Hello to All,
And many thanks in advance. I have read many books (including Greg Watson's guide to dosing) and been all over the internet looking for advice, and this forum is the most grounded, fact-based one I have found for planted tanks. I'm embarrassed to say that I still feel over my head, and would love some advice. I hope this doesn't seem too wordy, or too thick-headed.
Following Tom's guidelines, I will begin with my goals-- in between low-tech/low-maintenance and C02. I would like to change water 50% once a week. I am happy to dose fertilizers and liquid carbon once a week. I would prefer not to do much testing, apart from standard tests for Nitrites, Nitrates and PH. Low light and slow growing is fine with me, but for the health of my fish and my own peace of mind I do want the water changes.
Tank: an empty two year old Eclipse System Six, with a substrate of First Layer Laterite and gravel, about 2-3 inches thick. This was not layered, but mixed, as I had already set up the tank and was buying plants when LFS recommended Laterite. At the advice of the LFS (a very good store) I changed the aging Eclipse T5 Bulb to an AquaGlo, which still has only 8 watts but apparently greater lumens (which I later read doesn't make any difference...?). That gives me about 1.5 w/gallon, which from my reading, is slightly less than low light for small tank.
Water: According to the water department our local water has 25 mg/L of Calcium, 140 mg/L Chloride, less than .01 mg/L copper, 1 mg/L Fluoroide, less than .05 mg/L Iron, 5 mg/L Magnesium, .46 mg/L Nitrate, 79 mg/L sodium, 27 mg/L Sulfate, 1.95 mg/L Chlorine. The hardness is 84, and PH is 9.1 on the website, but I have never tested higher than 7.0 using my home testing kit (which leaves me wondering how different the other numbers would be...). I use Seachem Prime when doing water changes.
Plants: 1 Anubius Batari, 1 Amazon Sword, 1 bunch Dwarf Ambulia, 1 bunch Anacharis, 1 bunch Bacopa (I think Caroliniana), and one small pot Brazillian Microsword, all recommended by the LFS as good for low light tanks, except the microsword which he said was "worth a try." All plants were growing submerged when I bought them.
Fish: 4 Orange Von Rio Tetras and one African Dwarf Frog.
Plants were added last week with Laterite. After a week (I wasn't cycling, just trying to give the plants some time to settle) I added the fish, along with Biospira. For now I am doing daily readings of PH, Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates. If the Biospira doesn't work, I will do daily water changes (40%) and if it does, I expect to start a regular weekly 50% water change starting on Sunday (a week from when I added the fish). I will not feed the fish until tomorrow, as recommended. Current readings are: Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates 20, PH 6.5, temp 80 degrees F.
Because I want regular water changes I assume that I will be doing the EI with Excel method, which is fine with me. But for some reason I can't figure out from doing searches on the forum exactly what amounts I should be using. I have purchasd Flourish Excel and Flourish Comprehensive supplement (micro and only traces of Nitrogen). The only macro fertilizer I could find was Kent Pro Plant which has Nitrogen but no Phosphates (they claim that as a plus but I know from reading you disagree) and no Potassium.
What dosing would you recommend for Excel? Would Excel plus micro-nutrients be enough, given my fish load and local water profile, or should I add Macro nutrients as well? If so, what dosing would you recommend?
Lastly, and less urgently, I have been told to add algea eating shrimp when the tank establishes itself (Amano), but the shrimp websites I have visited seem to feel that shrimp and fish (even peaceful fish) should not cohabitate. Any thoughts?
Thanks so much in advance for your help. You can probably tell I have been living alone with this information for too long.
PS Here's my tank, still looking pretty red from laterite, IMO.
And many thanks in advance. I have read many books (including Greg Watson's guide to dosing) and been all over the internet looking for advice, and this forum is the most grounded, fact-based one I have found for planted tanks. I'm embarrassed to say that I still feel over my head, and would love some advice. I hope this doesn't seem too wordy, or too thick-headed.
Following Tom's guidelines, I will begin with my goals-- in between low-tech/low-maintenance and C02. I would like to change water 50% once a week. I am happy to dose fertilizers and liquid carbon once a week. I would prefer not to do much testing, apart from standard tests for Nitrites, Nitrates and PH. Low light and slow growing is fine with me, but for the health of my fish and my own peace of mind I do want the water changes.
Tank: an empty two year old Eclipse System Six, with a substrate of First Layer Laterite and gravel, about 2-3 inches thick. This was not layered, but mixed, as I had already set up the tank and was buying plants when LFS recommended Laterite. At the advice of the LFS (a very good store) I changed the aging Eclipse T5 Bulb to an AquaGlo, which still has only 8 watts but apparently greater lumens (which I later read doesn't make any difference...?). That gives me about 1.5 w/gallon, which from my reading, is slightly less than low light for small tank.
Water: According to the water department our local water has 25 mg/L of Calcium, 140 mg/L Chloride, less than .01 mg/L copper, 1 mg/L Fluoroide, less than .05 mg/L Iron, 5 mg/L Magnesium, .46 mg/L Nitrate, 79 mg/L sodium, 27 mg/L Sulfate, 1.95 mg/L Chlorine. The hardness is 84, and PH is 9.1 on the website, but I have never tested higher than 7.0 using my home testing kit (which leaves me wondering how different the other numbers would be...). I use Seachem Prime when doing water changes.
Plants: 1 Anubius Batari, 1 Amazon Sword, 1 bunch Dwarf Ambulia, 1 bunch Anacharis, 1 bunch Bacopa (I think Caroliniana), and one small pot Brazillian Microsword, all recommended by the LFS as good for low light tanks, except the microsword which he said was "worth a try." All plants were growing submerged when I bought them.
Fish: 4 Orange Von Rio Tetras and one African Dwarf Frog.
Plants were added last week with Laterite. After a week (I wasn't cycling, just trying to give the plants some time to settle) I added the fish, along with Biospira. For now I am doing daily readings of PH, Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates. If the Biospira doesn't work, I will do daily water changes (40%) and if it does, I expect to start a regular weekly 50% water change starting on Sunday (a week from when I added the fish). I will not feed the fish until tomorrow, as recommended. Current readings are: Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates 20, PH 6.5, temp 80 degrees F.
Because I want regular water changes I assume that I will be doing the EI with Excel method, which is fine with me. But for some reason I can't figure out from doing searches on the forum exactly what amounts I should be using. I have purchasd Flourish Excel and Flourish Comprehensive supplement (micro and only traces of Nitrogen). The only macro fertilizer I could find was Kent Pro Plant which has Nitrogen but no Phosphates (they claim that as a plus but I know from reading you disagree) and no Potassium.
What dosing would you recommend for Excel? Would Excel plus micro-nutrients be enough, given my fish load and local water profile, or should I add Macro nutrients as well? If so, what dosing would you recommend?
Lastly, and less urgently, I have been told to add algea eating shrimp when the tank establishes itself (Amano), but the shrimp websites I have visited seem to feel that shrimp and fish (even peaceful fish) should not cohabitate. Any thoughts?
Thanks so much in advance for your help. You can probably tell I have been living alone with this information for too long.
PS Here's my tank, still looking pretty red from laterite, IMO.