I just unceremoniously unplugged the autodoser last night. I could technically set it up to dose Tropica (if I wanted to) instead of the DIY ferts, but if I dose daily by hand for a while then we can also make sure any obscure issues with the autodoser isnt contributing to my tanks generally terrible state of affairs.
Tropica suggestions on the bottle are for weekly dosing.
I reckon this is probably because most normal people (
so not UKAPS members, sorry 😁) see daily dosing as a hassle to keep up with, and having them dose once a week is better than having them not dose at all.
But I,
in all my inconsistent glory, want to dose the main tank daily with this stuff. Mostly because im concerned the plants are going to take offense at something and come out pale again.
So Im gonna try my darndest to dose daily so micro supply is fairly even. Give Tropica ferts the best chance of working.
Ive made a little sticky note by the tank where I have to check off having dosed each day, and I hope this will keep me on track.
Since im dosing daily and it would be very silly to try to dose "one and a half pump", I rounded up a bit. So for my 250l tank it will be 2 pumps, or 28ml weekly.
That should give the tank something like this;
N 1.501 (NO3 6.64)
P 0.112 (PO4 0.34)
K 1.154
Mg 0.437
S 1.019
Cl 0.56
Fe 0.077
Mn 0.044
B 0.004
Zn 0.002
Cu 0.007
Mo 0.002
Thats pretty different from what my tank is used to, but its not like what it used to get was a marvelous triumphant success overall, so I dont think trying something else for a bit is too bad of an idea.
Worst case the frogbit will complain first and then I can always swap the tank over to the old stuff.
Just for my own notes I'll write what the tank was on until last night. 13.03.23 I tweaked the micro amounts down a little bit;
..I tuned the autodose amount of the micro solutions down a little bit, Fe from 0.5 to 0.428, Mn from 0.25 to 0.214, B & Zn from 0.033 to 0.0253 and so on. (For my own notes, from 7, 7, 30ml to 6, 6, 23ml)
So this weekly:
Fe 0.428
Mn 0.214
B 0.0253
Zn 0.0253
Cu 0.00767
Mo 0.01073
Ni 0.00007
(Macro same for a while (a
long while if you count it in Hufsa years), 10 NO3, 0.8 PO4, 15 K.)
This amount of micros in around/about this ratio is the "best working" recipe that I have tried out so far on my tank.
Its what the frogbit was doing pretty well on earlier this year too. Not perfect but best so far.
I took a photo of the frogbit today so we have something to compare with after a while on Tropica.
It looks a bit better than last photo, less curly. Still seemingly struggling with something mobile. Not convinced its nitrate for sure, but dont have any plans to try to figure it out right now either, there are way
bigger fish to fry.
(Like my out-of-control CO2 injection and massive algae infestation)
So its gonna be a lot less ferts overall, but the micro ratios are not entirely dissimilar, if you scale mine down to the same level. There are two main differences though, Tropica has less Zinc (2.75x less) and more Cu (4.2x more).
Not sure if they use chelated or not. And of course the macros are a fair bit different with much lower K.
The plan (always subject to change) is to not do any front loading for a while. So just Tropica daily, closeish to recommended dose.
I think I also need to limit myself to 50% water changes.
I dont want to go cold turkey on the ferts for my plants, but I do sort of want to clear out a little bit of the stuff thats already in the water, in case it could interfere with how the Tropica ferts are balanced.
Im trying to.. what is the saying..
Cross my i's and dot my t's.
Yep thats the one 🥴
Since my tank is being
weird, (and perhaps struggling more than normal or in ways that arent entirely easy to figure out), and the owner of the tank is also
weird.... as a part of trying to trouble shoot this mess I want to cut down on some of the
weird stuff I do.
Just behave more like a normal aquarist really.
A lot of people use premade ferts with success. Why shouldnt it work for me? (Im not saying it will work, but
why wouldnt it?)
A lot of people have a filter on their tank that they have spent
a normal amount of hours thinking about, and it works
fine. Their flow is
fine.
They have a drop checker, and if we're lucky they have heard of- or might have done a PH profile. The plants grow
fine.
My tank is not looking
fine.
Some times it feels like the harder I try the less
fine it does.
So maybe its too much
weird. ..A
weird overdose if you will. Trying so hard you make it all worse.
I dont know, im just thinking out loud. (Also if im writing weird posts on the internet I wont have time to do weird things to my tank, so its better this way).
But this is why I want to try to limit the stuff I do that is not conventional. Trying to cross all the t's and dot the i's, make sure I do as few unusual things as I can, and see if that helps the tank a bit.
Because
fine would be a big upgrade from the current state.
);
