Mmiller2001

Bring it!!!!!!

I couldn't say it better! Just tap this forum as much as you can. Just know that @gjcarew just moved his 75 gallon journal here to the Co-Op, he freaking won the 2021 AGA Dutch style competition. We also have @Seattle_Aquarist who is amazing and knows this plant business so well! It's truly is a great time to be on this forum! Good stuff happening! There are so many others here and its drawing more very day! I reduced my fish deaths so much just by following Corey's med trio and the advice of @Colu. Okay, cheese over...good things are happening, I'm excited!

I you don't know who Greggz is; here you go. https://scapecrunch.com/gregg-zydeck/

I see what you did there! Updates coming. Hint: Moss wall being built now and should be in this week <wink>. That looks real good and should be a good starting point. To be completely honest, don't be afraid to dose more or less. Try both so you can see how it effects your tank. But always give any change at least 3 weeks before you make a judgement call. If you start dosing these numbers, expect your plants to get made at you. To quote my hero Greggz, "plants love stability", and this new fertilization method may cause a temporary temper tantrum. So don't get discouraged. I would, if you could, get a TDS meter and start analyzing your source water and tank water. A TDS meter is an amazing tool to analyze consistency. When I was also trying to figure out how to make fertilizer solutions, Mrs. Walstad (allegedly) advised me that a larger dosing volume is more accurate. So maybe look into mixing 1000L bottles and dosing 20ml to 30ml doses. Again FYI. Best of luck and keep us updated. And thank you. My tanks were never possible without people helping me. I say it often and I will say it here. "I cheated my way to a decent tank". My progress was never possible with out amazing journals posted by top aquarists.

Okay, sounds like you are low on water column dosing. I would look for a comprehensive fertilizer like Easy Green, or others l, and dose per directions to start. I would discontinue the leafzone and save it just in case you need it later. With a higher pH, Fe can be made unavailable to plants. Do you know the pH of the tank?

Ah, okay. Thank you for answering my questions. I really appreciate it.

Thank you! How does a siesta play into things? Does it help keep the tank up at 20ppm?

@Seattle_Aquarist So something you've said a few times has my wheels spinning. You mention you keep your CO2 running 24 hours a day. Are you pushing to 30ppm and you have found night time CO2 production isn't too much to gass the fish? Or do you not push that high and night time CO2 never causes any problems? It seems the standard is turn CO2 on a few hours before lights on and a hour before lights off, yet you break from this consensus while also using a siesta. Usually, pushing CO2 eliminates a need for a siesta. What benefits do you find using a siesta and running CO2?

Are you dosing fertilizers? And can you test GH and KH? What's your pH?

This. Spending time on this forum definitely lead me to the above. I'm enjoying my tanks even more these days because of it. I really enjoy reading everyone's approach and many are very different. Good stuff.

I prefer inert substrates except Eco Complete. You can have an amazing tank with inert substrates and I currently really dig Carib Sea Super Naturals peace river. Only the most fickle plants need an Aquasoil. Also root tabs are not necessary when using an inert substrate. I tried an Aquasoil this year and it's been very difficult for me. Early on, you really have to keep up on water changes. Maybe at some point it gets easier, but I'm not there yet. However, the plants are growing in nicely and a few plants that did okay in Eco Complete exploded in the Aquasoil.

Give it some time. I'd say 3 weeks. If you still see the holes after that, bump K up a bit more in that tank. Some plants are just K hogs! Keep an eye on the new growth.

It's a source of trace elements with a weird amount of N P K. I think it was created for those with high fish loads that generated high amounts of N and P. It's a weird mix for sure. Just use it like a Micro Element mix.

I dose it 3 times a week to reach a weekly dose total. I want to dose .4ppm Fe a week and I dose 3 times a week. So I take .4/3=.13ppm Fe per dose. Flourish is a supplement and not a comprehensive all in one fertilizer, FYI. I use it in conjunction with NO3, PO4 and K. In relation to water changes, it does not matter when to put it in the tank. Just get it in there 😁.

Are you dosing fertilizers?

You could also lift the light a few inches if you find it's too much light.

From my research, 70% planted seems to be the low end recommendation. If you are looking for a bullet proof stem plant, get Hygrophila Polysperma. Fast growing beautiful stem that's easily propagated. I would buy at least 12 stems to make a nice bush. Pearl Weeds will work to and can be used as a foreground plant.

I'm a nerd, this is fun to for me. Absolutely no problem 😆 When I was using the recommendation for EI (GLA charts and such) I would get rapid growth but GDA came with it. I would try the higher numbers just so you can see how it effects growth. I recently tried Mr. Wong's numbers and I think he's right in the sweet spot. I had no GDA, slower growth and the tank really liked these levels. https://www.2hraquarist.com/blogs/beginners-planted-tank-101/how-much-to-dose?_pos=4&_sid=99734e597&_ss=r All I test these days is Nitrates and phosphate. They are easy and luckily, we can dose potassium high with little negative effects. I've gone as high as 30ppm a week. Honestly, I was just wasting salts, I saw no improvement. The picture I'm posting consumed (potassium) 15ppm a week and I dosed 25ppm a week. I think most people would be very safe dosing 25ppm K.

