Dosing my plants with Flourish

[GinnyFinny]

I have a 20-long tank that's about a month old now with a fair amount of plants and 20 cardinal tetras.

This is embarrassing to ask, but it's been 45 years since any math classes. I'm making 3 gallon water changes 1-2 times per week to keep nitrates down. Flourish dosing says to add 5 mL to 60 gallons of water. By my calculations, for every gallon of water I add, I must ad either .3785 mL or 3.785 mL of Flourish.

Is it possible that either one of these dosing calcs are correct?

Please HELP! Not just a newbie but a dosing conversion table flunk-out!

 

[Rpeinhardt]

5 per 60 is 1.6 per 20 (your tank size).

You might round up if it's a heavily planted tank.

Edit: fixed autocorrect

 

[Mebbid]

Personally, I would crank the water changes up to 10g once a week. A larger water change is much more effective than multiple smaller ones.

I would follow that with dosing the full tank volume rather than just the amount of water you're changing out. The flourish comprehensive is a very weak fertilizer to begin with and if you're only dosing for 6 gallons of water per week, it's very likely not enough for your plants.

 

[mikem691]

I dose the full dose twice a week in my 20. It says right on the bottle once or twice a week.

 

[GinnyFinny]

You know, as soon as I sent my last message I realized I would only add the correct amount of Flourish for 20 gallons total, no matter how much of a water change I made. What was I thinking?????

So after my 3 gallon water change, I tested the H20 chemistry and all was good. I am hesitant at doing a 50% water change until the tank has had at least a month or two to stabilize - although it seems it's been stabilized since day one.

Now, I have another important question. I'm using an AquaClear 30 HOB filter. I also have an AquaClear 20 that I used in a previous tank. I'm curious if using them both (comparable to a AquaClear 50 Power Filter) in a 20 long tank would be over-kill.

Currently I'm using an airstone in a corner bubbling lightly. If I removed that, what would be your thoughts at over-powering a 20 gallon tank - even if I used the least amount of flow on both Power Filters?

I'm hesitating to have too much current/flow vs. just the average rate of filtration (AquaClear 30) for the number of fish I have - 6 Endler males, 16 Amano Shrimp, & 12 Cardinal Tetras, plus young plants.

 

[Mebbid]

Really, the only time when a 50% water change can be harmful is when your trap water is vastly different in parameters from your tank. Even then the two that really matter are ph and ammonia (in the tap).

Flow for a freshwater tank - I wouldnt exceed 10x the tank volume per hour in flow. If you're under that then you shoild be just fine.

 

[BBradbury]

Dosing Liquid Ferts

I have a 20-long tank that's about a month old now with a fair amount of plants and 20 cardinal tetras.

This is embarrassing to ask, but it's been 45 years since any math classes. I'm making 3 gallon water changes 1-2 times per week to keep nitrates down. Flourish dosing says to add 5 mL to 60 gallons of water. By my calculations, for every gallon of water I add, I must ad either .3785 mL or 3.785 mL of Flourish.

Is it possible that either one of these dosing calcs are correct?

Please HELP! Not just a newbie but a dosing conversion table flunk-out!

Hello Ginny...

You have a fertilizer source in your tank already. Your Tetras just need a balanced diet of a little flaked, freeze dried and frozen food fed most days. They'll provide all the ferts the plants need. Get a little more aggressive with your water changes. Small water changes don't do much to keep the tank clean. Work up to the point you're changing half every few days to a week. Forget the measuring brain damage. Just feed a balanced diet and change more water, once a week. Do your job as the water keeper and let the fish do theirs.

B

 

[GinnyFinny]

Boy, I didn't comprehend the calculations on your tank flow message. I must be able to read somewhere about filter flow

Thanks!

 

[Mebbid]

Boy, I didn't comprehend the calculations on your tank flow message. I must be able to read somewhere about filter flow

Thanks!

Filter should have their flow rate listed for them. For a 20g tank shoot for 200gph(gallons per hour) or less in flow.