Help dosing issues and Nitrate problem

xplode

Junior Poster
Oct 4, 2009
6
0
1
I have a huge problem, my tank is 67 liters and started fertilization using EI method recently.

My formula is as follows, calculated at Fertilator:
N / P - Tropica Plant Nutrition + Liquid

3 X week - 15ml
Values for dosage:
NO3 - 13.81 ppm
PO4 - 0.71 ppm
K - 2.74 ppm
Mg - 0.91
Fe - 0.16 ppm

K - KCI
3 x week - 6ml
K - 9 ppm

My question is whether these parameters are correct?

Furthermore, after starting the fertilization, had an increase of nitrites and nitrates.

Current values:
NO2 - 1ppm
NO3 - 40ppm

I'm scared and do not know what to do, the aquarium is already 4 months and this happened when I started fertilizing and when I did a treatment of algae, with Excel and H2O2.

I have already changed 40% water, but the nitrites and nitrates has not decreased. Nitrivec added to restore the colony of bacteria.

What should I do?

P.S: Sorry for the English because I am Portuguese

Thanks everyone
 

Philosophos

Lifetime Charter Member
Lifetime Member
Mar 12, 2009
1,346
0
36
xplode;41923 said:
I have a huge problem, my tank is 67 liters and started fertilization using EI method recently.

My formula is as follows, calculated at Fertilator:
N / P - Tropica Plant Nutrition + Liquid

3 X week - 15ml
Values for dosage:
NO3 - 13.81 ppm
PO4 - 0.71 ppm
K - 2.74 ppm
Mg - 0.91
Fe - 0.16 ppm

K - KCI
3 x week - 6ml
K - 9 ppm

My question is whether these parameters are correct?

Those measurements are per dose from the look of it. I'll add everything up here for weekly totals:

NO3 - 41.43493517
PO4 - 2.14175755
K - 34.194626866
Mg - 2.724179104
Fe - 0.488955224

This should all work fine. At worst you've got far more N than you need; about 1/2 that would be sufficient, while keeping your K+ from KCl the same. I'm not saying you need to change anything for the plants, but you could try scaling back if using that much TPN is starting to get expensive.

Furthermore, after starting the fertilization, had an increase of nitrites and nitrates.

Current values:
NO2 - 1ppm
NO3 - 40ppm

I'm scared and do not know what to do, the aquarium is already 4 months and this happened when I started fertilizing and when I did a treatment of algae, with Excel and H2O2.

I have already changed 40% water, but the nitrites and nitrates has not decreased. Nitrivec added to restore the colony of bacteria.

1ppm is fairly high; personally I'd do an ammonia test on the fertilizer. If it contains NH4NO3 then testing 1L of deionized water with 1ml of TPN in it should result in your test kit turning the darkest color of green possible. If you dilute that 1L of water to 1/10th it's strength (take 100ml of it, add to 900ml of fresh deionized water) it should result in showing 2-4ppm NH4. If you have a more precise test kit, the result should be about 3.4ppm NH4.

-Philosophos
 

Biollante

Lifetime Charter Member
Lifetime Member
Jun 21, 2009
3,210
3
36
Surprise, AZ
Your Substrate is Tricky

Hi,

Your English is fine, certainly better than my Portuguese is!:)

The substrate you have is a little tricky, you must be careful to avoid disturbing it.

We would expect an increase in nitrate values, since that is what you are adding.

I would recommend immediately reducing your dosage to:
• TPN Liquid + 10 ml 3 times a week
• KCl 1 ml 3 times aweek

Figure you are going to need to change a minimum of 50% of the water each week.

Immediately I would advise a 70% water change, followed two days later with a 50% water change.

Then watch your plants and fish you may want to increase the KCl half a milliliter or so, depending on what you observe.;)

I would also discontinue the test kits, observation, how does it look, feel and smell.

Tell us about your plants, fish and equipment.

Biollante