Redundant Questions & Strategies

First off, I just subscribed the other day so let me say hello. And before I pose my questions, rest assured, I've read a boat load of the current posts already. Many have been thoroughly helpful and I'd created different strategies off of them, then I'd read another and shift my strategy again. So, after doing this about a half dozen times, I thought I'd just go to you guys for help, even though the same advice has been requested countless times. I would greatly appreciate it if you could help me on a dosing strategy for a tank holding 50 gallons of water (not a "50 gallon tank").

My current specs to the best of my knowledge and testing ability (I have trouble with the colors :/ ):
Size: 50 gallons
Plants: Many different kinds as I've simply been experimenting up til now to see which ones did well naturally. Overall I'd say its a moderate planted tank.
Light: 120w of NO Flourescents
pH: ~6.8
kH: ~3 degrees
gH: ~2-3 degrees
CO2: Pressurized. Using Chuck's calc ~14ppm. I'm working on getting that up but I have a crappy diffuser currently.
NO3: Hard to say... varies too much due to my feeding. Working on getting that stable as well but I think a rough but educated guess is about 10ppm before ferts.
PO4: ~1ppm

I'm thinking:
Potassium Nitrage @ 1/4 tsp every other day.
Potassium Sulfate @ 1/4 tsp every other day.
Potassium Phosphate... well, an extremely small amount that I currently can't even measure :>
Plantex CSM+B @ 1/2 tsp off days.

I've gotten the ferts that I need from Greg Watson's and am ready to start dosing. So as soon as I get some feed back, I'm off and running. So, anyone want to take a stab at this schedule for me?

On a bit of a side note, do you think I need to address the kH/gH issues? Mine seem to be at the bottom limit of things and perhaps this could help me get my CO2 levels up?

Thanks for any help,
Blake

 

Re: Redundant Questions & Strategies

No takers?

How about at least a link to another thread with a similar setup? I'm sure its out there somewhere I just haven't crossed it.

Greg Watson answered some of my hardness questions for me but I'd still love some guidance on the dosing side of things.

Thanks again,
Blake

 

Re: Redundant Questions & Strategies

Totally agree on the CO2. I've got a HOB filter currently but a canister on the way so I'm going to plumb something inline which should help tremendously with the CO2.

As for the KNO3... I think I read somewhere the N:K ratio could be almost 1:2, thats why I was dosing the K2SO4 (not getting hardly any K from the KH2PO4). Couldn't tell ya where I read it unfortunately, but do you think I read that wrong perhaps?

Many thanks for the input though, I'll give it a shot.
Blake

 

gH issues

Let me revive this thread to further a previous question. I'm having some difficulty raising my gH. It is currently non-existant. I first tried dosing Calcium Chloride and Magnesium Sulfate. I ended dosing, if I recall correctly, about 6 tablespoons of Calcium Chloride and I think 4 Magnesium Sulfate. Still registered 0 on my test kit. (My kH is also zero but dosing some Baking Soda easily fixed that.) Well, I didn't want to dose anymore for the gH because I thought that would be too much.

On my next water change I put about 2-3 cups of crushed coral in my filter housing. I let it run for a couple days just to make sure things had a chance to disolve as best they could, then tested. Pulled my kH up to 1 but still nothing on my gH.

I'm not terribly worried with it since my plants are doing ok, but I want to turn this into a shrimp tank so I thought a little hardness would do some good. Now, if you guys think I should just let it ride, thats fine, but I'd still like to know why I can't get anything to register on my gH test. (I have used two different test kits to verify)

Also, don't know if it affects anything, but I do add water straight from the tap and I'm on well water.

Thanks again,
Blake

 

Re: Redundant Questions & Strategies

Yes, I was concidering the Equilibrium already and I guess I will go ahead and give it a shot. Hopefully it will do the trick, or like you said, at least confirm my test kits. I'll update in the next few days about the validity of the kits with the Equilibrium. If the kits pan out, I'm still interested why the CaCl2 and MgSO4 aren't raising the gH... we'll see.

Thanks for the thoughts.

Blake