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Fertiliser advice?

Marc1t

Marc1t

Member
Joined
16 Mar 2015
Messages
117
Hi there
I am completely new to having a planted aquarium, so I'll be honest I don't have much of a green thumb.
I've learnt a lot from reading posts here but would appreciate your advice regarding dosing my aquarium with ferts.
I have a 230 l cube tank quite heavily planted with an external Eheim 2028 filter. I want to inject Co2 eventually. I think from what I have read this is the way to go? But my budget won't stretch to a complete setup at the moment I intend to build a system over time maybe a couple of months.
So I was wondering if anybody could advise what I can do to keep the plants healthy until I can get it up and running all I'm dosing at the moment is easy carbo liquid carbon 10 ml daily, & as advised reduced the lighting.
I've looked at the EI tutorial. But to be honest seems complicated to me & I havnt got a clue there.
Is there a 'Dosing for dummies' guide.? I'm looking for something easy, until I can get my head round all of this. Any commercial products you would recommend.
Cheers Marc.
 
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One thing I forgot to add is the lower (in the tank) plants i.e. the carpet plants which didn't do well at all & I've taken out & some of the smaller plants & the lower leavs on the taller stem plants have an unsightly black coating on the leaves algae maybe? my tank is quite deep @ 2 feet so could it be lighting as well? I have 2 T5 HO 24W tubes with reflectors.
 
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Your carpet plants will need a decent amount of light and really CO2 gas.
 
Wow that looks great. I think is just what I need thanks very much for that will give it a go.
Would you advise delaying putting the carpet plants in until the Co2 is up & running?
 
Marc1t said:
Would you advise delaying putting the carpet plants in until the Co2 is up & running?
Click to expand...
Yes. Some people have managed carpets with liquid carbon, but their tanks were shallow.

What is your light ?

What is your filter flow rate ? Needs to be x10 tank volume, ie 2300l/hr if going high tech.
 
Thanks my lights are 2 HO T5 fluval power 24W tubes with reflectors, filter is an Ehiem 2028 external not sure what the LPH is but is good foe 300 l tank mine is 230 l.
Will Google the LPH rate.
 
You might want to increase the flow with another filter or a powerhead so you're getting around to around 2000-2500 lph. Those T5 are pretty beasty and you might want to remove the reflectors for a bit until the tank settles. Keep the lighting period down to 5 hours to start, and increase over time.
 
Thanks Ender I do have another older filter a Fluval 303 850 LPH I could add this aswell? Would you advise puting the outlet in a different position to circulate the slower moving areas? Would you run continuously or intermittently say at night only? & could I experiment with different media in this filter? Any suggestions? I have taken your advice from a previous thread & have reduced the lighting. Working well & the haze I had has disappeared & is looking Crystal clear. Very encouraging! Cheers.
 
If you already have the filter then you might as well use it. You could even use it without media to increase the flow or split the media between the two filters. As Ian says you're aiming for x10 the flow, so you'll probably be a little low even with both filters running. Best method is to take two spray bars placing them along the backwall of the tank and have them coming from opposite sides into the centre.You should have a nice cicular flow around the tank with this method. There are other methods to getting the tank circulation but this is the most effective.
 
Oh! Not enough flow! I'll set up the other filter! Maybe I'm doing something wrong here but I've got the spray bar on the side of the tank???
Thanks for all your advice, I'm learning loads.
 
Normally you place the spray bars at the back, so filtered water (and CO2 when you get it) is pushed across the top of the tank, down the front and across the plants and back to the intake.
 
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