A rookie planted tank

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Nice clean looking setup

Sent from my GT-P7510 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
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Thanks that credit goes to my cleanup crew lol. Cories, ottos, and siamese algae eaters keep it pretty clean in there.
 
It's looking great, "rookie!" Hopefully they grow out nicely so it won't look too cramped in there

What fertilizer(s) do you use?
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I will probably end up replacing the tiger lotus and the sword once they outgrow the tank. Just give them away and get smaller ones.

I have been dosing pretty much everything.

Potassium 2x week
Nitrogen 2x a week
Trace elements 2x a week
Iron 3x a week
Some comprehensive fert that I just throw in for the hell of it.

I do a 25-50% weekly water change to flush out any left overs and then start dosing all over again the next week.
I also use yeast fermented co2.
 
Wow, that's some serious fertilization!! I like your dedication!

It would seem that it could get expensive with the dosages you put in but the tank size must help a lot. I thought that a benefit to having a planted tank is getting away with less water changes. What if you decrease your dosage and did 25% water changes a week? I'm just being curious and hoping to learn something :)

Are you using DIY CO2??
 
Mr. Rain Cloud said:
Wow, that's some serious fertilization!! I like your dedication!

It would seem that it could get expensive with the dosages you put in but the tank size must help a lot. I thought that a benefit to having a planted tank is getting away with less water changes. What if you decrease your dosage and did 25% water changes a week? I'm just being curious and hoping to learn something :)

Are you using DIY CO2??
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I could always decrease the dosage and do less water changes... But I don't want to create a limiting nutrient. I want all the nutrients to be present in excess so the plants can grow as they please.

It would probably be better to lower the dosages and figure out exactly how much of each nutrient my tank requires but that takes time and honestly I don't feel like doing it lol. I would rather just do a weekly water change which in a 20 gallon only takes 30 min at most.

Your method is probably smarter but as I said I'm just too lazy to figure out exactly of how much nutrient the tank needs.

The Co2 is a store-bought system but I mix my own sugar/yeast solutions.
 
I see, well I was thinking maybe just cutting the dosage in half from what you have now. It's not necessarily a bad thing that you "overdose" but it can be an issue if your algae starts to get crazy.

In any case, it's better to have the plants thriving rather than dying. I hope that you find time to research and maintain your planted tank!
 
if you want an interesting sword when you replace this one, look into Aflames
its like a deep ruby red to almost jet black leaf, and I kinda think it looks damn nice lol
I kinda want to pick one up and replace my little stump of a Rose Sword
 
Your lighting is fine. You can probably even grow some of the high light plants. You can grow almost all plants with low light, but they grow slower. Lower light also slows them down and intake of nutrients and CO2 is lower as a result. The think you can't do with high light plants with low lights is get them to turn red/pink (like some of those plants need intense lights to get those colors). I have grown many plants under low lighting.
 
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