Aw, you are way over on the Perth West side, long way from Melbourne
Well, I'm on our West coast, similar climate.
I do not calibrate the test kits that I use, though now I think I will, for my own peace of mind... but I am aware that looking at colours is not an exact science, so there will be a wide margin for error using standard testing kits for the hobby.
The color issue is helped a lot here, and you'll be surprised at how bad some test kits are and can be. If you can buy a reasonable scale for a few $$, say 0.01 to 0.001 gram accuracy, you are in business.
As far as making your own fertilizers..............no.
I'm not sure about Oz, but we get around this by calling it an aquatic "plant supplement" for thr hobby. Not agriculture or calling it a fertilizer for agricultural use. Oz has better import/export quarantine than we do and likely less loopholes.
Generally this is much better, but they should make exception policies for proper use and low risk/impact trades such as aquarium hobbyist. Not the import of various plant species, critters etc rather, something that is already there and being used by the ton and in your food supplies
Makes no sense to regulate aquarium supplements.
Somehow I do not think the right folks have been contacted, I just cannot see them being that unreasonable about it light of the irony with large scale agriculture vs this hobby.
So in you opinion, if I felt that there might be a limiting element, then I could just increase the fert dosing (Fe and Trace) and increase the CO2 without overdoing it (within reason).... I was of the opinion that some elements would affect plants if they were in excess, but is that just in relation to the whole picture of all the elements?? That is if one element is way out of proportion to the others, then this could pose a problem, but if all elements were balanced, at twice the requirement for the plants, then this is fine....?? hope you understand this question, this is one that plagues me the most....
As far as K+, you need to treat excess as with most fertilizers for what they really are: salts. You only start to get "excess" when you start to influence the osmotic pressure, much like adding too much NaCl in the FW tank.
The excess of one nutrient might be symptomatic of a larger issue, like why is it not being taken up? and are you adding way too much relative to the other nutrients?, or maybe the test method is way off? or why dose that much? and have you done a water change lately to prevent having to finely balance all these nutrients, many of which you do not test for a measure?
These are far more relevant questions that need addressed. A water change will easily solve the issue and re set any suspected issues, then you can add a lot of K+ and see once the tank is doing fine. If not, then you can rule that one out with the large frequent water changes. Then slow down or stop water changes and see if you get the response again. Then you know it's not K+, but rather..........something else.
So you repeat but this time with something else in mind.
Few aquarist want to do all that and test and calibrate, but many do not like water changes either.
However, you cannot not automate the testing, calibration and analyzing.
You can make the water change easy or entirely automated.
This will easily pay for itself many times over and is something you can sell to customers(labor, parts etc) who would love to not do any hoses or buckets etc.
You turn a valve to drain the tank(say a pre set or a lower level at 50%, 70% etc), and is quickly heads out to irrigate the lawn, landscape etc, turn another valve to refill.
Have it hard plumbed.
You can add a small float switch, electronic, dual etc for redundancy etc, and a solenoid to drain the water for a pre set time, daily, weekly, every other day etc.
Many customers will love such a system added to their home, tank etc.
You also! But if the tank is at the LFS, then adding this will serve as a nice model fo sales also.
It is a huge labor saving device. Few have the motivation to do a large frequent water change, so they put it off, sometimes things are fine, sometimes not. So reducing the required motivation to do a water change is a key to the solution here. This is a human social issue, not a Science based one. You can use test kits to avoid water changes and balance the in/out as best as you can till you have to do a water change, often waiting until there's an issue already present.
With water changes done frequently, you stay on top of things and avoid them before they occur.
I do not know if they sell ADA in Oz, I'd imagine they do and have a distributor there. You might consider using the ADA aqua soil also. Likley cost an arm and leg there though. Not cheap here either, but it's a good product and grows plants without having to buy KNO3, KH2PO4, K2SO4. Well, not as much and if you use less light, good fish loads/feeding, you should do pretty good.
Back to your tank.
Trim that sucker.
Trim off those leaves, the Apono's are fast growing large weeds they will grow new leaves just fine. They will show the signs of issues before other species because they are faster growing.
Slower growing understory plants like the Crypts much less so.
So you have to trim and prune things to keep the plant- plant competition down also. Left to their own devices, the plants will take over and leave you with one or two species and not much else.
I'd suggets trimming things good, large water change, Use the API+ something else also, this should help the Rainbows. They need higher current and flow. Where do they come from? Not lakes.........
What about the Apono's? Crypts? All from the streams................
If you trim things up more, then add a bit more current to the surface, then you will ose a bit more CO2m but you can simply add more to account for that. This will add more current, better mixing and more O2 for the Rainbows.
Add enough current to cause a ripple, but not break the surface for about 1/4-1/2 the surface of this tank, hack the plants back.
This will likely take care of most of it.
Regards,
Tom Barr
