# Dosing and high bio load?



## JimM (Aug 26, 2005)

my 29g is stocked with: 
2x 4" discus
20x cardinals
3x 2" sae
5x ottos 
and a 2" bnp
feed 2x Hikari frozen cube bloodworm or mysis once a day via feeding cone.

fairly heavily planted with high co2 (pH6.9 KH15-16)
two GE9325k 55w, standard reflector

I was trying to follow a fairly light modified EI: water change every other day 50%, dose macro 1/8th tsp KNO3 & PO4 (GW Ferts) +potassium off day dose 5ml flourish.

even with this light dosing my NO3 test kit shows very high readings and my Rotala indica severely stunting.. 

I've since moved to a once a week WC and dosing no KNO3 or PO4.. testing NO3 and PO4 in a good range, the plants look much better, my Rotala started crawling and sending up side shoots.. I guess that makes up for the stunting. 

Do you think I should still dose in smaller amounts? I don't really want it to bottom out but I'd rather not have 100ppm either..


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## plantbrain (Jan 23, 2004)

I'd do 2x a week 1/8 of the KNO3.
I'd certainly add more PO4, say 1/16th 3x a week.
Weekly 50-70% water change.
I'd actually suggest 2x a week 50% water changes with this bioload.
1/4 K2SO4 2x a week
Traces 5mls 2-3x a week

I think the CO2 needs watched closely. The Rotala is not a bad indicator plant.

Regards, 
Tom Barr

www.BarrReport.com


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## JimM (Aug 26, 2005)

Thanks! I'll give that a try.


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## urville (Sep 20, 2004)

whoa! twice a week 50%?
because of the EI or veen without it? just curious here.


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## Simpte 27 (Jul 16, 2004)

I would cut back on your feeding. You are overfeeding way too much.


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## JimM (Aug 26, 2005)

Simpte 27 said:


> I would cut back on your feeding. You are overfeeding way too much.


I would normally not feed this much, but the Discus are juvis and from what Ive seen compared to others trying to grow discus im almost feeding too little.. on second thought, even tho they are far from full size... they are an OK size and look good in the tank, maybe I will cut back, thanks Simpte.


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

If you are worried about putting some size on your discus maybe you could try feeding the frozen bloodworms in separate feedings...i.e. 1 cube early in the day and 1 cube late in the day. I would imagine more would get eaten that way than in a once a day feeding of 2 cubes. 

I usually feed my Discus tank 2-3 times a day but only one cube spread throughout the day. Rarely does anything make it to the bottom!


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## plantbrain (Jan 23, 2004)

With this many fish and heavy feeding, 2x a week water changes are highly recommended.

If you want less work, stock the appropriate levels in the tank!
I do not need to clean my house with 2 folks living here, but if I add 8, I have lots of work.

Regards, 
Tom Barr

www.BarrReport.com


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## JimM (Aug 26, 2005)

MatPat said:


> If you are worried about putting some size on your discus maybe you could try feeding the frozen bloodworms in separate feedings...i.e. 1 cube early in the day and 1 cube late in the day. I would imagine more would get eaten that way than in a once a day feeding of 2 cubes.
> 
> I usually feed my Discus tank 2-3 times a day but only one cube spread throughout the day. Rarely does anything make it to the bottom!


as it is with the worm cone seems to work very well for both the bloodworm and mysis, the discus pick it clean and any that get loose are snatched by the swarming cardinals before it falls to the bottom.. but it takes them about 30min to finish all of it, I'll try splitting it up if I dont decide to feed a bit less.. thanks.



plantbrain said:


> With this many fish and heavy feeding, 2x a week water changes are highly recommended.
> 
> If you want less work, stock the appropriate levels in the tank!
> I do not need to clean my house with 2 folks living here, but if I add 8, I have lots of work.
> ...


Point taken, thanks again


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