Overfeeding?

[SparKy697]

No matter what I do, I can not get phosphate or nitrate to come down. I have quite a bit of plants in this 29 gallon and it seems that the only way I can get those nutrients down is a PWC .

Tap water:

.5 Nitrate
.25 Phosphate

I usually feed once in the morning and once in the evening. I think it's a moderate pinch of flakes each time. Oh and two algae wafers at lights out for the bottom dwellers.

Is this too much??

 

[Glenc]

Your feeding seems ok to me. Maybe try upping the C02 level slightly, this will make your plants grow faster and suck up those nutrients, then watch they don't bottom out!

 

[zenkatydid]

why don't you cut back to once a day and see how it goes? i have only ever fed my fish once a day and they are never starved!

 

[Fishyfanatic]

I agree with Katy. Feed once a day and see what happens.

 

[SparKy697]

Today will ba a fasting day for the tank. I'm heading out and the lights don't come on until Noon. I will not be home before 10:00 pm so I' just going to not feed them today and start once a day tomorrow. We'll see how that works.

 

[Purrbox]

I would agree that you might need to bump up your CO2 injection slightly. The other possibility is that you need to dose more Potassium.

 

[gfink]

Measure the nitrate and phosphate levels of your tap water. You may be adding them at every water change. You can't dilute it out if you have it in the dilutant.

I have phosphate in my tap water.

 

[SparKy697]

I'm well over 30 ppm on CO2 as it is. I know I can go higher but isn't that pretty high already?

Tap water:

.5 Nitrate
.25 Phosphate

The other possibility is that you need to dose more Potassium.

I do dose Potassium now on the day that is supposed to be macros. I'm dosing enough to raise the tank level to 20 ppm each time.

Can you please explain the chemistry that will increase the nitrate/phosphate intake by increasing K?

 

[Purrbox]

Basically your plants need light, CO2, Macros (N,P,K), and Micros to be able to grow. If you're short on something they can't make use of the rest.

Since you've got plenty of Light, the next factor to look at is CO2. Actually you may or may not have 30ppm of CO2 in the tank. There's so room for error because of the accuracy of the tests that we use. I'd go ahead and bump it slightly just to ensure that you have plenty.

If CO2 can be shown to be a non issue, the next thing to look at is the Macros. Since both Nitrates and Phosphates are running high, it points to possibly that the Potassium isn't high enough. With the amount that you're currently dosing this is unlikely to be the problem.

When everything else is taken care of you look at the Micros, however they're unlikely to be the cause of your problems. As a result this leads us to look at CO2 and/or faulty test kits, or as you originally suggested overfeeding.

I'd cut back on your feedings as you've already stated you're going to do. Give this a few weeks and see how things go. If the Nitrates and Phosphates are still through the roof, then try bumping your CO2 levels some and give a few more weeks. And so on.

One final factor that could be affecting things is the plants that you are keeping. Some plants are nutrient sponges, while others don't tend to eat through the nutrients very fast. If you haven't got any plants that would be considered nutrient sponges then you might want to consider picking up some at least temporarily.

 

[JustOneMore20]

I have had to cut back feeding every other day because of nitrates getting too high. I don't have pressurized CO2 though, but have 2 heavily planted tanks. Mine are overstocked, I know, but cutting down on the feeding has helped alot. I'd try once a day first and if they are still high, you could try once every other day. Your fish won't starve...mine haven't yet.