I've been testing nh3, no2, no3, and po4 daily and slowly uping fertilizer amounts. I'm at 3 ml of the aquavitro activate (a phosphorus and potassium supplement), and even after 24 hours, the phosphate tests out at 0. I've done the phosphate test several times (api reagent kit) just to be sure that I'm getting an acurate result.
I'm not dosing nitrogen at this point as the tank is going through a small cycle(any time nh3 or no2 go above .5 ppm, I do a 25% pwc). The other dosing is 5 ml of flourish and 2 ml of flourish trace a day, as well as 3 ml of flourish iron 12 hours out from the rest (I had read about the iron reacting with one of the other supplements somewhere).
The tank is a 55 gallon with 2 f32t8 lamps (ultra sun super daylight) being overdriben 4x, a fluval 106 filter with a sera 500 co2 reactor (drop checker is a nice lime green the whole ligjting period), and a spraybar for return. Lighting is approximately 12 hours a day, in 2 periods of 6 hors each and a 6 hour break during the middle of the day. The stocking is a betta (he goes by the name of Flare), 6 neon tetras, 8 zebra danios, and an otto cat (hence the daily nh3 and no2 testing). I'm planning on getting some more otto cats, 4 or 5 amano shrimp, and possibly some hatchet fish after the cycle is over.
Is this type of nutrient uptake normal? I'm nervous to up the ferts any higher for the little guys sake.
Here's 2 pictures of the aquarium. The first is from the 4th of July weekend, and the other is from tonight. The algae on the anubias nana is from a co2 crash (those 88 gram fluval co2 cartridges don't last very long and now I'm feeding from a paintball cylinder).
I'm not dosing nitrogen at this point as the tank is going through a small cycle(any time nh3 or no2 go above .5 ppm, I do a 25% pwc). The other dosing is 5 ml of flourish and 2 ml of flourish trace a day, as well as 3 ml of flourish iron 12 hours out from the rest (I had read about the iron reacting with one of the other supplements somewhere).
The tank is a 55 gallon with 2 f32t8 lamps (ultra sun super daylight) being overdriben 4x, a fluval 106 filter with a sera 500 co2 reactor (drop checker is a nice lime green the whole ligjting period), and a spraybar for return. Lighting is approximately 12 hours a day, in 2 periods of 6 hors each and a 6 hour break during the middle of the day. The stocking is a betta (he goes by the name of Flare), 6 neon tetras, 8 zebra danios, and an otto cat (hence the daily nh3 and no2 testing). I'm planning on getting some more otto cats, 4 or 5 amano shrimp, and possibly some hatchet fish after the cycle is over.
Is this type of nutrient uptake normal? I'm nervous to up the ferts any higher for the little guys sake.
Here's 2 pictures of the aquarium. The first is from the 4th of July weekend, and the other is from tonight. The algae on the anubias nana is from a co2 crash (those 88 gram fluval co2 cartridges don't last very long and now I'm feeding from a paintball cylinder).