Tuxanio

I am planning on adding a plant in a 8oz mason jar with Miracle grow organic (the walstad recommendation) potted mix capped with sand or gravel to my almost year old 20g planted tanks. I have two questions. 1) Should I expect an ammonium spike? 2) Would you expect a system like this to be able to handle a spike without killing off the fish?

it's funny because my tanks never measure any nitrates at all, even with the thick green water 🤣, the other tank has never had green water issues so I really think overfeeding caused it this time in combo with fert and high light. But my babies weren't putting on size until I started feeding 3-5 times a day. No regrets haha. yeah I have a UV sterilizer that I use when this happens, I would just like to stop it from happening all together. my other tank never has this problem and it has big mollies in it. I've purchased 7 orders of water sprite to float on top of the tank so maybe the combo of that plus reduced lighting and a few large water changes will clear it back up for me. Otherwise its UV time 🤣

update: got green water again but I was feeding fry(had 3 petsmart guppies that died, last of them died after giving birth to 18 fry) worth it I think. they really put on weigh and size within weeks. water is very green but i am much feeding less now, it should gradually clear right?

my tanks would randomly spike in nitrate to ~1ppm and like you my ammonia would 0. I thought my test trips were just wrong because days later it would be back at 0. Not sure how to stop this so I just leave it alone.

I should mention the tank that had green water a few times had other issues too. I'm going to tear it down this week once my order of plants arrive but this is good information. I should also note the second tank I set up (actually planned out this time with 12+ plants and a more appropriate amount of substrate) a few weeks ago did not produce green water after easy green.

Ah ok, so in theory my new lights should remedy this 🤔

10 hours on a Topfin 20g kit light

Happened with both seachem flourish comprehensive and easy green. I have 5 dalmation guppies and 1 nerite snail

Forgot to add that I’ve never had over 20 ppm nitrates after dosing, I used the tetra strips at the highest I saw it go after testing was 15~

First time I was dosing every few days because had 0 ppm nitrates, then the bloom happened. Second time it happened after just one one dose at 0 ppm nitrates.

Has anyone ever experienced an algae bloom days after adding liquid fert? It had happened twice to me in my older tank with a kit light. Do you think it’s an issue with plants not being able to absorb the nutrients because of the lighting? I ordered two Finnex stingrays 2’s for my 20 gallons so we’ll see if it happens again. According to the site they should provide Medium/High lighting to a 20 gal.

I moved over an established filter to a newly set up and planted tank and had no issues and added fish the next day. I think this is cheating though 🤣

I counted about 3 of these this morning. It's a fairly new tank so I don't think I'll end up with a ton of them long term. But did want a cleaning crew for this tank. So thanks aquarium co-op for the feebies 😂