Fertilizer dosing with large water changes?

[JackBlasto]

So I've always struggled on one tank of mine to follow a decent fert dosing because I do daily water changes of 25% also, it's a low light tank with just Java fern and Java moss in it to keep things simple as this is a discus tank. This is also why I do daily water changes. Any advice on a routine schedule to keep my java moss and Java fern alive and well? On my small high tech tank with no fish dosing estimative index is easy, but this large one with life and no co2 is complicated. Any direction would be appreciated. Thanks!


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[Delapool]

Are you still maintaining some level of phosphate and nitrates? If so, I'd suspect micros will be taken care of with the water changes so would just dry dose some potassium ferts. I'd go with dry ferts as they are so much cheaper.

 

[JackBlasto]

I figure the phosphates are coming from the food and the nitrates from the fish waste. I have 10 fish in there so I figure thats being done naturally, granted they're probably minimal due to the large water changes... but thats the difficulty with the balance of the discus tank and the planted tank as they are kind of at odds. Discus don't want all that fertilizer stuff (in my experience as I have seen their activity pick up when I lay off the plant care, like CO2 etc) which was why I went with all easy plants that wouldn't require as much. Maybe these "easy" plants will prove to be in good care as is. Thanks for the reply.

 

[Delapool]

I figure the phosphates are coming from the food and the nitrates from the fish waste. I have 10 fish in there so I figure thats being done naturally, granted they're probably minimal due to the large water changes... but thats the difficulty with the balance of the discus tank and the planted tank as they are kind of at odds. Discus don't want all that fertilizer stuff (in my experience as I have seen their activity pick up when I lay off the plant care, like CO2 etc) which was why I went with all easy plants that wouldn't require as much. Maybe these "easy" plants will prove to be in good care as is. Thanks for the reply.

Yes, I know what you mean. If I did a discus tank I'd give up on plants for a bit (I imagine at that point a break would be nice anyway ).

Hope it goes well for you.