Need Help - 46G Bowfront / New to Planted Tanks

[flchamp89]

I think its hard to hold co2 levels in tanks bigger than 10g if your turning it off and on....I do

Barr like me has grown plants mostly in hard water so I guess I stand behind him on that.

 

[Caliban07]

We are using potassium phosphate and potassium nitrate. Potassium isn't used as much as the former and so it a accumulates. I messaged delapool who is the only one I know that has a pot test kit. He says it was in 100ppm realm? Dela please could you confirm. Now I've been dosing EI more than and I have potassium sulphate and I know Bert uses a lot.

Here's a picture of my hygrophila pinnatifida



What deficiency would you say that was? It's always the hygros.

 

[flchamp89]

I have a pot kit too.

I would say potassium and or boron perhaps. I have never grown that species. But sunset the invasive species grows here out of limerock.

What about allelopathy ....whats it next to.

 

[Caliban07]

It's next to a bacopa and alternanthera. It's definitely a nutrient issue. When I start adding more N and mg and Ca and less of K I'm hoping things will improve because it's becoming tiring. I've never really had great success using EI. When my 46 was looking it's best I just pulled plants till the ones I was left with grew well. At times I wouldn't even dose and I'd miss water changes could have gone 2-3 weeks before a 50% tank was way more stable.

 

[flchamp89]

My 10g has received more water changes than all my tank combined over 30years lol. These forums I joined got me on the bandwagon. Ive always been anti wc. In August it will be a year ill make my opinion then. I haven't missed a Sunday wc yet lol

 

[Delapool]

How hard are u dosing the potassium for them dela? I have a similar issue with my hygro compact and blue stricta. Both have holes and are ripping. I dose a fair whack of potassium tho. I dose 3.8g 3x a week of kno3 on top of my kno3 and kh2po4. (In a 60g) I would have thought that would be enough lol

This is the potassium test kit I have. Not been used in some time and will have to dig it out but pretty sure it has expired. The problem I had in getting one was finding one suitable for freshwater. I think the saltwater ones were reading for 100's of ppm.

I was getting readings around 60 to 110ppm or so. Much higher than the 20 to 40ppm I was expecting. The test kit seemed mostly easy to use but I always wondered if that was reading high.

However, (maybe as my tap water is a little salty or something??) I found if I dropped off the potassium dosing then the hygro got holes in lower leaves, curled leaves and dropped leaves. Back then nitrates would of been 40ppm from test kit and not sure on phosphate. CO2 injected but not very well. High light.

coral-shop.com - Seawater Analysis - Test Kits - [TEST] CS TEST Potassium

Wiped out most of my tank plants with furan 2 ( ) but normally dosing is 1 teaspoon of K2SO4 daily (I get 5ppm for 150gal there). 1 teaspoon I have as 5 or 6 grams.

Saturday and Wednesday was 2 teaspoons. Also Wednesday I dose kh2po4 - off my spreadsheet there was a few ppm of K from that. Also dosing PMDD nightly but I don't think much K was coming from that as I mixed that into a liquid.

So over a week I could be dosing up to 50ppm K it looks like (9 teaspoons at 5ppm each of K2SO4 plus kh2po4 & PMDD).

For interest I tried the K for each for a teaspoon for my tank:

K2SO4 - 5ppm
KH2PO4 - ~2.8ppm
KNO3 - ~4.6

https://rotalabutterfly.com/nutrient-calculator.php

Assuming all my math is correct it looked like you would be only dosing slightly less K than myself (I think?).

 

[Bert2oo1]

The thing with co2 is is that a lot of these guys involved in these threads are very experienced and have been using co2 for a long time. Some of there plants grow fine yet others are not. The methods we have and they used are getting pretty easy to nail down now. Can it really be THAT hard to saturate the water column with gas? All you have to do is turn it up. A lot of these people are gassing their fish as a result. Plants must respond before fish are affected or that just wouldn't make sense.

