# Room for improvement



## SnakeIce (May 9, 2005)

acrylic 55, three 48" t8 bulbs over acrylic cover that needs cleaning/replaceing, epoxy coated colored gravel, 

Crypt X willisii, sold to me under some other name that Kasselman's book put as synonym 2 large down to small plants, about 15 total
Crypt beckettii, about 15 plants
Crypt wentii, about 12
couple stems of Myriophyllum species, simulans?
Java moss, fills about a gallon sized space total

hygrophilia that is doing more dieing than growing, preceded other plants by a number of months and has continued to do worse and worse with holes in leaves or leaves melting away completely

1 angel fish, 6 variatus platys, 5 black phantom tetras, botia rostrata, 5 khulie loaches, 3 ottos

50% weekly waterchanges, folowed by doseing 1/16 of teaspoon fleet and 1 teaspoon KNO3 dry.

Hagen master test kit with nutrafin branded tests 

Tap water
ph-7.2
20ppm<Kh<30ppm
20ppm<Gh<40ppm
Calcium<20ppm
nitrate ----
phosphate -----


tank just befor waterchange and doseing
ph-7.5
50<Kh<60ppm
40<Gh<60ppm
Calcium<20ppm seemed closer to that value though
phosphate .25 ppm
nitrate trace, less than 5 ppm

The epoxy coated gravel may be leaching as the coating job isn't totally complete.

I see by just doing the tests that I need to dose more KNO3 mid week possibly more P as well.

Any additions needed or possible shortcommings you see with these numbers?


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## jppurchase (Dec 15, 2004)

*Room for Improvement*



SnakeIce said:


> acrylic 55, three 48" t8 bulbs over acrylic cover that needs cleaning/replaceing, epoxy coated colored gravel,
> 
> Crypt X willisii, sold to me under some other name that Kasselman's book put as synonym 2 large down to small plants, about 15 total
> Crypt beckettii, about 15 plants
> ...


A number of questions...
What type of water do you use to perform water changes? Do you know what is in the water before you begin your "dosing"? (a call to the municipal office ought to get you a copy of the full water analysis, unless you are using well water.

How long has the tank been set up? You seem to have a high percentage of slow growing Crypts. If this is a newly setup tank, maybe you ought to put in more fast going stem plants until the tank matures.

The fleet enema you are dosing with will provide phosphorus and the KNO3 adds both potassium and nitrate. Your general hardness and KH seem to say that you have enough calcium and magnesium.

But do you dose anything else? There are at least 14 essential mineral elements - nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulfur, boron, chlorine, iron, manganese, zinc, copper, molybdenum, and nickel. N, K, Ca, Mg, P and S are macronutrients, needed in relatively large amounts, while the others are termed micronutrients as only a traces of most of them are needed. But regardless of the quantities, they are ALL essential. If any one of the micronutrients is missing or deficient, your plants will have problems.

While it might be trendy to dose dry ferts selectivly, maybe you need to look at using a complete fertilizer which contains a balanced blend of trace elements. At lease until you get a handle on things.

Don't add any more fish.

You say nothing of CO2.

Carbon is perhaps the number one non-mineral nutrient, and if it isn't present, nothing much will grow. Even a DIY yeast setup might improve your tank.

3 48" T8's doesn't sound like a lot of light, especially if it has to make its way past a dirty/stained cover-glass. Either clean/replace it or get rid of it altogether.

James Purchase
Toronto


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

You need to add more nutrients then just KN03 & P04, like micros (iron, manganese,boron etc.) & macros (calcium, carbon, magnesium etc.) Also increase the amount of N03/P04 you are adding to get your levels up. A good range is 5-10ppm of N03/0.5-1ppm of P04.

Also you need to inject C02 or at least use Excel. With wattage over 2WPG it is better to inject C02 by DIY or pressurized. For your size tank I would recommend pressurized.

Replacing the gravel would also be a good idea. Use a plant gravel like Eco-complete or Flourite. Those regular gravels leach out causing your KH to rise and don't supply nutrients to the roots of the plants.


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## SnakeIce (May 9, 2005)

This is my wi'fe's tank and she is happy that it is clean and the plants arn't totally dieing. I know it could be better and I haven't run through the tests I have befor to try to find out what I know I could fix. This thread is as much a kick to my rear to find out what it is doing as it is a plea for help. I do appreciate the suggestions.

I didn't know there was anything else than doseing selectively what is needed. I have been working on keeping plants for about 4 years and this is the first time I've heard of PMDD. So anyway....

I do have florish product for traces. Not been useing it vary regularly because it isn't the limiting factor right now on this tank. It's not very scientific I know.

The tank was over at a friend of ours for a while(9 months?) befor we got a place to be able to get it home last Sept. I know I have mostly slow growing plants in it, but they are alot faster growing than the plastic plants that have been in it. The tank is stable with almost no algae growth.

I have had a low light tank that was just enough to get those crypts to grow untill recently when I moved them to this 55. So I'm not used to the nutrient use of the higher light tank. That is part of why the removeable acrylic cover is dirty and I've not cleaned it. I'm not keeping up with the tank as it is, so I'm not going to try to make the light better yet.

Funny you should say I need to get a statement from my water supplyer as to its values. Walla Walla city water has a watershed, a deep aquifer well or two, and a couple shallow aquifer storage wells on which the pumps run either way depending on the need.

during the winter and spring most of the water is from the watershed and is quite dilute or pure as far as disolved anything, but in late summer and fall after 3 months or so of no rain the water will contain all kinds of things; Nitrate 10ppm, ph of 8.0, enough hardness to get some scale deposits. And that is just one of the sources.

Water from the deep wells can have a ph range of 8.2-9.5 and is vary hard. Fortunately I am away from the water system that uses the watershed part of the time and full well water the rest.

So basicly if I ask for a report that covers everything I want to know now it won't reflect what I get 3 months from now. It might not apply to the same time next year if the next winter varys much in how much moisture we get. The water I get grows plants way better than the well water I got last place I lived just across town so I'm not to picky.


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## SnakeIce (May 9, 2005)

Just by the tested levels of my added items I know I need to do another dose midweek. With my low light tank once a week was enough and waterchanges supplied most of the rest. I dosed flourish on that tank about once a month. Did not see any improvement if I dosed more often so that is all I added.

I have been playing with small tanks, a 20 and a 10, with only 1.5 wpg so more light I am not used to.


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