Hello,
I just started up a medium light / medium tech planted tank, and I had a few questions.
I've got the Current USA Satellite Freshwater LED + running on the tank, and according to manufacturer specifications this puts out 36 PAR at 12" . My substrate is slightly less than 12" away from the light, so I'm assuming I have slightly above 36 PAR. The light is actually pretty cool, it's got a few different features to play around with, but I leave it on the pure white setting and then I add the red LEDs and a touch of the blue LEDs. From what I can tell, those are the spectrums plants like best. I also have the light on for 4 hours in the morning, off 5 hours in the afternoon, and back on 7 hours in the evening.
I ordered some dwarf baby tears, dwarf hairgrass, giant hairgrass, java moss, and dwarf sag to get started. I also added a RCS that was berried, so I have (as far as I can count) 6 babies and one adult RCS running around. All of this was added on November 1st. It's been one week, and I've had decent results so far. I've been dosing according to the Seachem daily dosing chart, although I didn't have Iron or Phosphorous until today (maybe that caused my issues). I also don't dose the Trace, from what I can tell, it's the same as the Flourish that I dose.
My first question is, should I be testing the fertilizer levels? I've tested pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, GH, and KH, but none of the ferts (besides nitrogen). How will I be sure which fert is lacking, or which I'm overdoing? I'd rather lean a little towards overdoing it since I'll be doing ~40% water changes every weekend as a reset for the system.
The second question is, as of today, I'm noticing one or two spots of algae on the acrylic, along with some algae on the dwarf sag. One bunch of the dwarf baby tears is also looking slightly yellow, and a couple of spots on the other bunches are sligihtly off as well. The dwarf hairgrass is sending up some new sprouts, the dwarf sag is sending out some runners, and the giant hairgrass is sending up some new sprouts as well (although a few strands are dying).
Basically I'm looking for suggestions, I'm pretty new to the world of fertilizers and anything above low light plants. I'd like to avoid CO2 injection if possible, it's an open tank and I have some of the giant hairgrass growing out the top. I'd also like to try and get my tiger lotus to flower someday, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there. I'm willing to throw up some pictures if that helps or if anybody is interested. Thanks in advance for taking the time to read my long *** drawn out post.
I just started up a medium light / medium tech planted tank, and I had a few questions.
I've got the Current USA Satellite Freshwater LED + running on the tank, and according to manufacturer specifications this puts out 36 PAR at 12" . My substrate is slightly less than 12" away from the light, so I'm assuming I have slightly above 36 PAR. The light is actually pretty cool, it's got a few different features to play around with, but I leave it on the pure white setting and then I add the red LEDs and a touch of the blue LEDs. From what I can tell, those are the spectrums plants like best. I also have the light on for 4 hours in the morning, off 5 hours in the afternoon, and back on 7 hours in the evening.
I ordered some dwarf baby tears, dwarf hairgrass, giant hairgrass, java moss, and dwarf sag to get started. I also added a RCS that was berried, so I have (as far as I can count) 6 babies and one adult RCS running around. All of this was added on November 1st. It's been one week, and I've had decent results so far. I've been dosing according to the Seachem daily dosing chart, although I didn't have Iron or Phosphorous until today (maybe that caused my issues). I also don't dose the Trace, from what I can tell, it's the same as the Flourish that I dose.
My first question is, should I be testing the fertilizer levels? I've tested pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, GH, and KH, but none of the ferts (besides nitrogen). How will I be sure which fert is lacking, or which I'm overdoing? I'd rather lean a little towards overdoing it since I'll be doing ~40% water changes every weekend as a reset for the system.
The second question is, as of today, I'm noticing one or two spots of algae on the acrylic, along with some algae on the dwarf sag. One bunch of the dwarf baby tears is also looking slightly yellow, and a couple of spots on the other bunches are sligihtly off as well. The dwarf hairgrass is sending up some new sprouts, the dwarf sag is sending out some runners, and the giant hairgrass is sending up some new sprouts as well (although a few strands are dying).
Basically I'm looking for suggestions, I'm pretty new to the world of fertilizers and anything above low light plants. I'd like to avoid CO2 injection if possible, it's an open tank and I have some of the giant hairgrass growing out the top. I'd also like to try and get my tiger lotus to flower someday, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there. I'm willing to throw up some pictures if that helps or if anybody is interested. Thanks in advance for taking the time to read my long *** drawn out post.