Can't get the right balance!

[philipraposo198]

I think you have way too much light. Your not dosing enough ferts. Switch over to ei dosing and look up recommended amounts.

Dosing liquid carbon is going to hurt your val's. Your photo period should come up to 8 hours and reduce the amount of lights or raise them.

Make sure your doing 30-50% wcs weekly. I have noticed in my tank that the water changes are critical.

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[sallyjano]

I think you have way too much light. Your not dosing enough ferts. Switch over to ei dosing and look up recommended amounts.

Dosing liquid carbon is going to hurt your val's. Your photo period should come up to 8 hours and reduce the amount of lights or raise them.

Make sure your doing 30-50% wcs weekly. I have noticed in my tank that the water changes are critical.

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I appreciate your input though I'm a little confused! Why too much light? I thought I didn't have enough! It's only 2.3 wpg and 35-40 PAR at substrate level. I thought that was low end of medium? My star grass is showing the signs of lack of light (I believe....). If I raise it then I have even less than 35 PAR don't I?

I know glut will hurt my vals but I can't get pressurized co2 right now so no choice....

I reduced the photo period to 6 hours because of the BBA/GHA. I was planning on raising it again once I get things under control.

Why EI? Isn't PPS PRO just as good?

Thanks for the input but please explain a bit more. Thanks! I appreciate it.

 

[Khuligirl93]

Personally, I do not think you have too much light. I think it sounds like you've done your research and are on the right track with your lighting and liquid carbon from the previous advice you've been given
I can explain the difference between PPS-pro and EI though PPS basically just provides the plants with the exact amount of nutrients that they will use up in one day. But EI is flooding the water with nutrients, probably way more than they'll use, but it's covering all your bases to make sure you don't get any deficiencies. I think Philip was suggesting this method because he thought you were not getting enough ferts for your plants. The downside to EI is that 50% weekly water changes are absolutely necessary to "reset" the tank balance.


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[Sk3lly]

I think you have way too much light. Your not dosing enough ferts. Switch over to ei dosing and look up recommended amounts.

Dosing liquid carbon is going to hurt your val's. Your photo period should come up to 8 hours and reduce the amount of lights or raise them.

Make sure your doing 30-50% wcs weekly. I have noticed in my tank that the water changes are critical.

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Disagree with this. I do agree on the water changes though.

Khuligirl is spot on in my eyes


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[sallyjano]

Personally, I do not think you have too much light. I think you're on the right track.
I can explain the difference between PPS-pro and EI though PPS basically just provides the plants with the exact amount of nutrients that they will use up in one day. But EI is flooding the water with nutrients, probably way more than they'll use, but it's covering all your bases to make sure you don't get any deficiencies. The downside to EI is that 50% weekly water changes are absolutely necessary to "reset" the tank balance.


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Thanks. It was my understanding that when I read up on it that both are successful and widely used and that either would work for my set up.

What about the height of the light issue though? I have been wondering if there is some reason it should be higher than 1" above the tank. As I said, with my tank being 24" deep, I was told the HO would be offset due to the depth, but is there some reason it shouldn't be 1" above? If I raise it my PAR goes down which I think will not be good for some of my medium light plants....?

 

[Brookster123]

I think Phillip meant you have too much light for what you're currently dosing.. technically he is correct as you're not balancing the light with ferts and carbon.. we can fix that though! Khuligirl. .would you be so kind..
Edit - how do you guys post so fast ?!,
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[sallyjano]

I think Phillip meant you have too much light for what you're currently dosing.. technically he is correct as you're not balancing the light with ferts and carbon.. we can fix that though! Khuligirl. .would you be so kind..

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Ok I am now doing 20ml excel and PPS Pro 6ml per day which is the recommended dosing. I thought the standard recommendation would be find since I'm not heavily planted or high light. Do you think I should increase it? By how much?

 

[Brookster123]

That's a start, you never want to dramatically increase glut dose..

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[Khuligirl93]

I don't know, haha! They both posted while I was editing mine!


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[sallyjano]

That's a start, you never want to dramatically increase glut dose..

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OOOH do you think going from 8ml to 20ml daily is too quick?

 

[Sk3lly]

OOOH do you think going from 8ml to 20ml daily is too quick?

Id say yes thats a big jump!


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[sallyjano]

Id say yes thats a big jump!


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How fast can I increase it? 2ml a day or something like that? Should I go back to 8ml and build up? Or stay with it since I'm already there? (Last 2 days I did 20ml).

 

[Brookster123]

Im with sk3lly, maybe up it 5 ml every 5 days until you hit 30 ml??

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[sallyjano]

Im with sk3lly, maybe up it 5 ml every 5 days until you hit 30 ml??

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Ok will do.

 

[Sk3lly]

Im with sk3lly, maybe up it 5 ml every 5 days until you hit 30 ml??

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Yea i was going to say 3ml per week but thats only as my pipettes are 3ml. I think 5ml in 5days is reasonable too


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[Brookster123]

Yea i was going to say 3ml per week but thats only as my pipettes are 3ml. I think 5ml in 5days is reasonable too


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If it were less than 30 gal I'd be with you, 55g is quite a splash..

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[sallyjano]

OK thanks my team of advisors! So I will increase 1ml per day until I get to 30ml excel (or 15ml metricide which I'll be using soon....).

Re the ferts - is standard PPS Pro dosing OK? Or should I increase? As I said before I am only lightly planted right now.

 

[Sk3lly]

OK thanks my team of advisors! So I will increase 1ml per day until I get to 30ml excel (or 15ml metricide which I'll be using soon....).

Re the ferts - is standard PPS Pro dosing OK? Or should I increase? As I said before I am only lightly planted right now.

Start off with a bog standard pps pro dose and adjust it to meet your tanks demands.

I tweak my mix by changing the amounts of dry salts into the dosing bottles. I always keep the same dosed amount into the tank daily.
My tank consumes potassium at a very high rate. So much so my dosing bottle has potassium phosphate at standard dose but with the addition of potassium sulphate to bump up the potassium.

Keep a close eye on your plants. They will tell you what you need more of. Look for obvious deficiency signs


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[Sk3lly]

If it were less than 30 gal I'd be with you, 55g is quite a splash..

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Good point. Taken aboard lol


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[sallyjano]

Start off with a bog standard pps pro dose and adjust it to meet your tanks demands.

I tweak my mix by changing the amounts of dry salts into the dosing bottles. I always keep the same dosed amount into the tank daily.
My tank consumes potassium at a very high rate. So much so my dosing bottle has potassium phosphate at standard dose but with the addition of potassium sulphate to bump up the potassium.

Keep a close eye on your plants. They will tell you what you need more of. Look for obvious deficiency signs


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Ah.....you make it sound so easy! The problem for a noob like me is that it's hard because when I see a problem, I google search it and never quite know what the cause is because different places will say it's different things. Plus I believe sometimes too much of something looks the same as too little of something.

All very confusing to a noob......

But, thank your for your input I do appreciate it. I will keep trying and hopefully I'll get there.