jumpsmasher Posted August 9, 2015 Report Share Posted August 9, 2015 (edited) As other have mentioned, if you are going to venture into the realm of high tech planted tanks, you probably want to look are getting a pressurized CO2; And as others have mentioned, it is all about balance; if you are dosing CO2 and ferts, you will want to make sure you have enough plants in there absorb all the nutrients you are dosing or cut back your dosing.. There are many different types of fertilization methods out there so might want do some research on what will work best for you. Commercial liquid ferts are pretty straight forward and come ready to use and but are pricey in the long run. I do like the ones that come in pump bottles, especially the ADA ones, make dosing a snap. Of course you can also buy generic pump bottles as well... DIY dry ferts are inexpensive but you will need to so some math to figure out how much to dose especially if you are mixing into a solution EI is the probably the most popular dry fert method; it basically involve dosing lots of ferts (so there is never a lack of nutrients) and resetting it once a week with a big 50% water change. More info about EI here: http://www.barrreport.com/forum/barr-report/estimative-index/2938-ei-light-for-those-less-techy-folks Please be aware that the standard EI dosing numbers are based on 30ppm of CO2; you will have to dose less if your CO2 levels are lower. They are also other methods like PS-Pro, PMDD, etc; You can pick up the dry ferts from hydroponic stores or online from theplantguy.org or Canadian Aquatics. You probably want to pick up a spoon scale from Ebay or Amazon for measuring out the ferts. Plants are no different than fish or shrimps; there are some plants with specific requirements; high N, low pH, low GH, etc; Although most of the stuff you can get locally don't need anything special but still best to decide what plants you want to have in your layout and go from there. If you are dosing CO2, make sure you don't have an air stone turned on while the CO2 is active as it will gassed your CO2. You can set it up both the CO2 (using a solenoid) and air pump to timers so that when the CO2 is on (i.e when lights are on), the air pump is turned off and vice. Alternatively, you can use an oxydator to maintain oxygen levels without gassing your CO2. The main thing with dosing ferts is to experiment and find a method that works for you; if you cannot keep a constant dosing schedule than you are going to run into issues with things being out of balance. Edited August 9, 2015 by jumpsmasher Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aqua_Yoda Posted August 9, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 9, 2015 (edited) I just ordered a co2 drop checker to constantly monitor the levels. as for pressurized co2 I am slowly gathering the pieces as I find good deals. I plan to have that up and running in a couple months with a digital ph controller to maintain levels accurately and easily. I am still in the process of stocking the tank with plants and will adjust ferts etc accordingly. any suggestions on ferts to go with my osmocote caps and excel flourish? or are most ADA good? Edited August 9, 2015 by Aqua_Yoda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jumpsmasher Posted August 10, 2015 Report Share Posted August 10, 2015 I just ordered a co2 drop checker to constantly monitor the levels. as for pressurized co2 I am slowly gathering the pieces as I find good deals. I plan to have that up and running in a couple months with a digital ph controller to maintain levels accurately and easily. I am still in the process of stocking the tank with plants and will adjust ferts etc accordingly. any suggestions on ferts to go with my osmocote caps and excel flourish? or are most ADA good? ADA is a pretty good system as far as commercial ferts goes and like i mention before I love their simple dosing system but I would consider it a more advanced one for a couple reasons; 1) it is designed to be use in conjunction with their Aquasoil substrate which releases lots of nutrients initially. Their Green Brighty line is designed accordingly; Step 1 (first 3 months), Step 2 (3m - 1yr) and Step 3 (1yr +). It is important to note that ADA products are designed to reflect Amano's own approach to setting up planted tanks and that is he plants them heavy right from the get go. 2) While much leaner than EI, the dosing schedule is similar; Brighty K is designed to be dosed daily while Green Bright Step series is dosed 2-3x a week. 3) Even if you had a full ADA setup, it is very hard to get a hold of ADA ferts right now in Canada as ADA Canada been having issues bringing them in. Another system you might consider is the new Tropica line; the Premium Fertiliser (Orange) is basically just a standard micro so it is mainly for low light plants. The Specialised Fertiliser *green) has Nitrogen and Phosphor so it better if you have higher demand plants. It is dosed once a week so might be a good simple way to get started. I haven't used it myself but I had some friends who did and got pretty good results with it. Of course no liquid ferts can compare costs wise to DIY dry ferts over the long term but it is a start. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aqua_Yoda Posted August 13, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 13, 2015 I put the second hagon retro for t5ho setup on the 29g as well today with 2 24watt power glo t5. Tank seemed a bit dark. I cut back from 10hrs due to seeing a spike in algae. It's at 9 and might drop it more if I don't get the algae spike down by other means. It's mostly brownish algae and dark string algae Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted August 13, 2015 Report Share Posted August 13, 2015 String aglae is usually caused by a deficiency in CO2 and/or nitrate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckmullin Posted August 13, 2015 Report Share Posted August 13, 2015 What are your water params? (don't forget phosphate) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aqua_Yoda Posted August 13, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 13, 2015 I don't have phosphate test yet. Going to order a full test kit. For now I'm stuck with strips Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted August 13, 2015 Report Share Posted August 13, 2015 http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/algae/62516-method-controlled-imbalances-discussion-21.html Start around post 210 and it'll tell you exactly what you're missing/imbalanced in for each type of algae Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aqua_Yoda Posted September 13, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 13, 2015 Update time: Lighting is back to 48 watts of t5 HO Life Glo plus trying a 18watt 10k t5 to see if it has any benefit. Osmocote gell caps added to substrate glass/ ceramic co2 diffuser is in no air pump just have my spraybar under water facing upward enough to make small ripples and no bubbles added to plants and livestock new plants: Java moss, 3 tiny mystery anubias, 2 more tiger lotus lillies. Fish: 5 black skirt tetras, 2 ornate tetras, one neon tetra and a female beta ( all came as package deal) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aqua_Yoda Posted September 13, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 13, 2015 had to trim a bunch off my 3 larger anubias after an algae outbreak so now the 2 in corners are small. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aqua_Yoda Posted September 13, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 13, 2015 more new pics Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aqua_Yoda Posted September 13, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 13, 2015 new pics of other side Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aqua_Yoda Posted September 13, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 13, 2015 (edited) better front pic Edited September 13, 2015 by Aqua_Yoda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aqua_Yoda Posted September 20, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 20, 2015 (edited) UPDATED: I have started mixing RO water with my tap water to lower PH, GH and KH to acceptable parameters as well as lower the phosphates from tap water. My PH was over 8.8 and GH/KH over 300 in tap water. I ad Kent RO buffer to the RO for essential minerals etc. I have stopped using Flourish Excel as it's too hard to use it without melting vail, Lillie's and such. I was advised to not use it by more than one aquarist in the area. To compensate I now ordered Seachem flourish, flourish iron and flourish potassium. The RO buffer and flourish should ad enough trace but will order flourish trace if needed. The Osmocote caps seem to be working great and the Lillies roots are massive now. I upgraded the bottle caps on my DIY Co2 to real manufactures caps with fittings to stop any leaking. Edited September 23, 2015 by Aqua_Yoda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aqua_Yoda Posted October 3, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2015 UPDATE: I started using flourish, flourish iron and flourish potassium along with my excel and osmocote, the picture is a comparison of shortly before I started the new dosing and after. Can you tell which is which? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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