Mmiller2001

Sold all my tetras and substrate swap. Huge chore that was just kinda random but it's done. This will be a lightly stocked tank going forward and plant focused.

Look what I did!

Looks like a male.

This, I will add to follow up with another round at about the 2 week mark. Some of these suckers can be resistant to meds.

I'm going to second @Fish Folk Repens is pretty easy and can get quite red when it's healthy.

Have a bit of a conundrum going on, the nitrate limiting doesn't seem to be going well. The plants seem stunted and wispy. Would a change in dosing amounts cause this to happen or is it the new amounts themselves? I wonder if I should just keep on keeping on! If you look at the new growth on the Rotala, you can see that it's turning red a bit. I just wonder if it's worth it to continue!

For simplicity, I would use Easy Iron. If you feel that your are deficient in micros, then you could use Flourish to cover those.

With pool filter sand, which I use as well, you would want to dose a bit heavier in the beginning. 10:1:10 would be safe to start. I recommend EI (Estimative Index) dosing, it works so well and is easy to follow. There's tons of information on the web about EI dosing. For non CO2 tanks, just dose 1/2 to 1/4 of the recommended doses. For a pond, you probably could get near recommended dosing. I like GLA dry fertilizers, cost wise. And for a harder water set up, make sure to get DTPA micro mix. I would get this for the DTPA+EDTA https://greenleafaquariums.com/products/pps-pro-aquarium-fertilizer-package-bags-edta-dtpa-version.html This will last a long time, bought mine about 8 months ago and it will easily last another 8.

150ml yes. With a water volume that large, I would go dry fertilizers. What substrate would you be using? You would dose very "lite" and ramp up as plants develop.

Correct. Fe can be between .15 to 1ppm(per week). Depends on plants load, light and if dosing CO2.

An Aquaclear can not restart itself after a power outage. Unless they have redesigned their filter, I'd look elsewhere.

I have not experienced any problems with a brighter light on floaters. But your results could be different, but my bet is it's no problem. 1 pump in your 5 gallon tank would add about 4.5ppm nitrate to the tank. I always test nitrates after my water change then add back to the tank. I'm trying to keep 25 to 30ppm in my tanks. This includes my low tech tanks.

Well said. I'd imagine they are great for those of us who fall into the "forgetful" category or busy category. My mind is being changed. This is good! So, adding "unnecessary, but offer excellent redundancy/alternative".

https://www.plantedtank.net/threads/so-called-heavy-root-feeders-fact-or-fiction.876457/ I'll change my "root tabs are Hocus Pocus" to "root tabs are unnecessary".

What light do you have? You have room to dose more. You can use your Nitrates as a target. You can push it up to 25-30ppm. Sounds like you may have a bit of a potassium deficiency and adding a little more will not hurt. If the light is too bright, you will have algae everywhere. A few spots here and there is normal, it's when it goes "nuts" is when you would have too much light. Easy Iron is EDTA, so you lock some out at a pH above 7.0, so adding a bit more will not hurt either. You could also try splitting your doses, so add half after a water change, then the other half a few days later. Split your Easy Green and Iron dosing, so 1 day Easy Green the next day Easy Iron. This table can help you dose to 25-30ppm

Look at Seachem Tidal line. Pretty hassle free.

With a dirted tank, I would run lean on column dosing. I would 3 pump Easy Green for his 24 gallons and dose half to quarter of the directions on Flourish. I would hold off on trace until I actually see a problem. Then just watch the new growth. It's really tough using multiple products that have their own "winning blend". For the expenses, I would use up all my Seachem products first, then roll into Easy Green. I would dose a quarter to half the recommended dosage on the flourish products. Reason for the lower dosing, dirt substrate.

I would pick one regiment and stick to it. When you are using multiple sources (Easy Green, Seachem and Dustin's) it's going to very difficult to understand what's going on. If you choose Seachem, make sure to use all 3, NPK and trace. I'm not familiar with Dustin's products so can't help there. If you go Easy Green, you could probably use Flourish and Trace to cover any deficiencies.

That color looks correct for the change to yellow. A 2KH is neither bad or good. It depends on the type of fish you want to keep. I just saw you have a dirted substrate, are the plants new? Have they had enough time to produce roots? Flourish has iron in it, is it possible you are over dosing iron by using both Flourish and Dustin's iron?

Stunning!

What substrate do you have? Once a week is fine, but with GH and KH of 7/6, I wouldn't worry about it as long as you keep your water changes up. I'm assuming your source water is 7/6.

Looks good. Following your progress!

I wouldn't bat an eye at those numbers. My pH swings from 7.3 to 5.9 every single day. PH swing doesn't harm fish as long as GH and KH remain stable. Are you using Flourish Nitrogen too? What trace mix are you using? How many gallons is the tank?

Look into polyester pillow stuffing. Osmocote+