Ideal Parameters

[Mr.Cola1151]

What are the ideal parameters for a general planted aquarium?
PH
GH
Nitrates
Temp
Ammonia

Looking to see where I should be keeping my tank. Right now it's just sitting as is with regular water changes.

Thanks

 

[Goldguru]

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...ou-get-started-with-your-aquarium-154837.html

 

[Bert2oo1]

Depends on what your dosing etc.
I dose EI ferts so I don't test at all because I know what I'm dosing and what my levels would be at all times. Once the tanks cycled and everything's up and running I know that my levels won't change if I do a 50% water change each week. I haven't tested my tank for almost 4 months now.

Test kits are basically useless in a planted tank because your tests will lie to u due to the ferts etc that u dose

 

[Fresh2o]

I'm doing ferts daily via PPS-Pro. I tested nitrate and phosphate early on to adjust the mix. Without the addition of ferts the nitrate level is 10-20 ppm so I removed KNO3 from the mix. I tripled the phosphate to get it around 5 ppm or more.
As for the rest of the parameters, whatever is fine for fish keeping should be fine for plants. Not sure if there is an ideal value for each.

 

[Delapool]

What are the ideal parameters for a general planted aquarium?

PH

GH

Nitrates

Temp

Ammonia



Looking to see where I should be keeping my tank. Right now it's just sitting as is with regular water changes.



Thanks

It all depends on how keen on test kits you are . I've racked through a lot of plants to find ones that work. Nothing like rocking up to the lfs a few weeks later to get "really!". But I've found some plants are just not suited to my brown thumb.

Potassium - fast, growing stem plants like hygro will get holes and curled leaves in lower leaves if potassium is short. Potassium FW test kits are pretty expensive and rare. In theory potassium doesn't cause issues if you overdose. 40ppm is the number I've settled on but the test kit has said 80ppm with no issues (mind you not sure I believe the test reading was that high either).

If dosing CO2 a drop checker is ideal.

For liquid carbon, double dosing is fine. 4 times dosing should be fine in an established tank (some plants don't like even normal dosing though). 2ppm dose is my limit. Liquid carbon (glut) will help with algae.

Ammonia as 0.

Nitrates as 20 to 30ppm. But my tank is reading 5ppm and still doing well so I've decided not to increase dosing for plant growth. Previously it has been 40 to 80ppm but usually I don't like it that high.

GH to be honest I've never thought about it. Perhaps easier to get plants suited to your water gh. Mine is say 6 and no issues.

Temp normal for fish you have.

Kh - my preference is for 3 or more to keep ph stable. Ph around 7 to 7.5 I suspect. Depends on plants. I have looked at ph and some elements are more available at lower ph but some plants do well in high carbonate (high kh / ph) waters as well.

Fe - never got a reading. Given up. I dose it as part of micro ferts.

PAR meter - only if you are a fanatic and have a deep tank. I think the US has plenty of good shops that provide that info on various lights at different tank depths as standard.

Some thoughts anyways. The main use of test kits I find is to record trends and bring results back to a range rather than an exact value.

 

[bullyboy]

Shoot for a Dutch/Iwagumi golf corse....only once this has been mastered and the aquarium cycled should one add fish! Haha

The point being that "ideal peramiters" is a loaded term.
Like, i base all my plants around my fish actually and i find it much less frustrating an ordeal [emoji41]