Fertilizing my first planted 30g...

[Nekentros]

Hi,
This is my first planted tank and I am trying to figure out how much and of what to fertilize with.

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Tank size: 30 gallons.
Lighting: Coralife 150 Watt 10,000k Metal Halide
Lighting Duration: 12 hours at 5wpg
Substrate: 3 Bags of Flourite
Heavily planted with: Bacopa coroliniana / Hygrophila difformis
Co2: Automated injection 30ppm
Co2 Duration: 12 lighted ours
Filtration: Fluval 304
Temp: 76-78F
Fish: 4 Dwarf Puffers
Water change: Weekly

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My tap-water readings:
TDS: not avail
pH: 7.4
NO3: 2.5ppm
NO2: 3.5ppm
PO4: with phosphates test kit? 0ppm
GH: 143.2ppm
KH: 107.4ppm
Ca: not avail
Mg: not avail
CO2: not avail

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City tap-water readings:
TDS: 376
pH: 7.05
NO3: 0.7ppm
PO4: Total Phosphorous? 5ppm
GH: 116ppm
KH: as CaCO3? 78ppm
Ca: 23ppm
Mg: 14ppm
CO2: Total Organic Carbon? 2.26ppm

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Aquarium water readings:
TDS: not avail
pH: 6.7
NO3: 5ppm
NO2: 0ppm
PO4: with phosphates test kit? 0ppm
GH: 165ppm
KH: 71.6ppm
Ca: not avail
Mg: not avail
CO2: 25ppm

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From Tom's report:

A Typical Tank
A typical routine for a high light tank with low fish load:
Volume 80 liters (20 gal high standard tank)
5.5 watts/ gal. - two 55watt 5000K/8800K lamps
CO2-25-30ppm (I turn my CO2 off at night)
Canister filter
Fluorite (any porous iron rich material will do) about 7-10cm depth

A Typical Dosing Routine
1/4 teaspoon of KNO3 3-4x a week (every other day)
1/16th-1/32nd teaspoon of KH2PO4 3-4x a week (every other day)
Traces added on off days as the macro nutrients, so 3x a week, 5mls each time.
SeaChem Equilibrium 1/8 teaspoon after water change.

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From this I gather that I need to adjust the Typical Dosing Routine to:

1/4+1/8 teaspoon of KNO3 3-4x a week (every other day)
1/16th to 1/32nd +1/16th teaspoon of KH2PO4 3-4x a week (every other day)
Traces added on off days as the macro nutrients, so 3x a week, 5mls+2.5mls each time.
SeaChem Equilibrium 1/8+1/16 teaspoon after water change.


Am I missing anything here and are these the proper measurements to start my new tank to prevent algae growth?

 

[Tom Barr]

Re: Fertilizing my first planted 30g...

You have a great deal of light, this is more like 8-10w/gal since the HQI is very intense and efficient.

Dosing every other day is needed.

I'd add a touch more than the 20 gal example, I'd also suggest no more than 10 hours light time and crank the CO2.

CO2 will be the biggest issue, see my post regarding that in the other sections.

Regards,
Tom Barr