Yeah, mosses are a fickly bunch aren't they! Java moss enjoys cooler water for sure. I would try some Frogbit and Anubia. I bet some dwarf Sag would be okay too. Honestly, most plants should be fine at higher temps, but some mosses revolt. I take the try and toss approach. I try different plants, if they don't like it, I toss them and try another. 😁 I would try Hygrophila Polysperma, pretty bullet proof plant if I was honest.

Sparkling gourami are notoriously aloof and elusive. It's just how they are. I would try to plant more and I would add frogbit to the tank as well. Adding some non aggressive fish would help too. Pencil fish come to mind.

Alright, just got home and everything looks correct calculator wise. Those additions to 500ml of RO* water are all correct but I see a few problems. Firstly, your 14 gallon tank is not 14 gallons. You have substrate, rocks and other items that displace the water. To give you an example, I have calculated my 75 gallon to be about 66 actual gallons + or -. Measure from the top of your substrate to the water line, then measure length and depth. Then calculate LxWxH(from top of substrate to waterline) then divide by 231. This will give you a close true gallonage. You will also need to guesstimate plants, fish, decor and subtract from the total. Also keep in mind filter and reactor volumes. You then use this number for gallons in Rotala. Secondly, Your numbers are a bit steep and I will explain why. There's 2 sets of numbers going on. There are dosing numbers and accumulation totals. If you have an inert aquarium with 10 gallons of water in it and you dose 10ppm NO3 every week and change 50% of the water every week; you can never exceed 20ppm NO3. This goes for everything we dose. 10ppm NO3/50% water change=5ppm NO3 (Week 1) 5ppm NO3+10ppm NO3=15ppmNO3/50%change=7.5ppm NO3 (week 2) 7.5ppm NO3+10ppm NO3=17.5ppm NO3/50%change=8.75ppm NO3 (week 3) 8.75ppm NO3+10ppm NO3=18.75ppm NO3/50%change=9.375ppm NO3 (week 4) 9.375ppm NO3+10ppm NO3=19.375ppm NO3/50%change=9.6875ppm NO3 (week 5) 9.6875ppm NO3+10ppm No3=19.6875ppm NO3 and so on and so on. You will always approach 2 times the dose and at some point, way down the road, you will finally get there but those number get tiring, right! However, our tanks aren't inert. We have fish and plants. But that's okay, EI dosing covers these issues by dosing more than enough and 50% water changes resets nutrients. Let's look at your totals You are dosing per day: 7.5ppm NO3 1.3ppm PO4 12.77ppm K Per week total: 7.5x3=22.5ppm NO3 or 45ppm NO3 accumulation 1.3x3=3.9ppm PO4 or 7.8ppm PO4 accumulation 12.77x3=38ppm K or 76.62ppm K accumulation. The above numbers are too high. Going back, we have fish and plants. Plants consume, fish produce. And if we assume we have even less than 14 gallons, these numbers really get out of control. So you will want to make adjustments to account for this. Personally, I didn't want to go out and buy every test. It's expensive and using EI removes the need for testing. I like to think about my accumulation totals. Where is it that I want my parameters to be? If I want 20ppm in my tank, then I dose 10ppm per week. I can divide that out however many days I want to. If we use EI as a guide, we dose every 3 days. So 10ppm/3=3.33ppm NO3 each dose. Now I do have all the tests 😂 and have tested the tank out of curiosity. I have found, with my plant and stocking levels, that my tank/s consume. So if I put in 10ppm NO3, at weeks end (before water change) I have less than 10ppm NO3. So, I adjust up on that weekly total so that I can hit my 20ppm accumulation totals. Your NO3 is high, I'd might start with a 5ppm per dose, that's 15ppm per week with a 30ppm accumulation total. If you see GDA, drop that by 2ppm every couple of weeks and the GDA should go away. Your PO4 dosing looks great, plenty of room there to work with. K, I would shoot for no more than 30ppm accumulation, so same dosing as NO3. Start there and see what happens. If you want to slow growth down, go lower, if you want to speed growth up, go higher. Usually just adjusting NO3 up and down is all you need to do. For micros, don't calculate accumulation totals. Just calculate per week dose and divide by the days you want to dose. I've found .4ppm Fe (as proxy) is my sweet spot, but .6 was fine too, it's just puts the other micros (Cu, B, Mn ect.) a bit high. When I dropped to .4, magic happened, but milage may vary! Hopefully this wasn't too long winded or just explained what you already know! 😁

They just got back to me and you want to use the drop down Plant Prod micro mix.

Makes sense. I'm going to have to message them. They told me wrong!

I'll need to be at my PC to double check and that will be later tonight. I messaged GLA some time ago and asked them what to use, in calculator, when working with the EDTA DPTA mix. They told me to use Plantex CSMB. Try messaging them to confirm which one is right. Otherwise, I will check the above numbers tonight. FYI, you can just throw the dry powder right into the tank if you don't want to mix a solution. Seems like every time I made a solution, I wanted to change a number a few weeks later. It was annoying after some time. 😆

Just saw your journal and looking forward to following your progress. Well done so far! I've found that quite a few Rotalas are creeping plants and do like to grow out more than up. One I have personal experience with and likes to grow straight up is Rotala Narrow Leaf Sp. Red. It's a deep shade of red and seems very robust. I would give it a try and see how it does.