My 60p soft water

[MichaelJ]

I actually do have some green slimy thread algae which is rather annoying, but since it's so thin it's almost invisible until you get up close. 😂

Aha! I knew it wasn't perfect! ... we'll have that fixed for you soon enough:

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Cheers,
Michael

 

[Happi]

If this Miracle-Gro is working for you, I don't see why the Solufeed wouldn't work without much hassle. Try the Solufeed 2:1:4 if you ever get a chance, while adding the Ca and Mg at water changes 5:2 ppm.

 

[plantnoobdude]

If this Miracle-Gro is working for you, I don't see why the Solufeed wouldn't work without much hassle. Try the Solufeed 2:1:4 if you ever get a chance, while adding the Ca and Mg at water changes 5:2 ppm.


View attachment 200703

Currently running miracle gro with a few tweaks on this tank, will try straight miracle gro next. That solufeed K Level looks bit too high for me honestly. Maybe if I was doing water changes fortnightly.

 

[Happi]

Ca,Mg, K
5:2:1 target dosed

That solufeed K Level looks bit too high for me honestly

that is why you only add Ca and Mg at water changes and skip K entirely, the Max K is around 3.53 ppm if you target 2 ppm N from Solufeed 2:1:4.

 

[plantnoobdude]

No ferts for 8 days (holidays) means super slow plant growth and poor colouration.
Overall not much really happened. Some stuff is Fe deficient. Pantanal is tiny, dosed some nutrients yesterday do the tips are colouring up. No algae. Massive melt in tonina, so cleaned that up.
Trying some soil again for erios. They were just being wierd in sand so I'm trying again.

 

[plantnoobdude]

Water change+small Scape change:

 

[plantnoobdude]

Best part of lean and inert substrate is seeing how plants uptake nutrients and affect TDS.

I recently added couple balls of osmocote, and that trigged TDs Spike of over 20ppm. So Ive been skipping dosing. This morning I noticed some crumpled and puckered up pantanal, my TDs Had dropped all the way to 30 ish ppm. Got back on my dosing so it should be fixed. Most plants seem alright at the moment.

Ammannia is looking particularly nice. Macrandra is easy. Some odd melting in eriocaulocaea stems.

 

[Happi]

recently added couple balls of osmocote,

 

[plantnoobdude]

This is my third time using osmocote in my mature tank. I still will not recommend it, it may give temporary boost in growth, but the same can be achieved from collumn dosing or rich soil.

To anyone reading this: stay well clear of root supliments

 

[MichaelJ]

my TDs Had dropped all the way to 30 ish ppm.

Man, thats Jedi Master TDS territory! @Happi, I think Noob may be the chosen one? The fabled one that is supposed to bring balance to the fertilizer wars? Now, if we could just get him to turn off that CO2

Cheers,
Michael

 

[hypnogogia]

To anyone reading this: stay well clear of root supliments

I avoided using root supplements and my Nymphaea lotus red really struggled. As soon as I added JBL 7+13 balls, it took off again. I think it depends on what’s used, and I’ve heard/read a lot of bad things about Osmocote.

 

[Happi]

Man, thats Jedi Master TDS territory! @Happi, I think Noob may be the chosen one? The fabled one that is supposed to bring balance to the fertilizer wars? Now, if we could just get him to turn off that CO2

Cheers,
Michael

he was the chosen one until he added those Osmocote. But he is still the important member of this group:

 

[plantnoobdude]

I avoided using root supplements and my Nymphaea lotus red really struggled. As soon as I added JBL 7+13 balls, it took off again. I think it depends on what’s sued, and I’ve heard/read a lot of bad things about Osmocote.

Those are decent, however they cloud up the tank if disturbed. I may recommend those for low tech tanks where the substrate is not often disturbed.

 

[Happi]

@plantnoobdude when are you going to try that Ca:Mg:K ratio that we talked about while using the miracle Grow or solufeed ?

 

[plantnoobdude]

@plantnoobdude when are you going to try that Ca:Mg:K ratio that we talked about while using the miracle Grow or solufeed ?

I honestly don't remember such conversation.
But, my tank is currently on 5:2:1 Ca Mg K

 

[Happi]

I honestly don't remember such conversation.
But, my tank is currently on 5:2:1 Ca Mg K

I think we talked about Bumping up these numbers to something like 10:4 or something like that and then adding K from your liquid fertilizer.

 

[erwin123]

from sand and back to soil and now osmocote. welcome back plantnoobdude!

maybe its because I let my plants get overgrown so I have sufficient plant mass to absorb the ammonia. or maybe i have so much algae that a little extra generated by the ammonia is not noticeable 🤪

Yours sincerely

fellow osmocote user

 

[plantnoobdude]

from sand and back to soil and now osmocote. welcome back plantnoobdude!

maybe its because I let my plants get overgrown so I have sufficient plant mass to absorb the ammonia. or maybe i have so much algae that a little extra generated by the ammonia is not noticeable 🤪

Yours sincerely

fellow osmocote user

I'm still using sand in 80% of the tank😉

+Some eye candy for you all.

 

[MichaelJ]

I'm still using sand in 80% of the tank😉
View attachment 202206
+Some eye candy for you all.

INSANE! 🥰 Noob its time to shut off that CO2!

 

[plantnoobdude]

This post marks the end of my miracle gro experiment.

I was able to grow weedy ludwigia, picky rotala and various other stems together in inert substrate with Minimal stunting and minimal water changes. The poor growth of some species such as bucephalandra, cryptocoryne and eriocaulon leaves something to be desired.

I will be going back to more orthodox dosing methods and see how that plays out for me. If anyone would like to try and replicate my dosing and system from this experiment.
Here were my parameters.
N. 2
P 0.3
K 1.3
Fe 0.016
Mn 0.0075
B 0.003
Cu. 0.0025
Zn. 0.0025
Mo. 0.00008
Ca. 0.66
Mg. 0.33
Ni. 0.00001
Dosed weekly, sometimes at half dose depending on plant mass.
Inert substrate.
Calcium 5ppm
Magnesium 2ppm
Co2 1.1-1.2pH drop.
Chihiros wrgb2 100% (atleast two hundred par at substrate)

The miracle gro dosing works very well to grow difficult soft water stems in inert substrate. However it is far from optimal for another group of plants, hardwater plants. And rooting plants such as eriocaulon.

This picture is the last photo/update on this tank under miracle gro dosing


My new dosing scheme:



Coupled with higher GH I am interested to see how this works for plants in inert substrate. I will be trying my absolute best to keep up with atleast weekly 30% WC.