Aquariumplants.com Total Pellet Fertilizer - Review - Page 3 - Aquarium Advice

mom2reds · 05-08-2009, 03:25 PM

very pretty tank. I love gouramis to.

dinokath · 05-14-2009, 11:57 PM

Thanks Mom!

Everything is growing nicely. The rotala wallichii looks like crap right now but I think my pink kissing gourami is making a meal out of it. It is the only plant I see it munching on from time to time. It continues to grow and I think it is looking better than it did a few days ago. I know it is hard to grow, so I will not be terribly disappointed if it dies, but the root systems are crazy developed. I pulled one bunch out just out of curiosity to see how the were developing and was very shocked at how hard I had to pull to get the bunch out of the substrate! Roots were about 3 inches long and plentiful.

Algae seems to be in check. I have had to clean the glass twice since starting this experiment and it appeared to be green spot algae. I wouldn't say that it was a problem, just about a dozen or so dots here and there. I last cleaned the glass on Saturday May 9th and no issues since. There is some algae growing on some of the leaves, but I trust the oto's to do their jobs....

The alternanthera reineckii keeps shedding leaves, but they are all the older leaves and I read that they will lose their leaves when transplanted. The old leaves are quickly being replaced by new leaves and I am not seeing new leaves being shed, so I think all is good there.

Wisteria looks good and my Red Tiger Lotus bulb is growing in now. I have had to trim some ratty looking leaves off the Aponogeton Natans but again I have a fishy suspicion (no pun intended) that the pink gouramis are nailing the vegetation.

I am feeding the fish bloodworms about once a week or so to keep their diets mixed up and the pink kissing gouramis are the only fish in the tank that do not eat them. All the other fish go nuts for the bloodworms, so I have to assume I have a couple vegans in the tank there...

Tested my tank water last night and here's what I have:

Nitrite - .00 - .05ppm (hard to tell)
Nitrate - 5ppm
Ammonia - 0ppm
Phosphate - .5ppm (this is a huge dip from where I started at 3ppm)
KH - 5 (a HUGE jump. I removed the crushed coral from the filter when I started and my last water change was 25% on 5/9)
GH - 13 (This is another HUGE jump. No idea why. Advice or input?)
pH - 6.7 (regulated by the CO2)
CO2 - 23ppm (per a test kit)

Tap chemistry is:

pH - 6.8ppm
GH - 3.0
KH - 2.0
Everything else is 0ppm

Any ideas why the hardness is so high?

Let me know what you all think. I will post pics next week with some close ups of the leaves. I don't want to run out of space on this thread to post pics.

Thanks!

dinokath · 05-20-2009, 10:42 PM

Had to do a major trim on the tank. It was out of hand! Everything was crazy overgrown and growing out of the tank. The cabomba was way tall and the pennywort was about 4 inches out of the tank. The alternanthera reineckii got a major cut back. I cut the tops off and replanted them. The wisteria was huge and bushy out of control too.

The rotalla wallichi looks like it is rebounding too. There's certainly more of a purple/red bushy glow about it in the last few days.

I am by no means calling the Aquariumplants.com Total Pellet fertilizer a success yet, but I am not disappointed. I have not dosed any ferts since starting this experiment with the exception of the product I am trying out. Algae has been minimal, although I admit I have no frame of reference as this is my first planted tank!

I'm dosing the next round of ferts the first Saturday of the month, per the instructions on the the bottle....

mom2reds · 05-20-2009, 11:19 PM

cool i may have to give them a try after I change my substrate.

mom2reds · 05-30-2009, 01:00 PM

any updates

dinokath · 05-30-2009, 04:48 PM

Yep! All is going very well. Had to do another major trim the day before yesterday. I will take some photos tonight. I neglected the tank since my last post on 5/20 and there was a very slight film of algae on the glass that came right off with the magnetic scrubber.

No plant deaths, no fish deaths! I'll do a full water analysis tonight and post the results along with some close up shots of leaves and plants.

Per my guidelines, I will dose with the next round of Total pellet ferts the first weekend of the month, so next Saturday I'll give the tank it's first round of ferts since May 2nd. I am pretty happy thus far!

brutus · 05-31-2009, 04:20 PM

Looking very nice.

dinokath · 05-31-2009, 10:05 PM

Thanks!

New pics are uploaded to my album:

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums...albums573.html

I have been pretty much sticking with my 25% water change weekly for the most part. A couple weeks there we were out of town on the weekend and the water was changed on Tuesday instead of Saturday, but other than that, I have been pretty religious about keeping up with it.

Algae, again, has not been a problem. I neglected the tank for about a week and half and there was an ever so slight film evenly covering the glass that came off quickly with minimal scrubbing. Brown algae is all gone, spot algae is all gone.

Water parameters are as follows:

Nitrite - .00
Nitrate - 5ppm
Ammonia - 0ppm
Phosphate - 1ppm
KH - 4
GH - 7
pH - 6.7 (regulated by the CO2)
CO2 - 21ppm (per a test kit)

I am still not calling this product a winner, but I am pretty happy with the results!

Please look closely at the Java Fern and tell me what you think. It is not in substrate so it gets all of the nutrients from the water.

Thanks for following!

mom2reds · 06-01-2009, 12:32 AM

The Java fern looks great I did not see any of the typical black spots and it has really grown. Your whole tank looks amazing, you should be trading or selling trimmings before long if you are not already.

dinokath · 06-07-2009, 05:33 PM

Did my second round of pellet ferts today and had to another major trim on the plants. They were out of control again! The Tiger Lotus' leaves were blocking out most of the light to the lower plants, so I was noticing some issues with plants directly under them, which prompted the radical trimming of not only the Tiger Lotus but the ludwigia, which was past the top level of the tank.

I have to admit that I am pretty happy with the product thus far. The concern about the Java Fern seemed rational, but it seems to be doing just fine. There must be 20 baby ferns attached to the leaves at this time!

I'll keep you all updated! Later.