Dosing Question for a Five Tank Gallon with Lots of Plants

[John Collins]

I have a Fluval spec v (five gallon) with amazon frogbit, water spangles, red root floaters, and "Windelov" Java Fern. The instructions for Easy Green state: "We recommend having between 20ppm and 50ppm of nitrates in your aquarium from dosing Easy Green for optimal plant growth." Using the dosage for a low light aquarium (once a week), I have 0 nitrates and I've never even seen nitrates in this aquarium. Should I bump up to twice a week?

[John Collins]

Also this tank is stocked with a betta and a nerite snail.

[Isaac M]

Hello @John Collins, looks like you have lots of floating plants with a relatively low stocking level. This may be why you have little to no nitrates.

Not sure what test kit you are using but if you are using the liquid API test kit, it is very important to shake the second bottle or you will get a false zero reading for nitrates. 

Anyways, with Easy Green, if you add one full pump into 5 gallons of water, it will add about 6.2 ppm of Nitrate. If you are dosing half a pump, then it would be 3.1 ppm of Nitrate. 

If your test kit is reading correctly, then I would suggest to bump up the dosing to twice a week. When making a change to the aquarium, I would also suggest taking it slow and observe how your aquarium reacts to the changes (better plant growth, algae growth, fish health, water parameters, etc). 

However, keep in mind that the plants will tell you if they need more fertilizer. They will develop nutrient deficiencies like yellowing leaves or other symptoms. Also, as plants grow and become larger or produce more plants, they will need more fertilizer as well. 

I hope that helps! 

[lefty o]

it seems floaters really like to drink up the fertilizers. worth a try to give the tank an extra pump during the week, and see what happens.

[John Collins]

 

On 8/23/2021 at 11:05 PM, Isaac M said:

Hello @John Collins, looks like you have lots of floating plants with a relatively low stocking level. This may be why you have little to no nitrates.

Not sure what test kit you are using but if you are using the liquid API test kit, it is very important to shake the second bottle or you will get a false zero reading for nitrates. 

Anyways, with Easy Green, if you add one full pump into 5 gallons of water, it will add about 6.2 ppm of Nitrate. If you are dosing half a pump, then it would be 3.1 ppm of Nitrate. 

If your test kit is reading correctly, then I would suggest to bump up the dosing to twice a week. When making a change to the aquarium, I would also suggest taking it slow and observe how your aquarium reacts to the changes (better plant growth, algae growth, fish health, water parameters, etc). 

However, keep in mind that the plants will tell you if they need more fertilizer. They will develop nutrient deficiencies like yellowing leaves or other symptoms. Also, as plants grow and become larger or produce more plants, they will need more fertilizer as well. 

I hope that helps! 

 

That sounds like great advice. I'll take it slow. The frogbit leaves have been yellowing.

 

[Isaac M]

@John Collins sounds like a plan. Good luck with your frogbit! 

Heres a link to a helpful blog post by Aquarium Co-op on plant nutrient deficiencies for your reference: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/plant-nutrient-deficiencies