• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

Should I be dosing my low tech?

Hooky

Hooky

Member
Joined
29 Aug 2014
Messages
108
So I have a juwel rio 125 set up low tech with stock lighting (without reflectors) and filter, and scapers soil as substrate. The tank has now been set up for 6 days and although there has certainly been growth with the majority of the plants i am now starting to see some melt which leads me to think should I be considering dosing some kind of ferts?

Plants that are in the tank are:

starougyne repens - some slight melt on tips of a few plants but seems to be growing
Giant Hairgrass - doing well currently
rotala rotundifolia - doing well currently
limnophila sessiliflora - after some trimming now growing nicely
cryptocoryne petchii - has suffered the most with melt

lights are on 6 hours a day currently
 
Would something like tropica premium fertiliser be suitable for my set up?

with the Starougyne should i trim off the leaves that start to melt or just leave them?
 
do you have a link you could send me to look at EI ferts?
 
Melting plant leaves are best removed as much as possible.. As Roy says crypts are known to melt away when moved to other water parameters but will come back. But since it is a slow grower you need some patience with that.. S. Repens is known to even be difficult sometimes in High Tech tanks, but like the crypts and most other plants need to go throught the first transition. If S. Repens will come back is a questionmark in any case.

Regarding low tech and ferts it indeed is best to start with a low dosage and work your way up from there if needed.. It is for low tech the same as for high tech, it is a game play of plantgrowth. plantmass and light intensity/duration and bioload... Only high tech will be a lot faster because of the extra added co2, so extra ferts are needed much sooner to do something with that.. Ofcourse the substrate used playes a major roll too regarding the proper fert regime... Mine was started completely inert.. :)

After about 10 months growing in i treat my low tech the same as my high tech, both get the same amount of ferts and consequently the weekly 25% water change. In my personal experience i have best results in a long light duration and a lower intensity, with the use of a dimmer a burst of high intensity for 5 hours and 6 hours low intensity. But regarding tank size, light power etc. this is a trail and error style of experimenting to find out how the tank coops with it. It's a good thing to have a bunch of floating vegitation anyway to handle a higher fert regime and help with reducing light intensity for the submersed growth. A light dimmer is imho a must with the longer periodes technique.

I dose weekly 20 ppm NO3, 4 ppm N, a bit over 10 ppm K, minimal 0.5 ppm P and 2 ppm Mg and 3 ml traces with iron. With a relatively low bioload. Next to this i noticed the crypts still appreciating extra root feeding with (iron rich) laterite clay balls. I have mainly crypts, java, anubias, mosses and some hair grass in this tank and algae under control..

Must say it is running exactly 1 year now and still only half way of it's full potential. Hence it is (s)low tech.. ;)

Bottom line is.. There are many factors to take into account how to properly dose a low tech tank and there is no easy answer. Work with what your plants tell you.. But since your tank is only 6 days old plants wont yet tell you much, i guess there is no livestock yet and plants are still in transition.. Depending the substrate you used, you might not need to dose for the first 2 months at all. But if you do, do as Roy says, go for dry salts and mix your own, cheaper and way easier to dose and add only what you need.. If you plan a decent livestock you might not need so much nitrate.. With a complete fert you have no say in that, you always add the complete package and probably only wasting money adding things you do not need.. :thumbup:
 
Thanks zozo

My substrate is Dennerle Scaper's Soil not sure how many of you guys have used this in your tanks or if it's any good. should I do a large water change now at 6 days old ?
 
This might sound counter intuitive... But I think you should have your lights on lower intensity or duration until it roots in which may take a couple weeks. Reason being is that your strong lighting is telling your plants to grow, it tries to pull nutrients from the bottom but roots aren't developed so it ends up eating itself, which may explain why plants melt from the bottom up or the leaves die off first. Once rooted, you can take up your lighting and everything else. Just my theory but will be testing it soon on my pending setup tanks.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Thanks doubu

I was always under the impression that the stock 2X 28w t5 was classed as low light although they do appear to be fairly bright. How long do you think I should be running the lights fot?

I will lower the light and start regular big water changes from today and see what happebd.
 
So does this mean my lighting is high (high tech) ? if so how will this affect my low tech plans for my tank?
 
Most likely excess algae growth if light is to strong regarding the plantmass and growspeed. You could throw in some floating vegitation, Salvinia, frogbit, duckweed etc. this will filter the light naturaly and since they are floating they will have al the atmospheric co2 they need and take up any excess of ferts in the water column. As long the floaters do not show insufficiencies there is enough ferts in the water.. That's a win win and cheapest sollution for filtering light. It works like a charme.. :)

As in most tanks the flow probably will push the floaters towards one side of the tank and you will have a area free of floaters. That's the place you best put the plants requiring the most light and grow the fastest.. For example most crypts grow slow and still grow nice in very low light and the limnophila, rotala and staurogyne are plants requiring a bit more. Slow growers are prone to grow algae sooner than plants growing faster.. So plant the slow growers under the floaters (filtered light) and the faster growers under the non covered area getting non filtered light. :)
 
I will do a 50% water change tonight and reduce the light to maybe 4 hours, how does this sound? also during water changes do you guys just add cold water or warm water. Does adding cold water shock the plant during water change?

lastly how long should i leave the rotala and staurogyne before i trim and re plant?
 
So did a 40 -50% water change last night and have put lights to 4 hours will continue with the water change for rest of the week and see if there is any improvement.

I have now noticed that the giant hairgrass is now turning yellow which wasn't affected before hopefully this is just the plants settling down.
 
Plants seem to be responding to the daily WC except for the giant hairgrass, at what point should I start to increase the photo-period again. I started with 6 hours a day for the first 6 days but have since cut down to 4 hours?

Any help on this would be appreciated
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top