Mmiller2001

As mentioned above, I would drop your photoperiod to 8 hours or drop overall intensity some. But I would go 8 hours. Wait 3 weeks, if no improvement, start increasing PO4. Seachem has a line of nutrients, but expensive. The most precise and cost effective fertilizer is dry KH2PO4. 1ppm increase per week is where I would start. You could buy a test kit, but that's an additional cost. I would also look at the overall picture of what you are dosing. Begin tracking your numbers and try to maintain ratios that work well within well maintained tanks. Here are some ratios I would try as these people really know how to grow impressive plants.

100% Pearl Weed.

If you are interested, this is what I dose per week. Just remember I'm injecting CO2 and have aggressive growing plants. I dose the same in my low tech tanks but way lower ppm. Same ratios though.

Without taking a sample and using a microscope, no one really knows. But if you are seeing signs, then continue the Paracleanse per directions on the box. I would also follow up with another week of Paracleanse in 2 weeks.

Look at your water report and see what the composition is. A GH 6 should be plenty. Make sure you are not low on CO2. Also know that ammonia is an extremely temperamental plant and all I was able to grow was twisted stunted leaves.

If you use easy green, here are some numbers. I'm dosing .6ppm per week in my CO2 tank. Depending on your water change schedule, dosing 1/4th my dose would be acceptable. Try just a bit lower and work your way up.

It depends on the chelating, But yes Ferrous forms of iron can be absorbed within 30 minutes.

😁

Welcome.

Fortunately, liquid carbons wreck BBA and I would do as @Patrick_G suggests. However, I wouldn't change my light schedule unless you feel it's necessary. Sounds like your help caused the problem and that is easily corrected now that you're home. Just note, some plants will melt with liquid carbons if you dose too much. However, that wouldn't stop me from dosing it, it's just so effective.

I think that's just right. The less you feed is better in my opinion. That said, just make sure they aren't getting skinny.

Unfortunately, there's no chart with specific KH to pH ranges as each tank is different and there's no perfect condition to create such a chart. But eventually, you will get a feel of things and you will know the pH of each tank just by knowing the KH. Tannins, bioload and rocks can all alter KH, thus, every tank is different. If that website is consistent with most others, hardness should be GH. We measure GH and KH in degrees for simplification. Basically, for both GH and KH, we can divide ppm by 17.9 to convert to degrees.

Keeping a KH between 1dKH and 3dKH should keep you around neutral if your substrate isn't active. Some substrates are active and reduce pH. You would soften tap water by cutting it with distilled or RO water. Example, your tap is 10dGH and 10dKH, 1 gallon of tap mixed with 1 gallon of Distilled water would cause 2 gallons of 5dGH and 5dKH. To maintain certain numbers, you make your source water the parameters you want the tank to be, and simply by doing water changes, you eventually convert the tank to source water parameters. But, the tank has to be inert, no rocks leeching minerals ect.. Maintaining KH is the same, via water changes to replenish what may have been lost.

Tap water or mineralized water?

You have a few concepts wrong. PH you have correct. GH is a measure of hardness. How hard the water is. Water hardness is made up of Ca and Mg. It could be all Ca, all Mg and any ratio of both from one extreme to the other. But GH is a measure of Ca and Mg. KH is carbonate hardness. It's a measure of carbonates and bicarbonates. Nothing more. You can have carbonates like calcium carbonate, calcium bicarbonate, potassium carbonate and potassium bicarbonate. This is the buffering capacity of the water. Basically, KH maintains pH. Higher KH, higher pH range, lower KH, lower pH range. Acids "eat away" at KH, effectively lowering it over time. And in turn, lowers pH over time. Crushed coral would raise both KH and GH. It's a source of Calcium and carbonates. It's best to ignore pH and focus on KH. As KH determines relative pH ranges. Osmotic fluctuation is more problematic, KH fluctuation is osmotic fluctuation, pH fluctuation is not osmotic fluctuation. PH can change while KH remains the same. GH fluctuation is also osmotic fluctuation.

100% yes.

My honest advice, take it however you want. Outside of extreme choices, 97% of plants thrive in soft water. That's a GH of 4dGH or lower and in a ratio of 4:1, 3:1 or 2:1 Ca:Mg. 97% of plants want a 3dKH or lower, I myself run 0dKH. If plants are your focus, pick fish that fall into you plants parameters. There's no such thing as easy plants. They all require light, nutrients and CO2, balancing this triad is not easy. Especially when not dosing CO2. You need to quadruple the plant load in your tank. Never stop dosing nutrients. Root tabs are 100% not necessary. Water changes are not about reducing nitrates, they are about targeting nutrients and replacing nutrients(ask me how). Don't have a large bioload, and if you do, realize you must dose nutrients that do NOT include Nitrates, that an ALL IN ONE FERTILIZER will NEVER achieve BALANCE, ever(too large of bioload). The amount of water changes (and Volume) you do is the single most important interactive maintenance you can do. (here comes the hate!) Ask them to show you their tank! Swords and Crypts, most of them!<---but they balance nutrients to light! Gladly link you to a guy growing difficult plants with no CO2 (to a degree). What's the difference? Water changes. Learn GH and KH, it's pretty much the 2 most important parameters. pH swing doesn't harm fish. More is not better, enough is better. Chasing numbers is the best advice anyone can give you, anyone that says, "don't chase numbers", you have to question. Stability is achieved by understanding what's going in and what is going out, and unless you test every single component of your tank, it's impossible to know, but we can 100% control what's going into the tank and manage what's going out via water changes. Easy plants are not easy, they are just adapted to a wider set of parameters, so people often claim success when there approach would only work for those plants (Swords, Anubias and Crypts) typically. All that said, stick to Swords, Anubias and Crypts! :)

Using crushed coral or cuttlebone would be a mistake. Both of those raise GH.

I have, potassium carbonate is easier to measure and is just potassium carbonate versus a proprietary mixture.

100 percent med trio.

Use potassium carbonate, it's dirt cheap on Amazon and can be measured easily. CellarScience - AD640LB Potassium Carbonate (lb) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074D9BXRT/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_VS7F33QF3X69SK8M4X9J

More nutrients in the soil option, but sand works too. Soil will need a cap of sand or gravel and can be messy. Others here will give better details. Most plants grow fine in sand but some plants require a soil to do well.

Looks great. Love how vivid it looks.

Here's my settings. I pushed to 85 and got green water. So settling here and baby steps back up.

Might look at Kessel LEDs. I think they promote their penetration.