# What kind of supplement?



## Lyquidphyre (Jun 21, 2005)

Hello all!

It's been a while, but I FINALLY got my CO2 canister working (I don't know if any of ya'll remember me from December's meeting).

Anyways, I ordered some plants online to jump start beautifing my tank and while the anacharis and camboba are doing well, the ludwigia, the mermaid, the najas grass and the pygmy chain are hardly hanging in there. I should mention, tho, that my camboba is growing VERY quickly, but in the process is thinning out.

I planned on picking up a master test kit (since most of mine are out), and wanted to know, plant wise, what else should I get?

Also, are there are any additional supplements I should get? I already have Seachem's Flourish Nitrogen, Comprehensive, Phosphorus and Potassium.

My tank:
75gal
CO2 injection
Eco Comeplete
250 watt

I can't provide water parameters because like I said, most of my testing kits are out.

Any information would be appreciated =o)

Thanks!


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## Ben Belton (Mar 14, 2004)

Sounds to me like you have the right things. The most important thing right now is to get your KH and pH tested and see if you have enough CO2. Once you have that taken care of, you can start working on the rest.


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## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

If I remember correctly you have Metal Halide lights.

They are very intense and if you run them for a long time (say 8 or 10 hours a day) the plants will have a hard time growing under so much light. Basically the plants will kick into high gear and require a lot of fertlizers to survive.

I may not remember well about the lights but in addition to checking your KH and pH as Ben suggestested here are some more common sense advices:

*- Make sure you have enough circulation*
For a 75 gal tank you need actual flow of about 200 gph. Your canister filter that is under the tank maybe rated say 300 gph but because it has to push water up it may actually deliver only 80 gph. Those are just numbers to give you an idea of the situation.

*- Make sure you have enough CO2.*
The first thing to do is to make sure you don't have too much surface agitation from filter outtakes or powerheads. There has to be some surface movemement but not too much because the CO2 gets lost.

The second thing is to get an idea how much is "enough CO2". That depends on the KH and you will have to know it, again like Ben said. But as a rule of thumb you can start running the CO2 at about 1 bubble per second. That should give you at least some reference point to start with.

The third thing is to disolve the CO2 well. It appears that the simplest/best/most efficient way to do that is to install a powerhead in the tank and put the CO2 diffuser under it. That way the CO2 bubbles will be sucked by the powerhead and distributed all over the tank. Instead of a powerhead you can use a small cheap internal filter (for example "Duetto).

*- Make sure you have enough Calcium and Magnesium*
Before adding N, P or K use test kits to see if you have enough Ca and Mg in the water. A GH of 3-6 is ideal but does not tell you if it is only Ca or only Mg or a mix of the 2.

*- Do not fertilise before the plants show that they need it*
The fertilization is pretty hard to figure out in the beginning so many people just go with no ferts or with minimum amounts. Look for pale leafes, lack of growth, slow growth.

--Nikolay


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