Can you over fertilize?

[HalJ]

My 50 gal tank has been set-up for about 3 months.  I have been using easy green for about two months.  My plants appear to be dying a slow death (leaves turning yellow with holes and even my moss is dying).  My nitrates have always been zero.  I dose easy green according to the instructions and have even added a little extra.

My question:  Can I increase the dosage until I hit 20-30 ppm nitrate?  I need to try something before all the plants die.  I had to remove the remains of a java fern that turned black and disintegrated.   I have zero algae.

Thanks...

[Craziiininja]

From what ive seen it says to dose to 20 ppm of nitrates but im new to planted tanks so make sure to do your own research

Edited October 14, 2020 by Craziiininja

[Cory]

What plants are you trying to grow? 

[HalJ]

I have 4-5 val, 2 swords, 1 java fern, 2 hygro, 1 s. Repens, Anubias petite, floating pennywort and xmas moss.  I put a root tab under the val, swords and s. Repens about a week ago.  

Thanks....

[Sleepy]

What light and substrate are you using?

Edited October 14, 2020 by Sleepy

[HalJ]

I’m using eco-complete and my lighting consists of a 50 watt led.  I started this tank on a budget and used an amazon led flood light.  I saw a video where Cory tested this light and seemed to have plenty of PAR.  The packaging claims it’s 6500K, but I have no way to confirm.  It’s mounted about 12” above the water.  It’s a 50 gal corner tank that is 24” deep.

Thanks,

H 

[Sleepy]

If you have zero algae I'm thinking the light may not be doing the trick especially that high above the water line but I only use LED lights so take that with a grain of salt. It sounds to me like you will definitely need to up your ferts I'm just not sure how its going to balance out with the light you are using maybe dose up to 10 ppm and see how it goes from there.

[Buzz]

For what it is worth....I had a similar issue, where I would dose using Easy Green and then check nitrates (low or non-existent).  It took a day of wondering what the heck was wrong, and then I did some measuring.  I found that the pump was the problem, it was not dispensing enough liquid.  I removed the plunger from one of my many syringes i use for dosing other things, and squirted the Easy Green in there.  Found it was maybe 1/4 to 1/2 ml for each pump (1 pump should yield 1ml).  Might be worth checking, as you should be seeing nitrates after dosing, unless there is an issue with the test kit.

[HalJ]

Thanks.  I’ll check the dosage

[Justin Campbell]

@HalJ You may already know this, but:

When I first started using the API liquid test kits, I didn’t thoroughly read the instructions on the nitrate tests. I wasn’t shaking the 2nd bottle before using, and was getting near-zero readings. Once I realized what I was doing wrong, I discovered my nitrates were way too high.

But if your plants are dying slowly and you don’t have algae problems, this probably isn’t the case.

[FishySituation]

Could just be a problem with your water parameters. Maybe way too high or low of a ph. Could also be too low or high water hardness. I’ve run into plant issues since my water is low in calcium. Easy green has no calcium, so I have to dose other things to add it in. I’m not sure if you meant to say that your nitrates are always at  zero, but if you’re dosing easy green using the instructions then 0 nitrates doesn’t make much sense. Like justin Campbell said, you could just be doing the nitrate test wrong if you’re using a liquid kit. I’ve also made that mistake 

Edited October 18, 2020 by FishySituation

[ChemBob]

I had a similar concern setting up my 40 gallon. I had to dose something like 3 to 4 times the normal amount of Easy Green to get to 20 ppm Nitrates. My theory is the normal dosing is for an established tank that already has a base load of Nitrate, especially if you have fish. It makes sense to me that I would need more nitrates to get to the base level when initially dosing, especially if I don't have fish. Recently I heard a stream where Cory mentioned having no nitrates is essentially starving the plants, so the algae will grow and plants will die back. I think you need to dose to get to 20ppm Nitrates and then maintain the levels around there. I got some test strips to quickly check. I know the liquid test is more accurate, but the strips give me a quick check to help get my tank cycled.