discussion on a uniquely situated tank

[Dr.rex]

So idk much about lighting, but I got my 55gl running 2 25$ shop lights, (50w 6k lumen, color 5k, each) water Is 79°, A 0, ni 0, na 0, gh 300+ kh 40-0 pH 7.8-8.2, 

I'm having the issue of the water being to clean, like no amount I feed will shift the water and my plants (water lettuce and duckweed) are going the cycle of massive growth in couple days then massive die off just as fast, blasting my water to, A 1, ni 4, na 0,  then swinging it back to 0,0,0  in a 6-8 day cycle, is there any way to stabilize this cycle, cuz I'm feeding 4 tbl spoons of repashy community Plus twice daily and it's just barley keeping it stable but it keeps going out of whack, anyone know what to do or any ideas, no easy green but I am using easy carbon 6 pump per day

Edited July 22, 2021 by Dr.rex

[HH Morant]

Wow, 8 tablespoons of food per day is a lot. I have 13 near-adult angels plus 17 other fish in my 125, and I feed a little over one teaspoon per day, six days a week. And I give the plecos some zucchini a couple of times per week.

8 tablespoons per day is 24 times what I feed my 30 fish. I would guess that is the root of the ammonia issue.

 

[Expectorating_Aubergine]

My planted tanks go through ferts so fast that I just use dry ferts. Orchid ferts for the smaller tanks. The big 125 and the pond get triple 20 miracle grow plant fertilizer directly. I've never had issues with the fertilizer harming fish. If the plants are growing vigorously they will eat up the fertilizer pretty quick.

[HH Morant]

Are you sure your nitrates are zero? That seems improbable given the level of feeding.

[Patrick_G]

I agree with @HH Morant it seems like way to much food. I feed my 75 gallon about  1/10th that amount. I’d also start removing the baby floaters so the full grown plants have space and nutrients. That should stop the boom and die cycle you’re experiencing. You’re also dosing too much Easy Carbon. You have low to medium light so according to the label you can dose one pump per ten gal every other day.  
 

 

[Isaac M]

I agree with @Patrick_G about removing plants before they die off. I also agree with @HH Morant about the amount of feeding.

How are you testing your nitrates? If you are using an API test kit, it is very important to follow the instructions exactly and shake the second bottle for the instructed time or else you will get a false 0 reading every time. 

[Dr.rex]

Okay y'all, I know I'm over feeding and yes all the food is being consumed fully, I have checked this multiple times thinking that the foods the issue, I use aquarium co-op ammonia and multi test strips so I trust um and use them as directed, as fair as light levels, I'm using full size not dwarf water lettuce with duckweed that grows in between, at the surface, I would say extreme light, under surface, I would say low to very low, I realize this issue can very easily be solved by removing plants frequently and reducing feeding while halfing the light, I'm looking for out of the box ideas here, this is a breeding tank for guppies, plecos and mystery snails, if I'm having serious overgrowth and not able to literally put enough food in the tank to sustain it and having a major die back which throws my water to the moon causing another Bloom cycle, instead of doing the normal remove, reduce, reassess.

What could I add, what could I change, what would it do, i love my glass boxes because each one's its own experiment, come on dig your brains y'all, out of the box wacky ideas, what would possibly work in this scenario and there are no wrong answers here

[Dr.rex]

On 7/21/2021 at 11:04 PM, Dr.rex said:

Okay y'all, I know I'm over feeding and yes all the food is being consumed fully, I have checked this multiple times thinking that the foods the issue, I use aquarium co-op ammonia and multi test strips so I trust um and use them as directed, as fair as light levels, I'm using full size not dwarf water lettuce with duckweed that grows in between, at the surface, I would say extreme light, under surface, I would say low to very low, I realize this issue can very easily be solved by removing plants frequently and reducing feeding while halfing the light, I'm looking for out of the box ideas here, this is a breeding tank for guppies, plecos and mystery snails, if I'm having serious overgrowth and not able to literally put enough food in the tank to sustain it and having a major die back which throws my water to the moon causing another Bloom cycle, instead of doing the normal remove, reduce, reassess.

What could I add, what could I change, what would it do, i love my glass boxes because each one's its own experiment, come on dig your brains y'all, out of the box wacky ideas, what would possibly work in this scenario and there are no wrong answers here

Oh guess I should add that I'm feeding eight tablespoons of prepared repache food and there are okay tablespoon, not quite a full one and there's a feeding dish in back y'all can't really see that I drop it in 

[Dr.rex]

On 7/21/2021 at 9:55 AM, Expectorating_Aubergine said:

My planted tanks go through ferts so fast that I just use dry ferts. Orchid ferts for the smaller tanks. The big 125 and the pond get triple 20 miracle grow plant fertilizer directly. I've never had issues with the fertilizer harming fish. If the plants are growing vigorously they will eat up the fertilizer pretty quick.

