Too little Nitrates?

[brockfishhawk]

http://www.aquariumfertilizer.com/

I just picked up some Potassium nitrate and potassium phosphate from these guys. Super fast delivery... bought it and 3 days later it was in my mail box. I would try it. One bag will last a long time depending on size of tank.

Also I would recomend hitting up this link and scrolling down to a feeding regiment that is really user friendly.

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49718

 

[MonsterMinis]

Thanks for the info JC.. I know the test strips aren't very accurate but the ones I have compared to the liquid results I get are almost spot on, and I have them around for those odd moments such as this.

Do you think increaseing the bio-load on the tank is a viable option? I won't mind supplimenting with ferts but if I can get the same thing by increasing the stock, I'de as soon do that.

I know I am going to struggle w/ the algae as long as I'm not running CO2. and the chain swords don't seem to enjoy me removing a bulb.

I was thinking maybe a few ottos (2-3) and somethign that will eat hair algae... i've tried mollys/platies in the past and they stripped my stem plants =/ and I'm not sure how well a flying fox would work with my shrimp?

 

[JamesF]

Personally, I'd get some Flourish Excell and some nitrate (either Flourish or KNO3) and start with those. Adding the Excel can work wonders on a tank.

 

[Industrial]

Whenever I had 5ppm or less nitrates, cyanobacteria would begin to grow and take over my plants. I lost three planted tanks due to this. In my case, my tap water has phosphates, so if the nitrates were low there would be excess phosphates even after every water change.

Now I dose all of my planted tanks with nitrogen to get the ppm to at least 10.

 

[MonsterMinis]

knock on wood the algae hasn't gotten worse. I ended up bumping the lights down to 6 hours a day and added 3 female guppies to keep my male company. did an extra water change on the tank to help balance out the water perameters best I could and then gave the tank a solid dose of flourish. also jammed a few root tabs down into the substrate. we're gonna be outta town for most the next 2 weeks... so gonna see if this helps while we're gone. ( dosing the tank again and another WC before we leave at the end of the week) If not ( which I know is likely) I'mna start tinkering with more specifics when we get back.

 

[londonloco]

Planted tanks require a balance of light, nutrients and co2. If you don't want to set up pressurized co2, Excel is a good option. You need to investigate dosing regimes, google EI and PPS, tho there are many dosing regimes out there. Dose both macros and Excel daily.

 

[JamesF]

You can dose all the flourish you want, it's really not going to do anything. It's a trace element mix. It has small amounts of a wide variety of nutrients that plants need. But the most important are the macros (N,P,K). Those are the ones you need in balance, which you are missing out on.