Fertilizer question—

[isaly]

I have a bottle of Seachem Flourish. It’s the only fert I have at present. I got it when I first got the tank, told buddy at the lfs I wanted a general purpose to start.

I’m a little hesitant to dose because of algae but some of my plants are looking a little too something…sallow, for lack of a better word—that not so vibrant shade of green that borders on just a little under the proverbial weather.

I just put 3 ml. It's a 55 gal.

NPK, I’m guessing now that Flourish isn’t an NPK fertilizer, pretty crafty as they have Flourish in nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorous varieties…nice way to make money from newbs like myself.

Perhaps I’m answering my own question but maybe I should just order a bottle of Easy Green? Not that I don’t want to give Cory my business but I can go to another lfs tomorrow and pick something up which wouldn't be easy green if anyone has suggestions for macros.

Also I’m wondering if I should just get more plants as well. Perhaps they’d out compete the algae now that there are 25 tetras in here. There were 26 but one of my black neons jumped out a couple of nights ago, found him on the floor the next am.

 

 

Also, note the blue green tint to some of the gravel. Is that the dreaded blue green algae? It can be seen on some of the leaves of the rotalia and loves the cabomba.

Edited January 1, 2022 by isaly

[KaitieG]

I'm not a fertilizer pro, but for Val and Crypts (I think I see those in your pictures along with different stem plants) I like to use root tabs, since they tend to be root feeders. 

Algae can be tough to balance.  I don't think you'll necessarily see a big spike in algae growth with fertilizer because it can actually help the plants to out-compete the algae.  But you could also have a lighting issue or any number of other factors playing to the algae.  Doesn't look too bad to me overall.  I love Coop Root Tabs. 

I personally almost never use Easy Green because my tap water already has nitrates, and despite lots of plants, I never have nitrates drop to a level where I'd need to supplement them.  Finding a balanced non-nitrate fertilizer or figuring out a good system myself is on my list of things to figure out at some point.  I know many people have success with Easy Green, though, and it tends to be, well, easy!

[Levi_Aquatics]

@KaitieG I have the same problem. My tap water has nitrates which I guess is good for my plants but discouraging to know that my water changes aren’t super effective. My crypts love those coop root tabs though!

[KaitieG]

On 1/1/2022 at 7:16 PM, Levi_Aquatics said:

@KaitieG I have the same problem. My tap water has nitrates which I guess is good for my plants but discouraging to know that my water changes aren’t super effective. My crypts love those coop root tabs though!

Yep.  About the lowest I can get mine is 40.  I have one tank that's almost all stem plants and floaters that gets down to 20 occasionally, but that's as good as it gets for me.  I'd love an "Easy Green Nitrate Free" version 🙂 

[isaly]

On 1/1/2022 at 8:58 PM, KaitieG said:

Yep.  About the lowest I can get mine is 40.

My nitrate is beginning to get above 10 because I put new fish in. I had a super light bio-load, seven tetras in a 55 gal. tank. Now it's 25.

I have some val and amazon swords. I used flourish root tabs for those.

I just cut back the intensity of my daylight period. Will take more time off if the algae doesn't budge any further...perhaps more plants.

[1moretank]

@KaitieG  @Levi_Aquatics  you both might still benefit from Easy Green.  I have high bitrates so decided to try not using any fertilizer, all my plants suffered and the only ones that grew well were the ones getting root tabs.  After months of unhappy plants and high nitrates I went back to using easy green, the best I can guess is that even though I have high nitrates, I didn't have all the other components that help the plants to thrive.  When I listen carefully to Cory's Easy Green instructions, he says to have 20-40 parts Nitrate "from the Easy Green".  I think that is just the easiest way to know when you need to dose again.   My nitrate reading does not increase after I dose Easy Green, and my plants are definitely doing better.

@isaly that definitely looks like the blue-green algae, when I had that, I removed all I could with tweezers, then dosed the meds and it hasn't come back, about a week after dosing the meds I also increased water flow and fertilizers so my plants could out-compete the algae.

Good luck to all of you.

[isaly]

On 1/2/2022 at 12:23 AM, 1moretank said:

that definitely looks like the blue-green algae, when I had that, I removed all I could with tweezers, then dosed the meds and it hasn't come back, about a week after dosing the meds I also increased water flow and fertilizers so my plants could out-compete the algae.

What meds did you use?