SuperColey1
Planted Section
I doubt it was the plant ferts if you are going by thebottle instructions. I would say I dose more than 10x the amount of ferts on EI than most 'recommended' bottle instructions add in to the tank.
40ppm nitrate in the tap water is apparently common in Essex. However with 30-50% substrate planted I would have thought it would be much less by the time the next water change was due as the plants should be consuming some.
Do you test just the tap water or are you testing tank water just before water change?
I wouldn't take the test as an accurate reading either because nitrate kits aren't very accurate in the main but it would be interesting to see what the nitrate content at the end of each week was compared to the tap.
If it is still high without the addition of KNO3 then I would say you have a substrate problem which is creating the extra nitrates and if you have a substrate problem you can then get a problem with unhardy bottom feeders!!!
By unhardy I don't mean sensitive. I mean any fish that 'uise' the substrate like sand sifters ; Corys/Rams etc. Most Plecs are like tanks and indestructible in comparison.
AC
40ppm nitrate in the tap water is apparently common in Essex. However with 30-50% substrate planted I would have thought it would be much less by the time the next water change was due as the plants should be consuming some.
Do you test just the tap water or are you testing tank water just before water change?
I wouldn't take the test as an accurate reading either because nitrate kits aren't very accurate in the main but it would be interesting to see what the nitrate content at the end of each week was compared to the tap.
If it is still high without the addition of KNO3 then I would say you have a substrate problem which is creating the extra nitrates and if you have a substrate problem you can then get a problem with unhardy bottom feeders!!!
By unhardy I don't mean sensitive. I mean any fish that 'uise' the substrate like sand sifters ; Corys/Rams etc. Most Plecs are like tanks and indestructible in comparison.
AC
