jsoong
Aquarium Advice Addict
First some history ... This is my 70 gal planted goldies tank (actually more like 60 gal of water with the rocks, etc). I set this up 2 years or so ago with a peat/gravel substrate. Initially plants were doing great, except that I was having algae problems. After finding out that my NO3 was bottoming out to zero, I started dosing KNO3, and things were doing fine for a while. For the last 3 months the tank had gone south. plants were dying, algae took over, and even my trusty hornworts had died back to 1/10 its previous size.
Since I was planning to revamp the overflow, I took the opportunity to completely redo the whole tank. Current specs:
70 gal (norminal) + sump - estimate total water volume around 80 gal.
pH 7.8, with matching KH & GH (ie in the 150-200 ppm range)
temp 24 C
NO CO2 added
4x32 W T8's (full sprectrum) ... approx 2 wpg
substrate - Profile (schultz aquatic soil)
filtration - DIY wet/dry 750 gph rated return pump (~600 actual)
PWC - weekly 20%
plants - 5x swords, 2x apongentin, 2x crypts, 1x Anubias, 4x Vals, 1 bunch each Cabomba & moneywort, what's left of my hornwort, plus a dozen Java ferns (babies).
I really like how the tank looks now with all the new plants & little algae (only set up for 1 week, so hope things don't go bad). Since I had problem with NO3 bottoming out with far less plant mass before, I expect to need to dose ferts. <Esp. now that I have cleaned out the whole tank & removed most of the Mulm & dirt>
I've been reading about the EI method & trying to adapt it to a non-CO2 tank. For simplicity, I would like to dose weekly (with my pcw). I've got a hydroponic trace/fert mix plus KNO3. To start I figure I would add:
0.05 ppm Fe (plus rest of the trace)
7 N
1 P
7 K
each week.
Do you think this is a reasonable amount to achieve good plant growth & keep algae in check? Would it be better with different dosing schedule or proportions?
Since I was planning to revamp the overflow, I took the opportunity to completely redo the whole tank. Current specs:
70 gal (norminal) + sump - estimate total water volume around 80 gal.
pH 7.8, with matching KH & GH (ie in the 150-200 ppm range)
temp 24 C
NO CO2 added
4x32 W T8's (full sprectrum) ... approx 2 wpg
substrate - Profile (schultz aquatic soil)
filtration - DIY wet/dry 750 gph rated return pump (~600 actual)
PWC - weekly 20%
plants - 5x swords, 2x apongentin, 2x crypts, 1x Anubias, 4x Vals, 1 bunch each Cabomba & moneywort, what's left of my hornwort, plus a dozen Java ferns (babies).
I really like how the tank looks now with all the new plants & little algae (only set up for 1 week, so hope things don't go bad). Since I had problem with NO3 bottoming out with far less plant mass before, I expect to need to dose ferts. <Esp. now that I have cleaned out the whole tank & removed most of the Mulm & dirt>
I've been reading about the EI method & trying to adapt it to a non-CO2 tank. For simplicity, I would like to dose weekly (with my pcw). I've got a hydroponic trace/fert mix plus KNO3. To start I figure I would add:
0.05 ppm Fe (plus rest of the trace)
7 N
1 P
7 K
each week.
Do you think this is a reasonable amount to achieve good plant growth & keep algae in check? Would it be better with different dosing schedule or proportions?