[Wet Thumb Forum]-Nutrient levels

[Chester A. Lampwick]

I was just wondering, what should your NPK and Iron concentrations be, ideally, in a 10 gal. planted tank? Light, substrate compostion and CO2 concentrations not withstanding.

opinions?

Thanks a ton,

[Chester A. Lampwick]

I was just wondering, what should your NPK and Iron concentrations be, ideally, in a 10 gal. planted tank? Light, substrate compostion and CO2 concentrations not withstanding.

opinions?

Thanks a ton,

[Roger Miller]

Perhaps I don't know what you mean. Light, substrate and CO2 concentrations are very important to determining what NPK concentrations are "ideal". I suppose the same thing could be said about iron, unless one were to argue that "ideally" iron should always be absent.


Roger Miller

[Chester A. Lampwick]

Sorry Roger, I guess I should have been more clear:

I'm just wondering what nutrient levels for NPK (ppm) (in the water) should I have in my 10 gal. planted tank, in order to promote optimal growth and mange algae levels. I guess I'm kinda looking for hypothetical "baseline/ideal" concentrations.

Setup:
-2x15w bulbs
-CO2 injection (yeast system)
-A 40gal/hr. powerhead (To add a little circulation)
-Aquaclear-mini filter.
-Sand substrate and laternite base

Conditions:
-13 hrs. of light a day.
-Water is at 7.0ph, 70ppm KH

Plants and fish:
Java, Windlov, Limnophlia Sessaflora, Hygrophlia Polysperma, Dwarf swords, lysimachia nummularia and sagittaria subulata. 2 SAE's.

So, essentially, I've got a lot of light and CO2 in my tank (I think...) so they wouldn't be limiting factors in plant growth (err..I think...).

Is my general interpretation of the right factors needed for a successful a little too simplistic? I guess there probably is no set "formula" for building a great tank, but I hope I could just get pointed off in the right direction (especially pertaining to water nutrient levels).

Sorry If I'm asking a lot of you folks, I'm tired of fumbling with my tank trying to get everything right through trial and error...Plus I keep being told, and read, different things by different folks...which bloody confusing...I pretty much figure that I should just ask some pro's that actually know what their doing

Thanks a lot,

[Roger Miller]

I have two tanks that are more-or-less similar to yours. The main differences are that they have Onyx substrates and use powerheads with quickfilters as their only filtration. I change 15% of the water/week and am real sloppy about changing the yeast mixes on time.

You probably aren't going to like my answers I haven't measured the levels of anything in these tanks for a long time -- years, I mean.

I dose with KNO3, sodium phosphate and Seachem Flourish. Fish feeding is a major source of both N and P in most tanks. So the dose alone can't be used to say much about the size of the supply.

I use 1/4 teaspoon of KNO3 per 10/gallons per week and split that between several tanks. That way the ten gallon tanks get the equivalent of 1/20th of a teaspoon of KNO3 each week. The K in KNO3 is the only K dose I give the tanks -- except for the little bit in Flourish. In other tanks that dose of KNO3 gives me 5-10 ppm of NO3. It may be higher or lower than that in the 10 gallon tanks.

Potassium is whatever the KNO3, the tap water and the fish food give me.

I have a solution of sodium phosphate that I mix up now and then. I use it to dose the tanks with about 0.5 mg/l of phosphate/week. I have no idea what actual phosphate concentration results in the tank. The amount of phosphate that stays in solution depends a lot on the pH and calcium content of the water, as well as on a few other details. I haven't measured.

Each tank gets 0.3 mls of Seachem Flourish/week.

My general approach is to dose no more than the plants need. I dose nothing unless experience tells me I need to. When I need to I start with a low dose and try not to exceed what my plants find necessary. Sometimes I decrease doses to see if it works. This approach requires that you watch the plants carefully. It takes some time to work things out. Patience is a virtue.


Roger Miller

[Chester A. Lampwick]

Thanks a lot!

I've had all the patience in the world up to this point, but it sure the hell hasn't given me any good results! That's why I'm askin you folks!

[nino]

I do give more attention to my 10gl planted than my bigger ones. Somehow it's been very sensitive when receiving fertilizers. A slight overdose always cause algae. Underdosing NO3 and PO4 also cause algae in my 10gl. Maybe my close to 5watts/gl lighting has something to do with it . I keep my NO3 at 10ppm and PO4 at 0.75ppm. Also dose K2SO4 after every water changes. Also dose Plantex CSM+B once a week but very little dose. My tank is densely planted but somehow only can take very little micro dosing. If I follow people's instruction or the standard dosing, I would have huge algae breakout. I wonder if there is anything to do with my very high GH water. I agree with Roger to dose this as much as your plants need

[Chester A. Lampwick]

Again thanks a lot, but one last question:

Ideally what are your iron concentrations in your tanks?

I've got a laternite substrate (lots of iron...) so should my water concentrations be 0-0.1ppm? I've got java and windlov that are of course not rooting in the substrate, so will having little or no iron effect them?

This is great, I'm kinda begining to get a handle why I'm having a algae problem and why my plants haven't been growing well:
Low NPK in the water (I wasn't feeding my 2 SAE's or even using a fertilizer containing NPK) and elevated iron...

Thanks a ton,