Here's another thread I found which has brought me to this point.

I wasn't going to share until I'd tested it but here it is. I'm going to make up a batch of this stuff soon as the urea arrives.

https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/for-dan-spezial-n-nitrogen-fertilizer.14594/

In this thread the Germans are also concerned about high levels of K+. As always Mr.Barr is not.

I swear Barr is never worried about anything other than co2 it gets abit old to be honest lol if my fish are gasping and my plants arnt growing then surely it's not the co2? Lol (not that they are but u get what I mean)

 

[flchamp89]

Barr main philosophy is simple but sound...just concentrate on growing plants.. Lol... Plants are healthy no algae and tank is healthy .....easy as pie lol

 

[Caliban07]

Barr main philosophy is simple but sound...just concentrate on growing plants.. Lol... Plants are healthy no algae and tank is healthy .....easy as pie lol

Yet the glut and h2o2 companies are running their hands together [emoji23]

 

[flchamp89]

Thank god in the US h2o2 is a buck lol

 

[Adam C.]

How about Micro Swords??? My LFS has some very good looking micro swords. I went ahead bought two of them. Do you think these will do well in my tank as a carpet? Any advice on Micro Swords?

 

[whatsgoodm8]

Hey Adam . I think your lights are very powerful and you are dosing way too many ferts. That would be fine or even necessary if you had a heavily planted tank with fast growing plants but you don't. With this kind of lighting and ferts, you aren't too far from an algae outbreak. I definitely think that underdosing is better than overdosing so I would just dose the excel and do a half dose of the iron. The rest I wouldn't dose at all. Look at your plant growth. If new leaves look different or weird you can quickly search on Google "new plant leaves are pale" or "old plant leaves dying" and find out if it is because of a deficiency and if so, you can go ahead and dose only that type of nutrient that is lacking in your water. I see that other members have recommended some nice plants and your microswords will appreciate the root tabs. Don't keep your lights on for more than 8-10 hours a day because of their intensity and because excess lights and excess nutrients almost always trigger algae growth instantly. CO2 can be great, but you can put that later on. First you have to see some healthy plant growth to determine whether you are doing the basics right. Later if you want boost the speed of growth CO2 will make that happen for you. And yeah, the tank is a little overstocked ?. Good luck with everything

 

[Bert2oo1]

Hey Adam . I think your lights are very powerful and you are dosing way too many ferts. That would be fine or even necessary if you had a heavily planted tank with fast growing plants but you don't. With this kind of lighting and ferts, you aren't too far from an algae outbreak. I definitely think that underdosing is better than overdosing so I would just dose the excel and do a half dose of the iron. The rest I wouldn't dose at all. Look at your plant growth. If new leaves look different or weird you can quickly search on Google "new plant leaves are pale" or "old plant leaves dying" and find out if it is because of a deficiency and if so, you can go ahead and dose only that type of nutrient that is lacking in your water. I see that other members have recommended some nice plants and your microswords will appreciate the root tabs. Don't keep your lights on for more than 8-10 hours a day because of their intensity and because excess lights and excess nutrients almost always trigger algae growth instantly. CO2 can be great, but you can put that later on. First you have to see some healthy plant growth to determine whether you are doing the basics right. Later if you want boost the speed of growth CO2 will make that happen for you. And yeah, the tank is a little overstocked [emoji23]. Good luck with everything

I disagree, excess nutrients don't cause algae. Isn't that the whole idea of EI? However strong lights do. A beamworks on an 46 Bow wouldn't be overly strong I wouldn't have thought. 46b's are generally pretty hard to light from what I've read.

Co2 is an issue but u can get away with excel if u have to, 2-3x dosage is not an issue.

To OP, that's liliaposis. I grew it in my 30g and it grows like a weed. Give it some regular trimming and it spreads really fast in the right conditions. U should be right with it, I'd say it's one of the easiest carpet plants [emoji106]

 

[Adam C.]

