difficult initially, but the problem then is that water changes need similarly prepared water, and emergency major water changes might be needed, so this gets a bit cumbersome and/or expensive.

LFS all too often give less than accurate advice, unfortunately.

I am fairly familier with RO and RO/DI water. My plan long term is to get an RO unit and produce the water myself at home.

I'm currently cycling a new tank for my a Betta and was considering using RO water for this but after consulting this forum I was informed that locally bred Betta fish should acclimate to my tap water just fine.

I appreciate all your help!

 

[StevenF]

EasyLife liquid carbon I will assume is their EasyCarbo. They don't say the ingredients, which bothers me. The fact that it kills algae suggests some toxic chemical, perhaps glutaraldehyde (this is the ingredient in Seachem's Excel and API's CO2 Booster).

I agree with this. personally my observation is people tend to worry about the most abundant and most discussed plant nutrients and ignore more of the other 15. Most aquarium plants get the carbon they need for CO2 from the fish and air. If you have good surface agitation you should have enough carbon for excellent plant growth, assuming you have enough macro and micro nutrients. I have personally experimented with excel. I have all the micro and macro fertilizers covered in my tanks. When I added Excel I notice no change in plant growth rate. And in fact it harmed some of my plants.

I would drop the carbon supplement and just go with profito. However be advised that profit is deficient in calcium, cobalt, nickel, and might be deficient in sulfur. IN many cases there is enough calcium in tap water to supply the plants needs. Nickel and cobalt could become a problem. When you run out of your current fertilizer I would suggest going to Brightwell Aquatics Florinmulti or Sachem comprehensive. They have better coverage of plant nutrient needs than most aquarium fertilizers.

 

[james.ritch]

I agree with this. personally my observation is people tend to worry about the most abundant and most discussed plant nutrients and ignore more of the other 15. Most aquarium plants get the carbon they need for CO2 from the fish and air. If you have good surface agitation you should have enough carbon for excellent plant growth, assuming you have enough macro and micro nutrients. I have personally experimented with excel. I have all the micro and macro fertilizers covered in my tanks. When I added Excel I notice no change in plant growth rate. And in fact it harmed some of my plants.

I would drop the carbon supplement and just go with profito. However be advised that profit is deficient in calcium, cobalt, nickel, and might be deficient in sulfur. IN many cases there is enough calcium in tap water to supply the plants needs. Nickel and cobalt could become a problem. When you run out of your current fertilizer I would suggest going to Brightwell Aquatics Florinmulti or Sachem comprehensive. They have better coverage of plant nutrient needs than most aquarium fertilizers.

I will stop using the liquid co2 in that case. Is there any ferilisers you would recommend over profito? I have looked into EI on this website: http://www.aquariumplantfood.co.uk/fertilisers/dry-chemicals/starter-kits/ei-starter-kit.html

Do you have any experience of using this?

 

[Byron]

I will stop using the liquid co2 in that case. Is there any ferilisers you would recommend over profito? I have looked into EI on this website: http://www.aquariumplantfood.co.uk/fertilisers/dry-chemicals/starter-kits/ei-starter-kit.html

Do you have any experience of using this?

I agree with stopping the carbon additive. The largest single source of CO2 in an aquarium comes from the breakdown of organics in the substrate. Unless you are running a high-tech planted tank, this will be sufficient. You just need to get the lighting and other nutrients in balance.

As for a "complete" liquid fertilizer, you may or may not need this, depending upon the plants (species and numbers), fish load and feedings. I have had small (10g) tanks with plants and fish that had no plant additives, no light aside from the window, and no filter. That won't work with larger tanks, but my point is that some nutrients are naturally occurring. When you reach the level at which you need fertilizer, one that is complete and internally balanced will usually be the best. Having said that, remember that all nutrients do occur from fish food, and many of the plant nutrients are micro-nutrients so needed in very small amounts. The ProFito may thus be fine, so before throwing it out I would use it, just perhaps less per dose/week as I explained previously. For the future, there are two complete liquids I am aware of: Seachem's Flourish Comprehensive Supplement for the Planted Aquarium, and Brightwell Aquatics' FlorinMulti.

Turning to your question on EI, I am not one who recommends this. Dumping in plant additives beyond what is almost certain to be necessary and beneficial is not going to benefit the plants, and it can cause algae. It also gets inside the fish. The principle of EI is that you dump in more nutrients than you need, then do massive water changes to reduce some of them. This really makes no sense when you look at it objectively. But it is not much of a problem in plant-only tanks, but can be a real problem if fish are present.

Even among the 8 planted tanks in my fish room, there are some that receive twice weekly doses of liquid fertilizers, some get only one (and not a full "dose" at that), some get substrate tabs only (which is best of all because these do not leech into the upper water column if they are the Flourish Tabs).

Byron.