See I have been very sketchy of using off label fertilizers because this is a breeding tank, but if it's safe I'm not opposed to it it's just I don't know enough to really try any of that, I used Miracle-Gro tomato fertilizer on a 10 gallon tank, long ago, I put a teaspoon in with no fish and no plants and let it sit just to see what it would do and it became so green  I couldn't shine a spotlight through it legit million candle spotlight wouldn't go through this 10 gallon tank it was that green, pic of the same tank 6 months later after adding 3 silver mollies just to see if anything would live in it, cuz this was my first green water ever and didn't know what it was.

[Dr.rex]

On 7/21/2021 at 10:25 AM, HH Morant said:

Are you sure your nitrates are zero? That seems improbable given the level of feeding.

Plants typically consume nitrates first then ammonia and then nitrides, there's a whole host of micro nutrients in their but they just prefer the easy to use nutrients first hence why I have zero nitrates then low ammonia and then quite high nitrites

at least my water lettuce which is a very heavy water column feeder doesn't really like to suck out nitrites, but it basically strips the water of all the nitrates and ammonia, which I'm guessing it's causing a bacterial imbalance in my bio filter of some kind, because as this blooming and crashing cycle is going on I'm now staying at or near zero nitrates and lil ammonia even with the amount I'm feeding, but atm I'm having to change water for nitrites more then anything witch ain't a bad thing because I'm out to rebreed the 70s guppies you can't kill, hopefully 

[HH Morant]

I thought plants consumed nitrates last, after ammonia and nitrites. Too close to bedtime to do research! Maybe tomorrow.

[Dr.rex]

On 7/21/2021 at 11:39 PM, HH Morant said:

I thought plants consumed nitrates last, after ammonia and nitrites. Too close to bedtime to do research! Maybe tomorrow.

Like I said I'm using full size water lettuce with very hard water, so this may be very different in another glass box, for this tank at least, that's what I've noticed they like to feed on the most.

witch to spark even more discussion I am currently running research on using a fish tank as a "water reservoir" of some sort in cultivating adult stuff, cuz those type of plants and other terrestrial plants like pothos tend to feed so much more the normal aquatic plants.

I've done one round and I have a buddy that's done it his whole life and so far I think everyone everywhere should be using waste aquarium water to water everything regardless of what plants they are,  its seriously some magical stuff.

Edited July 22, 2021 by Dr.rex

[Tarsas]

6 pumps per day of carbon sounds like a lot. Carbon actually decreases key nutrients in plants (which is why C02 high tech tanks need lots of nutrients and ferts). I believe this is because it increases the amount of nutrients they need because they grow much faster. When I first got in the hobby, I thought Seachem Flourish Excel (carbon additive) was an all-in-one and I was dosing it to my tank daily thinking it would stimulate plant growth. My plants actually started looking very unhealthy and dying back, which I believe was because I was basically increasing carbon, which causes deficiencies of key nutrients. Go easy on the carbon and see if the plants stop dying. 

 

Good source: https://cfaes.osu.edu/news/articles/higher-carbon-dioxide-levels-prompt-more-plant-growth-fewer-nutrients 

[Expectorating_Aubergine]

 

On 7/21/2021 at 9:16 PM, Dr.rex said:

See I have been very sketchy of using off label fertilizers because this is a breeding tank, but if it's safe I'm not opposed to it it's just I don't know enough to really try any of that, I used Miracle-Gro tomato fertilizer on a 10 gallon tank, long ago, I put a teaspoon in with no fish and no plants and let it sit just to see what it would do and it became so green  I couldn't shine a spotlight through it legit million candle spotlight wouldn't go through this 10 gallon tank it was that green, pic of the same tank 6 months later after adding 3 silver mollies just to see if anything would live in it, cuz this was my first green water ever and didn't know what it was.

I had that happen in two of my tanks where the plants weren't growing  very vigorously. The solution I found was to have terrestrial plants, specifically bananas with their root balls in the tanks. Banana plants are very heavy feeders and cleared up my green water in pretty quick order. You can use other stuff like pothos or monstera plants. I just like bananas because I find they are the heaviest feeders and get the job done faster. Also, I prefer terrestrial plants because the ones I use don't need as high a light as floaters do.I still use miracle grow fertilizer just more sparingly, since it's stronger. That's what I like about orchid fertilizer, it's really weak and won't cause greenwater. Granted, the only fish I keep in those tanks are tons of feeder guppies, bichirs/rope fish and a handful of sulky dario dario. The guppies and the bichirs breed (I see the males following the females around courting them multiple times. I've only seen eggs once but the tank has heaps of drift wood in it and plant roots)and don't seem to have any issue with the ferts. The dario dario are all male, hence the sulkiness.....

Edited July 22, 2021 by Expectorating_Aubergine