Hi everyone,
I've spent the end of the summer and early fall here troubleshooting my tank, which is still suffering from stalled growth despite my efforts to troubleshoot everything. My major issue is that somehow, everything was growing great 8 months ago. I had a crappy cheap light and was kinda just dumping ferts in randomly without much thought. This ultimately cost me some shrimp/fish/snails, so I backed way off and started properly maintaining my tank around July. Since late August my tank parameters have been pretty stable and using EI for weekly/no CO2, I think they are within range. Here's my parameters and fert schedule, followed by my troubleshooting and some pics
My current parameters:
64L (60x30x35cm)
pH: ~7.5
gH: 10
kH: 6
NH3: 0ppm
NO2: 0ppm
NO3: ~20ppm
PO4: ~3ppm (not sure on this and might drop over the course of the week)
Fe: ~0.2ppm (detectable at least)
Lighting: Chihiros RGB plus 8hr with 1hr sunrise/sunset at ~50% intensity on all RGB channels
Filter: Eheim 2213
Water Changes: 30-50% every Saturday morning 75%RO/25%Tap (Tap is very very hard and high in PO4, I THINK)
Fertilization: Macro/Micro alternating schedule
All values are per week, (dosed in usually 2 macro doses, with an off day or two before WC)
14ppm NO3 from KNO3
12ppm K from KCl, KNO3, KH2PO4
2ppm PO4 from KH2PO4 (just recently started this, see below)
5-10ppm MgSO4 at WC (still fine tuning this and not really sure if going above 5ppm is helping considering my hard water)
6mL AquaRebel Eisen MikroBasic
6mL EasyCarbo, irregularly dosed
I've been troubleshooting a few theories, so here's some possibilities and what I've done to mitigate them:
Flow: Eheim 2213 seems like its slowing down with age although there is circular flow over the substrate when observing small particulates floating in the tank. Had good growth with this setup before though…
Lighting: I added a Chihiros RGB plus a month ago and have it running about 50% power, which should be just slightly stronger than my old light. Creeping the RGB channels up 3% per week now.
Anaerobic substrate: Progressive loss of growth over the duration on the tank life. Bubbles observed from substrate when disturbed. Weak root formation and runner formation of formerly strong growers.
Ferts:
Micros: Was using weakly stabilized Micro and have now switched to a more appropriate stabilized MikroBasic Eisen fert. Fe levels are detectable across the week.
Phosphate: Haven't calibrated the kit so it's possible it is low. Unlikely though considering the kit results suggest 10+ppm out of the tap and tank levels around 4ppm. However, I do have green spot algae which many suggest is due to low PO4. I added a glass lid in february (less top off) and switched to higher RO ratio (less high PO4 tap water at WC) back in July, which possibly changed this more than I thought. Will add 1-2ppm KH2PO4 from now on just to see if it helps.
NO3 and K: Dosed regularly for more than a month now, adding ~15ppm Nitrate per week and 10-12ppm K (from KNO3 and KCl)
Magnesium: Currently adding ~5ppm with my water change. This definitely made a big change when I started dosing.
CO2: Tank growth is overall poor. Loss of DOCs from maturing substrate could mean less available carbon in my tank than in the beginning, is that right? I dose EasyCarbo to seemingly little long term benefit. Maybe I need better timing with this since I tend to add it only when I have time and am home.
Tl;dr: Tank stalled for 6 months. Troubleshooting most common things. I feel like it can't be my lighting because I had good growth with my crappy Nicrew and my new light is clearly brighter with better coverage. I also had nice growth with the same filter (2213) back in february. Same goes for CO2, I had good growth without it, why should I NEED it now? Micros should be better off now that I'm using the MikroBasic and have detectable Fe across the week. KNO3 and K should be fine with the amounts I'm dosing. I was suspicious of Mg but after a little improvement when I initially added it, it doesn't seem to help much (my tap water is also very hard). Is 5ppm good enough or should I dose 10ppm at WC? Most suspicious of PO4 because I added glass lid (meaning less top off) and higher RO%age (less PO4 added at WC) could've led to very low PO4. Adding 2ppm/week now, but just started this past week and seeing minor improvements. Definitely seeing an improvement when comparing my last 3 weeks of pics, but am I wasting my time and I just need CO2 to grow the plants I have?
