Help with dosing.

[Eric1212]

I set up my tank about 3 1/2 weeks ago now and planted it. I added some flourish tabs to the substate (fluorite) and got a lite kit from AH supply, 55w 6700k bulb and hooked up my nutrition c02 reactor/diffuser. There's currently 6 Amano shrimp in the tank and 6 red eye tetra. I'm wondering if I should be adding liquid fertilizers or not. Will they hurt my fish? Water parameters are all 0.

 

[Eric1212]

Also if anyone could give me some advice on new driftwood fungus, I've taken it out 3 times and scrubbed it and its back within 4 days.

 

[aqua_chem]

If you've got good light and co2, you should definitely look into dry ferts. I use Green Leaf Aquarium, and they've got good information about the different dosing techniques on their fertilizer page. Your nitrates absolutely should not be 0, as that can cause a host of problems by itself in a planted tank. If you do go the liquid route, rest assured that nothing you add to fertilize will harm fish or inverts if you dose according to directions, but don't trust anti-algae products.

 

[aqua_chem]

And just wait out the driftwood fungus. You can try boiling it, which might help, but ultimately its just a waiting game.

 

[Eric1212]

I thought the same about the nitrates, when cycling my tank the ammonia went from 1ppm to 0 and the nitrites went up to about 3-5 ppm and I still can't get a reading on the nitrates. I've been changing about 10 gals of water every 2nd day, could that be the problem? I'm using an API master test kit.

 

[CatoeSc]

I agree with using dry ferts. I use Green leaf, too. It's probably the most cost effective and easy approach. Check out their website.
http://greenleafaquariums.com/