Too low Nitrate levels - how much Flourish Nitrogen to use?

[BaRanchik]

I just ordered a nitrogen specific fertilizer to compliment the all-in-one fert I'm using.

I have duckweed (by choice) covering my whole tank, and it's sucking up WAY too much nutrients. The tank is 2 months old, under stocked 10 gal. Ammonia and nitrite are 0, and I'd love to have nitrates stable on 30ppm. I'm doing water changes every 2 weeks, and about 25%. I get very little algae so far, just a bit of diatom and green hair that my cleanup crew is taking care of for the most part.

My tank is heavily planted, and everything but floaters is doing great so far. The problem starts with nitrates - my fert includes them, but I guess it's not very concentrated, and this is the only one I could find around here. Within 1 week, nitrates dropped from 30ppm to 5-10ppm or less, and old floater leaves began dying slowly (the tips begin disintegrating slowly). This has happened before and as suggested here I now dose twice a week.

For a bit it seemed great but now nitrate levels are super low again! So I ordered Flourish Nitrogen, hoping it will solve the problem. I checked their website as they have a dosing calculator and it tells me I need to use 10 caps to raise it to that level?! This seems weird so I wanted to hear some more opinions here. Also, I don't want to get a whole bottle of this fert every 2 months....

I am thinking of trying a new dosing schedule: API Leaf Zone for potassium and iron twice a week, Flourish Nitrogen once a week, all-in-one fert once a week. Right now it's 2x API and 2x AIO. I'm afraid to lower the amounts, I don't want to kill my healthy plants!

I'd appreciate any suggestions regarding this situation.

[Jungle Fan]

So you say "everything but floaters is doing great so far", you also say "I have duckweed (by choice) covering my whole tank", it would seem then that the duckweed, which is a floater is doing well? Maybe you could give us a bit more info on what types of plants, what kind of light, and how close the light is to the water surface where your floaters would be located, also is there a specific reason why you rely only on what's locally available in regards to ferts? I've personally never relied on local purchases for fertilizer, especially a good All-in-one, with the exception of some Seachem Flourish Potassium as an add on for my potassium ravenous Java fern. Aquarium Co-Op's Easy Green is a great All-in-one and it contains 2.66% water soluble Nitrogen.

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/collections/the-easy-range/products/easy-green-all-in-one-fertilizer

PS: for floaters it also makes a difference whether your tank is covered, or uncovered

Edited June 3, 2021 by Jungle Fan
PS

[BaRanchik]

55 minutes ago, Jungle Fan said:

So you say "everything but floaters is doing great so far", you also say "I have duckweed (by choice) covering my whole tank", it would seem then that the duckweed, which is a floater is doing well? Maybe you could give us a bit more info on what types of plants, what kind of light, and how close the light is to the water surface where your floaters would be located, also is there a specific reason why you rely only on what's locally available in regards to ferts? I've personally never relied on local purchases for fertilizer, especially a good All-in-one, with the exception of some Seachem Flourish Potassium as an add on for my potassium ravenous Java fern. Aquarium Co-Op's Easy Green is a great All-in-one and it contains 2.66% water soluble Nitrogen.

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/collections/the-easy-range/products/easy-green-all-in-one-fertilizer

PS: for floaters it also makes a difference whether your tank is covered, or uncovered

I have a bunch of different stem plants, anubias, java ferns, a crypt, tiger lotus, dwarf sag. All of them are doing great and are growing nicely. My light is a Nicrew light, currently only 1, but I'm actually getting some high tech plants soon, so I ordered a second one which I'll be using alongside the first one. The light is about 2.5 inches away from the water surface, and I have a clear acrylic cover.

The duckweed is currently covering my whole tank, but the problem is every few days it starts disintegrating, just like this article from Co-op states is happening due to a nitrogen deficiency: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/plant-nutrient-deficiencies

I can't get Easy Green or any of the Co-op products because unfortunately they don't ship here. Amazon doesn't ship those products either, and ebay's price is 3x higher due to shipping. I found 1 place that sells the Seachem Nitrogen on the other side of the country, so I ordered it.

So unfortunately I have to rely on products that are either being shipped here, or they have a local distributor. This hobby, as far as I can tell, is not as big here as it is in the US, mainly for cost reasons - so even the local fish shops don't get too much of the well known brands and products due to the lack of customers.

Edited June 3, 2021 by BaRanchik

[Cory]

What is your all in one fertilizer?  If it's flourish comprehensive? I dosed that at 16x the strength before we developed easy green.

[BaRanchik]

7 minutes ago, Cory said:

What is your all in one fertilizer?  If it's flourish comprehensive? I dosed that at 16x the strength before we developed easy green.

Oh my, now I see why you decided to make your own product, haha.

Mine is called Nutrafin Plant Gro. Right now I use it twice a week (5ml for my 10 gal every time), and its contents are:

 

Edited June 3, 2021 by BaRanchik

[Cory]

Dang yeah, that's pretty weak. I just need to get shipping to Israel to happen faster 😞

[BaRanchik]

2 minutes ago, Cory said:

Dang yeah, that's pretty weak. I just need to get shipping to Israel to happen faster 😞

You got a lifetime customer right here! 😉

[Patrick_G]

I think you’re on the right track with adding the Flourish Nitrogen. I’d do the math and add the equivalent to what you would get in a dose of Easy Green. 

[Isaac M]

@BaRanchik the reason that recommendation seems weird by the seachem flourish calculator is because of the units. The units are in ppm of Nitrogen, not nitrates. At the bottom of the calculator, it mentions if using a nitrate equivalent, then divide by 5. So in order to add 20ppm of nitrates to your water, you would need 2 caps, not 10 caps. 1 mL of Flourish Nitrogen gets you about 1.7ppm of nitrates for a 10 gallon aquarium but the calculator rounds up to 2ppm. I assume it is done this way to simplify. 

As a reference, Easy Green gives you about 3.1 ppm of Nitrates per mL for a 10 gallon aquarium. 

To recap, use 2 caps or 10 mL of Flourish Nitrogen to add almost 20ppm (about 17ppm) of Nitrates to your 10 gallon aquarium. I hope that helps! 

Edited June 3, 2021 by Isaac M
To Clarify

[BaRanchik]

16 minutes ago, Isaac M said:

@BaRanchik the reason that recommendation seems weird by the seachem flourish calculator is because of the units. The units are in ppm of Nitrogen, not nitrates. At the bottom of the calculator, it mentions if using a nitrate equivalent, then divide by 5. So in order to add 20ppm of nitrates to your water, you would need 2 caps, not 10 caps. 1 mL of Flourish Nitrogen gets you about 1.7ppm of nitrates for a 10 gallon aquarium but the calculator rounds up to 2ppm. I assume it is done this way to simplify. 

As a reference, Easy Green gives you about 3.1 ppm of Nitrates per mL for a 10 gallon aquarium. 

To recap, use 2 caps or 10 mL of Flourish Nitrogen to add almost 20ppm (about 17ppm) of Nitrates to your 10 gallon aquarium. I hope that helps! 

I see now. Very helpful, thanks!