What Does Your Fert Schedule look like?

[Zac]

I have a 30 gallon planted tank with anubias, bucephalandra, valisneria, crypt lucens, frogbit, and duckweed. 
 

I dose 4mL of easy green twice a week. Given that the tank holds probably 25 gallons after all the decor is accounted for, one of my doses raises the nitrates by a little over 4ppm. I dose on the day I do a 20% water change (Sundays) and then on Wednesday. I’m having trouble keeping my nitrates above 5ppm-10ppm. I’d like them to be around 20ppm. 
 

Should I dose extra on the day I do a water change or should I leave it how it is? What does your guys fert schedule look like?

[Ninjoma]

I usually dose twice a week with your same schedule. I have no issues keeping my nitrates up.

Theoretically as long as your nitrates never drop to 0, it shouldn't matter if they are at 5-10ppm or 20ppm. If you do want your nitrates to increase I would dose more often. You could probably add an extra pump or two once a day on the other 5 days of the week and see where things go from there.

[Mmiller2001]

I dose 30ppm NO3, 10ppm PO4 and 35ppm K (front loaded) on water change day. I then do a double dose of Micros after the water change and target .45ppm Fe as proxy a week with 2 separate doses after the water changes. Sorry for the ugly picture here.

[Zac]

On 8/15/2023 at 10:33 PM, Mmiller2001 said:

I dose 30ppm NO3, 10ppm PO4 and 35ppm K (front loaded) on water change day. I then do a double dose of Micros after the water change and target .45ppm Fe as proxy a week with 2 separate doses after the water changes. Sorry for the ugly picture here.

I’d like to go high tech like that at some point when I have more free time. I’d love to create something like that. Maybe some day I’ll be able to😅 This is what mine looks like. Very low tech. Even though I’ve been keeping plants for at least a year now there’s still lots I have to learn

[JoeQ]

Currently, I am dosing the EI method; macros and micros on alternating days (usually at night when the light turn off) with a 50% water change at the end of the week.  Afterwards I add a liquid GH booster

Edited August 16 by JoeQ

[JoeQ]

As for your nitrates your duckweed is probably eating through that pretty quickly.  If it were me id let plant growth be the guide rather than trying to achieve a number that you think your nitrates should be at.

[lefty o]

On 8/16/2023 at 6:19 AM, JoeQ said:

As for your nitrates your duckweed is probably eating through that pretty quickly.  If it were me id let plant growth be the guide rather than trying to achieve a number that you think your nitrates should be at.

bingo, the numbers are just a guideline, how do the plants look is what ultimately should tell you if you need more or less ferts.

[nabokovfan87]

On 8/15/2023 at 7:09 PM, Zac said:

I dose 4mL of easy green twice a week. Given that the tank holds probably 25 gallons after all the decor is accounted for, one of my doses raises the nitrates by a little over 4ppm. I dose on the day I do a 20% water change (Sundays) and then on Wednesday. I’m having trouble keeping my nitrates above 5ppm-10ppm. I’d like them to be around 20ppm. 
 

Should I dose extra on the day I do a water change or should I leave it how it is? What does your guys fert schedule look like?

I've been back and forth on schedules a lot of late.  I'm not sure why it changes so much for me, but plants do have a cycle and a "season" where they can push growth a lot more than usual.  That being said, I like the note of what plants are in play here because plant placement, setup, and growth rates all come into play here.

So.... right now I have 4 tanks up and running, 2 of which I will can planted, with a 3rd and 4th that are much more temporary with susswassertang.

Main tank: Staurogyne repens, Hygrophila Pinnatifida, Taiwan moss (recently died), pennywort.
(note: the actual plant load is very minimal, the tank is deep and it is a bit difficult to really get the plants quality light energy)
Secondary tank:  assorted annubias species, a fern that I am pretty sure isn't able to grow submerged, and taiwan moss.
(note: moss can take a lot more light than people think. Everything else here is extremely low demand)

I water change the tanks every other week.  I clean the filtration weekly.  One of the main notes here is that I use GH and KH additives in addition to my planted tank fertilizer for the sake of having the right mineral levels for the plants (and species in the tank).

I dose once a week, the recommended dose of easy green per week.  I dose in an iron supplement as well at that same time.  I will then check on GH/KH and add any additives as need be.  I will usually dose in the afternoon or after I do the filter cleanings.

sidenote, my nitrates are always extremely low and I track the need to add ferts by simply testing nitrates.  Low nitrates, it's very easy to see "yep, need to add more in" if you test mid-week.

[Pepere]

I dose my tank with easy green to get it up to 20 ppm nitrates after conducting a water change, every Saturday morning
 

as a general rule this is 9 pumps of easy green in a 29 gallon tank.

That evening I test the nitrates level and generally find it is pretty much there..  test accuracy and reading it and all….  I also dose 3 pumps of Easy Iron.

 

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday 1 dose 1 pump of easy green in the 29 gallon tank.

wednesday night I retest.  My aim is to keep levels between 10 and 20 ppm.  If Wednesday night is 20 ppm, I dont dose again until water change.  If it is closer to 10, I will add three pumps of easy green and not dose until after water change.

 

discerning between 10 and 20 ppm can be hard with API test.  Discerning between 10 and 5 ppm is much easier…. At times I find it helpful to pull 1/4 cup of tank water and dilute it with 1/4 cup tap water.  Then mix and pull off 5 mls for a 50% dilution test. If this second test looks close to original I call the original closer to 20 ppm.  If second test is clearly closer to 5 ppm, I call the original 10 ppm…

 

Once I added pressure CO 2 I eliminated floating plants.

 

As a general rule I find my tanks consistently consume right around 1 ppm nitrate per day. I trim and prune plants weekly as well as pull valsinerius runners to maintain plant mass fairly consistently..

Edited August 17 by Pepere