tank parameters, am I doing ok?

[Zagz]

I did my test and clearly need to up my KNO3 dosing as my darn nitrates and phosphates keep bottoming out.

PO4-.25
NO3-0
NH3-0
NO2-0
PH-7.8
GH-140
KH-80
Chelated iron-1.0 or above the test only reads to 1.0.

Plants are growing, some have grown as much as 4-6" in the last 5 weeks! Algae getting better under control but still not gone, it's thread algae on the leaves of the vals. Some of the plants are still getting slight discoloration on the leaves. Lighting is 115 watts on a 75 gal tank. Water changes twice a week, 50% one time 25% second time. Current dosing is KNO3 15ml every second day, CSM+b 1/2 tsp every second day, Flourish excel 1 cap every second day. Basically the CSM+b and flourish on the same day. Any advice on what additional dosing I need to do? I don't know that I really need to change anything other than I the NO3 keeps going to 0. Advice please

 

[Purrbox]

First off, have you calibrated your Nitrate and Phosphate test kits and which brand are you using? As I understand it Hobby Grade Iron Test Kits are pretty much useless to us, so unless you shelled out a pretty penny for that Test Kit it's probably not telling you much with any accuracy.

Since you are dosing 15ml of KNO3 every other day, what is the concentration of the solution you are using? You may want to look at dosing according to EI as it involves less testing. If you don't have high light you can always dose everything 1-2 times per week instead of the recommended 3 times per week.

Last I believe you meant NO3 in your last sentance instead of NH3, as having Ammonia at 0 is a good thing.

 

[Jchillin]

Anne - If you recall, we covered this awhile back. Due to your having Discus and needing to perform tons of water changes, you are always going to have a low reading as you have two things removing all of your nutrients...water changes and plant uptake.

I would get a bit of Seachem Potassium liquid. This will help increase the K levels without shocking the fish from higher doses of KNO3.

Question: Could you include the PWC schedule?

 

[Zagz]

First off, have you calibrated your Nitrate and Phosphate test kits and which brand are you using? As I understand it Hobby Grade Iron Test Kits are pretty much useless to us, so unless you shelled out a pretty penny for that Test Kit it's probably not telling you much with any accuracy.

Since you are dosing 15ml of KNO3 every other day, what is the concentration of the solution you are using? You may want to look at dosing according to EI as it involves less testing. If you don't have high light you can always dose everything 1-2 times per week instead of the recommended 3 times per week.

Last I believe you meant NO3 in your last sentance instead of NH3, as having Ammonia at 0 is a good thing.

Yes I did mean to say NO3 in the last sentence, LOL. Test kit is AP tests. the concentration of the solution is N-.15ppm, and K-.09ppm. Bill has been my godsend with my dosing schedule up to now. I'd be lost without his help.

Anne - If you recall, we covered this awhile back. Due to your having Discus and needing to perform tons of water changes, you are always going to have a low reading as you have two things removing all of your nutrients...water changes and plant uptake.

I would get a bit of Seachem Potassium liquid. This will help increase the K levels without shocking the fish from higher doses of KNO3.

Question: Could you include the PWC schedule?

Bill I do remember, LOL I printed it off. Until I added the last large batch of plants I wasn't bottoming out the nitrates, they were staying around 10ppm. Now they are going to 0 within a day or two. Also the dang plants are growing visibly daily! I had no idea they would grow that fast! The pwc's are Sundays, 50% and Wed or Thurs 25%. The health of the plants has increased dramatically, as I mentioned to you, I am seeing some hair algae on the plants. This wipes off easily but I was concerned that I was no longer able to maintain any nitrates for any length of time.

TIA for your help. Maybe I am worrying about nothing and I will see about getting some Seachem Potassium liquid.

 

[Purrbox]

So then 15ml of your KNO3 solution would be adding only 2.25ppm of Nitrates? This seems rather low if I'm understanding you correctly.

Sounds like you increased your plant mass to the point where your original dosing isn't keeping up any more. In that case you simply increase your dosing accordingly. I'd recommend going for 2-4 times your current dosage assuming I understood you correctly. You may need to start dosing some Phosphates as well.

 

[Zagz]

You will have to bear with me as I am very new to this and really don't understand it all, hence the reason I am posting. I mix of 1/2 tbsp. dry potassium and nitrates together in 250mls of water and dose from that. the 15 mls is dosed every second day. Being that the tank is discus as Bill mentioned I do more water changes on that tank than on the other tanks. Also don't want to shock the discus at all. I will start increasing the dosage of the mixture. Phospates, can I get that dry from gregwatson? Before the addition of the several plants the nitrate was staying at 10 ppm even with water changes. I agree the new additions are eating up the nitrate faster than I was dosing. Trial and error is the way to go I guess, esp with discus.

How in the world do you remember all this stuff?

 

[Purrbox]

Okay, then you are mixing a rather dilute solution although by my calculations that would only be .07ppm N per ml or about 1ppm N per dose.

I'd recommend dry dosing 0.75 tsp (.25 T) of KNO3 directly into the aquarium and skip the solution. If you want to premix, just take a cup of the tank water and mix the KNO3 in that and then add it back to the tank. This would add about 9ppm N per dose.

 

[Hoovercat]

Not to argue Joy, but if Zagz doses 3/8 tsp of compound every other day NO3 should remain available and never go over 15ppm. I don't know whether the possible 30ppm your suggested dosing could result in by weeks end is safe for Discus.

 

[Zagz]

30 ppm of nitrate would not make my discus happy to be sure. I will slowly increase the levels and see how the discus fare. They are good when the nitrate is at 10ppm, it's never been over that. Bill took the discus into consideration when helping me with the dosing and it was working very well, but somehow I got addicted to plants.

I'm still shocked at how much growth some plants get. If only my garden would grow that fast! LOL. The vals have been trimmed twice already in 3 months, and I mean 12" or so.

Thanks guys, keep the help coming, this is one area I am a complete and total newbie!

 

[Purrbox]

Sorry, I was only considering the water change schedule since I'm not familiar with Discus. Another option is to dose what I recommended only twice a week right after the water changes. Again, not being familiar with Discus, this may or may not be a good idea. If neither of these would work well with Discus, then trying the 3/8 tsp that Hoovercat recommended would be an improvement.