I disagree, excess nutrients don't cause algae. Isn't that the whole idea of EI? However strong lights do. A beamworks on an 46 Bow wouldn't be overly strong I wouldn't have thought. 46b's are generally pretty hard to light from what I've read.

Co2 is an issue but u can get away with excel if u have to, 2-3x dosage is not an issue.

To OP, that's liliaposis. I grew it in my 30g and it grows like a weed. Give it some regular trimming and it spreads really fast in the right conditions. U should be right with it, I'd say it's one of the easiest carpet plants [emoji106]

I thought that overdosing was the point as well. I'm doing a big water change on the 7th day as I have always done. I got the micro swords in the tank today and excited to see how that do. You are saying to overdose the Excel by 2-3x? I am a little scared to do that but maybe in a couple weeks I will try to increase the Excel if I'm not happy with how things are going. As for the lights, I would not say that they are "High" and more Medium. The Hygrophila Polysperma and the Hygrophila Difformis are both extremely fast growing plants. So I would probably have to disagree with saying I have all slow growing plants. Next I'm in search for a nice red midground plant to be a focal point if anyone has any ideas. Must do well with no CO² and only medium light.

 

[Adam C.]

Another question on lighting. I run my lights for 10 hours as I started off at 12hr but noticed that around the 10th hour my plants would start to close up for the day so I figured I might as well shut the light off if the plants have started to close their leaves. Is that right or is that still too much light? Also the lights come on at 9am. Should I dose my ferts/Excel a hour before the lights come on or should I wait until the plants open up and are ready to start eating? I know with CO² systems you want the CO² to come on before he lights so it can build.

 

[Bert2oo1]

Another question on lighting. I run my lights for 10 hours as I started off at 12hr but noticed that around the 10th hour my plants would start to close up for the day so I figured I might as well shut the light off if the plants have started to close their leaves. Is that right or is that still too much light? Also the lights come on at 9am. Should I dose my ferts/Excel a hour before the lights come on or should I wait until the plants open up and are ready to start eating? I know with CO² systems you want the CO² to come on before he lights so it can build.

If 10's working with no algae then keep it at that. I only run 8 hours on mine but I have 2 hours of dim light just for viewing it (wouldn't even be 5 par). I don't think it matters with your type of ferts. I generally dose before lights on tho [emoji106]

 

[Adam C.]

If 10's working with no algae then keep it at that. I only run 8 hours on mine but I have 2 hours of dim light just for viewing it (wouldn't even be 5 par). I don't think it matters with your type of ferts. I generally dose before lights on tho [emoji106]

Thanks man I really appreciate all your help. I hope these micro swords don't melt away and die. If I can get those to start growing I will feel a lot better. Since I started dosing Iron my Hygrophila has started to turn red along the edges. That is making me think that it is a Hygrophila Polysperma. It is really liking these ferts! I need a Red Midground Plant that will be a focal point. Any suggestions?

 

[Bert2oo1]

Thanks man I really appreciate all your help. I hope these micro swords don't melt away and die. If I can get those to start growing I will feel a lot better. Since I started dosing Iron my Hygrophila has started to turn red along the edges. That is making me think that it is a Hygrophila Polysperma. It is really liking these ferts! I need a Red Midground Plant that will be a focal point. Any suggestions?

U could try AR mini? Not sure how you'll go without co2 but it's worth a shot

 

[Adam C.]

Thank you sir. I will look for it the next time I go to my LFS. Which will be Thursday...Lol I've got the fever bad!!! I'm in the store 2x a week. Thursday is delivery day so I try to get in here before everything is gone.

 

[Adam C.]

I found AR Cardinals. I don't think that is the same thing as AR mini but I bought it and it is going in the tank today. It came in a vacuum sealed bag with gel in it. When I open it up to clean it up should I seperate it as much as possible or plant it as one plant? It looks like a lot of stems. Maybe 10-15 stems that are about 2in tall. Also what do you think about this plant?