I have a 24G Nano Cube. Stock lighting is (2) 36 watt combo bulbs. I think they are 10,000K, or 6700K/10,000K combo.
I was having many problems. Algae was taking over. Plants were stunted. So I started reading, and that brought me here.
I have since started dosing Excel, along with other ferts. Sort of doing the EI method, but dosing by what Seachem suggests for their product line. I saw great improvement in both plant growth and algae reduction. However Algae has slowly started making a comeback, even with Excel spot treatments, and some of the new growth of my Amazon Swords went limp.
I had the feeling that my lighting was too strong, plus the fert dosing was too weak. Just yesterday I removed one of the two 36 watt combo bulbs. This brings the tank down to 1.5 WPG compared to 3 WPG. I tested Nitrates (about 7 mg/l), Phosphates (0.25 mg/l), and ammonia 0). So I dosed the tank again, this time by the bottle suggested dosing with a slight overdose on some since they were quite low.
Now I have a few questions.
1) Should I continue to dose daily by Seachems suggested dosing schedule? Or by what the bottle says, 1-3 times a week in signs of deficiency.
2) Keep the tank at 1.5 WPG since the tank is an Excel tank, and non-Co2?
3) To convert nitrates to nitrogen I divide by 4.4 to get my mg/l (ppm)? So in my case 7mg/l divide by 4.4 = 1.6 mg/l (ppm) of Nitrogen. This is really low, but I'm hesitant to dump 3-5 capfuls on Flourish Nitrogen into my tank. Am I caluclating this correct?
I was having many problems. Algae was taking over. Plants were stunted. So I started reading, and that brought me here.
I have since started dosing Excel, along with other ferts. Sort of doing the EI method, but dosing by what Seachem suggests for their product line. I saw great improvement in both plant growth and algae reduction. However Algae has slowly started making a comeback, even with Excel spot treatments, and some of the new growth of my Amazon Swords went limp.
I had the feeling that my lighting was too strong, plus the fert dosing was too weak. Just yesterday I removed one of the two 36 watt combo bulbs. This brings the tank down to 1.5 WPG compared to 3 WPG. I tested Nitrates (about 7 mg/l), Phosphates (0.25 mg/l), and ammonia 0). So I dosed the tank again, this time by the bottle suggested dosing with a slight overdose on some since they were quite low.
Now I have a few questions.
1) Should I continue to dose daily by Seachems suggested dosing schedule? Or by what the bottle says, 1-3 times a week in signs of deficiency.
2) Keep the tank at 1.5 WPG since the tank is an Excel tank, and non-Co2?
3) To convert nitrates to nitrogen I divide by 4.4 to get my mg/l (ppm)? So in my case 7mg/l divide by 4.4 = 1.6 mg/l (ppm) of Nitrogen. This is really low, but I'm hesitant to dump 3-5 capfuls on Flourish Nitrogen into my tank. Am I caluclating this correct?