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I think what you are experiencing is a break-in period.
I have 1 " of soil under 1 inch of fluorite in my 125g tank (not el-natural style because I have CO2 and high lights and water dose
). The initial month and a half or so was quite nasty with algae troubles, but then no algae in 3 years since it was set up (not even a spot).
I recommend you wait a few more weeks and do some water changes. It will settle down. Then you can start dosing EI in the water column if your plants need it, but until then I am sure there are plenty of nutrients leaching out from the substrate.
As far as water column dosing goes, your really don't need to dose any unless you notice problems. The only plants I've had trouble with are the anubias since their roots don't really penetrate the substrate, so they have become nitrogen deficient. Unless you have plants that are not rooted in the substrate you should be fine (I think moss would be ok too, since it doesn't need much to get by).
Also, as a point of interest, isn't it interesting how all your plants are doing great, but there are still terrible algae problems? Seems like it relates to the other thread:
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/algae/59607-not-so-simple-question.html
I have 1 " of soil under 1 inch of fluorite in my 125g tank (not el-natural style because I have CO2 and high lights and water dose
). The initial month and a half or so was quite nasty with algae troubles, but then no algae in 3 years since it was set up (not even a spot).I recommend you wait a few more weeks and do some water changes. It will settle down. Then you can start dosing EI in the water column if your plants need it, but until then I am sure there are plenty of nutrients leaching out from the substrate.
As far as water column dosing goes, your really don't need to dose any unless you notice problems. The only plants I've had trouble with are the anubias since their roots don't really penetrate the substrate, so they have become nitrogen deficient. Unless you have plants that are not rooted in the substrate you should be fine (I think moss would be ok too, since it doesn't need much to get by).
Also, as a point of interest, isn't it interesting how all your plants are doing great, but there are still terrible algae problems? Seems like it relates to the other thread:
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/algae/59607-not-so-simple-question.html