I've spent the end of the summer and early fall here troubleshooting my tank, which is still suffering from stalled growth despite my efforts to troubleshoot everything. My major issue is that somehow, everything was growing great 8 months ago. I had a crappy cheap light and was kinda just dumping ferts in randomly without much thought. This ultimately cost me some shrimp/fish/snails, so I backed way off and started properly maintaining my tank around July. Since late August my tank parameters have been pretty stable and using EI for weekly/no CO2, I think they are within range. Here's my parameters and fert schedule, followed by my troubleshooting and some pics
My current parameters:
64L (60x30x35cm)
pH: ~7.5
gH: 10
kH: 6
NH3: 0ppm
NO2: 0ppm
NO3: ~20ppm
PO4: ~3ppm (not sure on this and might drop over the course of the week)
Fe: ~0.2ppm (detectable at least)
Lighting: Chihiros RGB plus 8hr with 1hr sunrise/sunset at ~50% intensity on all RGB channels
Filter: Eheim 2213
Water Changes: 30-50% every Saturday morning 75%RO/25%Tap (Tap is very very hard and high in PO4, I THINK)
Fertilization: Macro/Micro alternating schedule
All values are per week, (dosed in usually 2 macro doses, with an off day or two before WC)
14ppm NO3 from KNO3
12ppm K from KCl, KNO3, KH2PO4
2ppm PO4 from KH2PO4 (just recently started this, see below)
5-10ppm MgSO4 at WC (still fine tuning this and not really sure if going above 5ppm is helping considering my hard water)
6mL AquaRebel Eisen MikroBasic
6mL EasyCarbo, irregularly dosed
I've been troubleshooting a few theories, so here's some possibilities and what I've done to mitigate them:
Flow: Eheim 2213 seems like its slowing down with age although there is circular flow over the substrate when observing small particulates floating in the tank. Had good growth with this setup before though…
Lighting: I added a Chihiros RGB plus a month ago and have it running about 50% power, which should be just slightly stronger than my old light. Creeping the RGB channels up 3% per week now.
Anaerobic substrate: Progressive loss of growth over the duration on the tank life. Bubbles observed from substrate when disturbed. Weak root formation and runner formation of formerly strong growers.
Ferts:
Micros: Was using weakly stabilized Micro and have now switched to a more appropriate stabilized MikroBasic Eisen fert. Fe levels are detectable across the week.
Phosphate: Haven't calibrated the kit so it's possible it is low. Unlikely though considering the kit results suggest 10+ppm out of the tap and tank levels around 4ppm. However, I do have green spot algae which many suggest is due to low PO4. I added a glass lid in february (less top off) and switched to higher RO ratio (less high PO4 tap water at WC) back in July, which possibly changed this more than I thought. Will add 1-2ppm KH2PO4 from now on just to see if it helps.
NO3 and K: Dosed regularly for more than a month now, adding ~15ppm Nitrate per week and 10-12ppm K (from KNO3 and KCl)
Magnesium: Currently adding ~5ppm with my water change. This definitely made a big change when I started dosing.
CO2: Tank growth is overall poor. Loss of DOCs from maturing substrate could mean less available carbon in my tank than in the beginning, is that right? I dose EasyCarbo to seemingly little long term benefit. Maybe I need better timing with this since I tend to add it only when I have time and am home.
Tl;dr: Tank stalled for 6 months. Troubleshooting most common things. I feel like it can't be my lighting because I had good growth with my crappy Nicrew and my new light is clearly brighter with better coverage. I also had nice growth with the same filter (2213) back in february. Same goes for CO2, I had good growth without it, why should I NEED it now? Micros should be better off now that I'm using the MikroBasic and have detectable Fe across the week. KNO3 and K should be fine with the amounts I'm dosing. I was suspicious of Mg but after a little improvement when I initially added it, it doesn't seem to help much (my tap water is also very hard). Is 5ppm good enough or should I dose 10ppm at WC? Most suspicious of PO4 because I added glass lid (meaning less top off) and higher RO%age (less PO4 added at WC) could've led to very low PO4. Adding 2ppm/week now, but just started this past week and seeing minor improvements. Definitely seeing an improvement when comparing my last 3 weeks of pics, but am I wasting my time and I just need CO2 to grow the plants I have?