Help making NON-CO2 fert solution for multiple tanks

Hi Jeff,
Just a few questions. What substrate do you have these plants growing in and what kind of lighting is the tank getting? How long have you had your tanks and how many fish are there?

A nice read on non-CO2 methods by Mr Tom Barr can be found here, http://www.barrreport.com/showthread.php/2817-Non-CO2-methods and you will notice plants under low light and non-CO2 conditions grow 5 to 10 times slower and can get away with lighter dosing. Often fish wast is sufficient to provide for the needs of most plants. Are you dosing any micro-nutrients like Plantex? Also, look into adding Excel or a product like Excel.

Another thing to consider is the number of water changes you want with Non-CO2 tanks. Adding water from your tap will raise CO2 levels, but fewer water changes are recommended to provide more stable CO2 levels, giving plants time to adjust to the lower levels of CO2.

For N and P, I would try 6 tablespoons of KNO3 and 1 tablespoon of KH2PO4 to 1 Liter of distilled water. For a 5 gallon tank, adding 1mL of this stock solution will add about 4.4ppm NO3 and 1ppm PO4. Dose after the water change, once after two or three days and once a week there after should allow for more time between water change, say three months.

Here is a link to the calculator I use, http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/calculator.htm to determine your stock solution and dose. Add the tank volume and the other requested information and let it do the math for you. For example, the stock solution I suggest would be dosed the same way for your 25 gallon tank, only you would dose 5mL depending on the actual amount of water in the water column. Your 55 gallon tank, 10 mL per dose. Another calculator, http://wet.biggiantnerds.com/ei/con_v_time.pl should give you an idea of how much fertilizer is building up in your tank between water changes.

This should be enough information to get the ball rolling. Good luck.

 

Nice post Tug.

I find universal dosing solutions are pretty cool; good nutrient ratios, just increase or decrease the ml needed.

A little HCl or Excel goes a long way in keeping batches stable. I've had NPK batches taint on me with some abuse, so it's become standard practice for me.

 

Honestly Jeff, if the nutrients are non-limiting then there's not much to play with. If they aren't non-limiting, algae competes in the column and you have to work harder. Tweaking the nutrients is kind of pointless if you're not trying to do fancy stuff like playing with growth morphology.

That 55 gal is about where I'd want to strap CO2 on; perhaps raise the fixture or obscure the light a little. An all-in-one won't do the job with that kind of light. The 7 gal isn't a big deal if some algae happens; it's a small tank. The 25 gal won't need extra PO4 if you're feeding heavily.

If you want an all-in-one, you could try a mix of CSM+B with KNO3. I'd keep some KH2PO4 on hand though; GSA is a pain, and stunted phosphate deficient plants are ugly. At worst EI is a two bottle system with GH booster at water change time if you've got soft water. Rather than keeping it sitting in the fridge, you can simply use HCl (10ml of 14.5% pool acid sold at Home Depot per liter) or I believe 4x the quantity of Flourish Excel. You'll have to mix less often this way and have fewer worries about drinking fertilizer.

In all cases, you're using inert substrate. You are very dependent on what you dose in the tank, completely dependent if you used Flourish tabs which contain just about zero nutrients. For less maintenance long-term, nutrient loaded substrates are a great direction. If you ever end up overhauling, look at the benefits of things like osmocote, mineralized soil/worm castings, ADA aquasoil, etc. Some are dirt cheap, some cost, each have their advantages and drawbacks.

Believe it or not, compressed CO2 is pretty headache free if you didn't need it before; adding any now will just make for healthier plants. The infamous tinkering happens when you strap high light to the tank and compensate for the lack of natural CO2 by using compressed. Without the CO2, it turns into a full scale disaster. It's taken the hobby a while to add this up, but now it's heading towards low light tanks with compressed CO2 because they're both beautiful and easy. If the plants are growing too fast because you added CO2, then they were CO2-limited; simply reduce the light level to slow them. The only real drawback comes with cheap regulators dumping CO2 into the tank all at once (get a decent reg) and anyone who doesn't educate themselves on how to properly handle their regulator (5 minutes talking to LeftC will fix this). It's definitely an investment, but it's also nice to have.

Anyhow, my recommendation would be 9.2g of CSM+B and 65g of KNO3, add what ever stabilizer ahead of time in 750ml DI H2O and wait 5 minutes, add the CSM+B, stir until dissolved, add the KNO3, repeat, top up to 1L. Leave the bottle sit with the cap off for an hour or two (the mix will probably be cold) and away you go. Typically for high tech/light it would be 1ml for every 6L, 3x a week with a 50% WC. It works well for me and my math, but it's easy to convert. Just dose an average of 1ml for every 8L of column over the course of a week. Do this for a month, then do a 50% WC. If all seems clear, you can try dosing/changing a little less often. For the sake of the fish, I tend to change 50% a month as a very minimum anyhow, so I use this method often enough for my own low tech tanks. As I said, keep the KH2PO4 around; if PO4 dosing becomes an issue, you can always mix up a solution of it to dose now and then. If it turns out you need magnesium, about 101g of epsom salts in the above solution added after the stabilizer and stirred then leave to set for a few minutes before adding the CSM+B will solve your problem.

 

You can always try obscuring the light partly. If you've got the typical coralife fixture then why not get a custom piece of acrylic cut to replace the existing one that blocks 25% of the light? I can't imagine it costing more than a new fixture.

You can put together a canopy of your own pretty inexpensively, which leaves you with more options that cost less. Personally I'd opt for 2x T8 retrofit; multiple bulbs makes for better saturation and healthier plants. If you really want a T5 single strip, go with the Sunblaze 54" T5HO by Sunlight Supply. They're something like $50 with reflector plus shipping. I'm alternating between two of them through the day right now on a similar sized tank, and they work very nicely. In both cases be aware that the first 3 months with a bulb is going to run you 50% higher output, so either break in the bulb or be prepared to cope with a little extra algae at first.

I'm not completely sure on length, but you may be able to tear out the guts of your 48" coralife and even retrofit the sunblaze into that. I can take measurements off mine with installed reflectors if you like.

 

Those look like they've got some room in them from the pic I could find. What are the dimensions?

I'm guessing you may already know, and that given the age it's probably not a problem, but I'd rather post this than not:
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml00/00015.html