Ryan's Updated 54G Corner Tank

[gfddser]

Koi angelfish are really neat if you're looking into angels

 

[MyanRan]

Koi angelfish are really neat if you're looking into angels

I'm not even sure what kind I picked out , but I'm going to get the two of them on Tuesday!

 

[MyanRan]

That is odd if your dosing dry ferts. What are your current nitrate and phosphate readings?

Anyway what you can do is dose 1/8 teaspoon of the dry K2SO4 Potassium Sulfate directly into your tank and do this weekly after your WC. It won't help the messed up leaves but all new growth should be nice and stay hole free.

Then the next time you mix your phosphate and potassium solution add double the amount of potassium sulfate to it. I finally went to doing that in the 220g dosing bottle.

Before the weekly water change my Nitrates were around the 20-50 range (probably closer to 30), and my Phosphates were at 2.

 

[Rivercats]

Phosphates are good but don't dose nitrates this week with that reading. The reason you need to take these two readings right before your WC is so you can adjust your dosing schedule for the week. Adjust your weekly phosphate and nitrate dosing weekly to keep your level where you want them.

So just add the extra potassium weekly and see if the new growth stays healthy.

 

[MyanRan]

I guess I forgot to mention that I only dose my Liquid Carbon, Macro Mix, and Micro Mix. I don't dose the KNO3 ever, because there's always an abundance of it.

 

[Rivercats]

So your macro mix is phosphate and potassium only?

 

[MyanRan]

Yes, that's correct.

 

[Rivercats]

Well then just add your extra potassium weekly and see if that is enough. Do you have nitrates in your tap water?

 

[MyanRan]

Yes I do, my tap water has 5 ppm of Nitrate in it.

 

[MyanRan]

Hey Janis, when you said to dose 1/8 of a teaspoon of Potassium Sulphate, did you mean directly into the tank from the dry mix? I should have asked before I did it but that's what I did, and it almost looked like some of the fish were trying to eat the little grains falling down into the tank! Is this ok to be happening?

 

[Rivercats]

Hey Janis, when you said to dose 1/8 of a teaspoon of Potassium Sulphate, did you mean directly into the tank from the dry mix? I should have asked before I did it but that's what I did, and it almost looked like some of the fish were trying to eat the little grains falling down into the tank! Is this ok to be happening?

You could premix it with tank water or not. I don't if I dry dose something. The fish will always pick at it, even if something in one of the solutions isn't dissolved they do that. It won't hurt them so you can come out from under the chair now

 

[MyanRan]

Alright, thanks for the reassurance! It'll be interesting to monitor the new growth here in the coming weeks. The Rotala will easily be able to show whether the increase in Potassium worked, as it grows quite quickly in my tank. The Alternanthera is a slow grower in my tank... It's going to be quite some time before I find out whether the adjustments worked for it.

 

[MyanRan]

I just measured my Nitrates 1 day into the 7 day cycle. Is it too high to have them at 10-20 this early into the week?

 

[Rivercats]

There is something in the tank or filter causing it then if tap water is only 5ppm. When a lot of detris gets trapped somewhere nitrates begin to rise. When I see nitrates rising in my 220g I know I was too slow cleaning one of the canister filters. That is what causes mine. Now you need to think where you could have a build up.... in or under rocks or DW, in your filter?

 

[MyanRan]

I think it might fix itself in the upcoming weeks. Reason is, I bought an Aqueon Water Changer a few weeks ago, and I now change 50% of the water weekly. I also clean my AquaClear 70 every two weeks. The real culprit here is the Bristlenose Pleco...

 

[MyanRan]

I'm going to do an update on Sunday with photos, but I just thought I'd mention that the Alternanthera has (surprisingly) shot out quite a few new leaves from the top. So far they are nice and red, but we'll see if it lasts as the leaves mature. I guess if it works out, then I could let it grow a bit more and then just trim the bottoms of the plant off. Would this cause any issues other than the plant growing slower for a few weeks?

 

[Rivercats]

Trimming and replanting as to replace the bottoms is fine. I do that when stems plants start getting really old and yuck looking.

 

[MyanRan]

UPDATE:

I was gone for about a week and I'm surprised how much the plants have grown! So far the Alternanthera's new growth has remained pinhole-free. Let's hope it stays that way! The Bacopa is shooting a bunch of new stems from the very bottom of the plant, so it's going to thicken up that grouping pretty quick! All in all it's looking pretty good! However the Green Spot Algae and Green Dust Algae still remains.

 

[Rivercats]

What is your phosphate level? Try upping it to 2-3ppm and see if the spot algae slowly goes away. As for dust algae, it tends to have to run it's course the same as diatoms.

 

[MyanRan]

My phosphate level is currently 2 ppm. It hasn't been too difficult maintaining the algae. Every week I use a scraper on the front glass and it comes off pretty easily. I don't bother with the back glass as I hardly notice it anyways. The only plant I think really affected by algae is the anubias.