TeeJay Posted May 9, 2022 Share Posted May 9, 2022 Hey all. My tank has been set up for 3 months now. Guppies snails and a few ghost shrimp. About 20 fish total. Ammonia nitrites are great staying at 0. Doing weekly 25 percent water changes. It is planted with about a dozen live plants. So my ? Is my nitrates stay at about 50-80ppm. I know my plants need them but it's hard to add liquid fertilizer because I don't want to raise the nitrates to high but want to get my plants enough nutrients. Any advice? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zac Posted May 9, 2022 Share Posted May 9, 2022 On 5/8/2022 at 8:52 PM, Uttjrt3 said: Hey all. My tank has been set up for 3 months now. Guppies snails and a few ghost shrimp. About 20 fish total. Ammonia nitrites are great staying at 0. Doing weekly 25 percent water changes. It is planted with about a dozen live plants. So my ? Is my nitrates stay at about 50-80ppm. I know my plants need them but it's hard to add liquid fertilizer because I don't want to raise the nitrates to high but want to get my plants enough nutrients. Any advice? I wouldn’t even worry about liquid fertilizer if nitrates are that high. However, you may need to supplement certain nutrients if they start to show deficiencies Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeeJay Posted May 9, 2022 Author Share Posted May 9, 2022 So maybe get tests for phosphates and iron? My gh stays about a 13--14 steady so I know I have quite a bit of minerals to a point. Any other nutrients I can test for? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seattle_Aquarist Posted May 9, 2022 Share Posted May 9, 2022 Hi @Uttjrt3 That 50 - 80 ppm of nitrates is high. Some plants will not respond well to levels that high. Unfortunately I disagree with @Zac, if you stop dosing an All-in-One fertilizer the plants will miss out on the two other macro-nutrients (potassium and phosphorus) as well as iron, sulfur, and all the micro-nutrients. Instead I would increase my water changes until I got down in the 20 - 30 ppm range for nitrates and then dose lightly with the All-in-One and do regular water changes. I do 50% water changes every week. -Roy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeeJay Posted May 9, 2022 Author Share Posted May 9, 2022 Ok that is worth a shot. I think I will do a 50 water change tomorrow and let it run for a few solid hours and then check nitrate levels. Then maybe start with a half dose of easy green and easy iron and see where it puts me. I'll only do the ferts if I get those nitrates down to 20-30 before dosing. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeeJay Posted May 9, 2022 Author Share Posted May 9, 2022 On 5/8/2022 at 11:35 PM, Seattle_Aquarist said: Hi @Uttjrt3 That 50 - 80 ppm of nitrates is high. Some plants will not respond well to levels that high. Unfortunately I disagree with @Zac, if you stop dosing an All-in-One fertilizer the plants will miss out on the two other macro-nutrients (potassium and phosphorus) as well as iron, sulfur, and all the micro-nutrients. Instead I would increase my water changes until I got down in the 20 - 30 ppm range for nitrates and then dose lightly with the All-in-One and do regular water changes. I do 50% water changes every week. -Roy So did a 50 change this morning. Waited an hour and nitrates are at 20-30. I will wait a couple more hours and re check. But I think increasing to that 50 will get me to the level I need to add my easy green. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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