libertybelle
Aquarium Advice Addict
So my 55 gallon tank is pretty fully stocked (I think? you can see the full list in my profile.) It has been cycled for ages (filter moved from an older tank) but ever since the plants took off I pretty much don’t see nitrates or phosphates.
My plants are all pretty low maintenance (val’s, crypts, whale tail, anubius, hornwort, water lettuce, aponogeton) but some of them grow extremely quickly and despite my stock I pretty much never see nitrates/ phosphates unless I dose them. Considering that this is a low tech tank (medium lighting, no co2), is the goal just to dose enough that macros are not zero? Presuming that if there are “excess” nitrates in the water that’s an indication the plants are able to get what they need?
What about water changes? Do you stretch out water changes if the plants are doing so much of the heavy lifting in the filtration department? I habitually do 30-50% weekly water changes but perhaps that’s overkill and I should just let the plants do their thing and only water change every couple weeks, or less volume.
Would you add stock? In ways that wouldn’t stress the fish for swimming space, of course, perhaps a few mystery snails, adding a few more tiger barbs or skirt tetras to those schools, or a school of cories to chill at the bottom of the tank?
I’m not currently interested in adding co2 and going high tech. I will probably move to dry ferts eventually but for now I’d like to use up what I have which is basically the whole line of seachem liquid fertilizers. I have been dosing “as needed” but now that the tank is a jungle again I’ll be getting back to routine macro and micro dosing.
I’d love to hear what you guys think!
My plants are all pretty low maintenance (val’s, crypts, whale tail, anubius, hornwort, water lettuce, aponogeton) but some of them grow extremely quickly and despite my stock I pretty much never see nitrates/ phosphates unless I dose them. Considering that this is a low tech tank (medium lighting, no co2), is the goal just to dose enough that macros are not zero? Presuming that if there are “excess” nitrates in the water that’s an indication the plants are able to get what they need?
What about water changes? Do you stretch out water changes if the plants are doing so much of the heavy lifting in the filtration department? I habitually do 30-50% weekly water changes but perhaps that’s overkill and I should just let the plants do their thing and only water change every couple weeks, or less volume.
Would you add stock? In ways that wouldn’t stress the fish for swimming space, of course, perhaps a few mystery snails, adding a few more tiger barbs or skirt tetras to those schools, or a school of cories to chill at the bottom of the tank?
I’m not currently interested in adding co2 and going high tech. I will probably move to dry ferts eventually but for now I’d like to use up what I have which is basically the whole line of seachem liquid fertilizers. I have been dosing “as needed” but now that the tank is a jungle again I’ll be getting back to routine macro and micro dosing.
I’d love to hear what you guys think!
