dear all,
I need you to tackle an observation that I made after I came back from a 2 week vacation. Before I left I installed an automatic dosing machine. To my 90 liter tank each day was given: 2 ml TMG, 1 ml flourish iron, 0.2 mg/l PO4 and 1 mg/l NO3, just like I used to do manually.
before my vacation, the tank was not really healthy: fuzz growing on plants, plants a bit pale, lots of debris on the gravel, bba etc.
When I came back, the tank was covered with a thick layer of duckweed:
but still, the tank was more than 100% full of plants. one could easily see that not everthing was allright: the lower part of the tank clearly received to little light: elatine melted away, bga covering the gravel and plants losing leaves.
I noticed that the newgrowth of the plants was actually very healthy: plants were vibrant green, no fuzz algae was on te leaves. it was much better than before I left!!!
So wat's going on? clearly the metabolism of the plants was slowed down due to the duckweed. Due to the massive amount of plants there was very little circulation left, so in theory less CO2 is reaching the plants. However, less CO2 is probably needed because of the lack of light. I have no idea whether the (micro)nutrient levels were higher (due to less light) or lower (due to the duckweed that is probably eating away nutrients like hell). In any case PO4 level was 0.8 (versus 1 normally) and NO3 between 5-10 (lower than normal). So maybe the netto effect wasn't that big.
I any case I wonder what I now should do in order to keep the tank healthy.
I think I don't have to much light above the 90 liter tank: 2 TLs each 30 watt, one without reflector and one with for 10 hours. blyxa japonica is green and glosso used to grow upwards.
So, what is next? CO2! I think it is okay since I have 2 rhinox diffusors with powerheads and a lime coloured 4 KH diy dropchecker (and shrimps still seem to die).
NO3 and PO4? I add 0.2 mg/l PO4 to keep it at a level of 1 mg/l. I add 5 times more NO3 per day. can't be that for off, I would say.
micro's??? I add 14 ml per week according to EI. as well as 7 ml flourish iron. To little?? seems not really likely.
before I forget: 50% is changed each week.
and some (bad) pics:
before pruning:
after pruning:
thanks!
yme
I need you to tackle an observation that I made after I came back from a 2 week vacation. Before I left I installed an automatic dosing machine. To my 90 liter tank each day was given: 2 ml TMG, 1 ml flourish iron, 0.2 mg/l PO4 and 1 mg/l NO3, just like I used to do manually.
before my vacation, the tank was not really healthy: fuzz growing on plants, plants a bit pale, lots of debris on the gravel, bba etc.
When I came back, the tank was covered with a thick layer of duckweed:
but still, the tank was more than 100% full of plants. one could easily see that not everthing was allright: the lower part of the tank clearly received to little light: elatine melted away, bga covering the gravel and plants losing leaves.
I noticed that the newgrowth of the plants was actually very healthy: plants were vibrant green, no fuzz algae was on te leaves. it was much better than before I left!!!
So wat's going on? clearly the metabolism of the plants was slowed down due to the duckweed. Due to the massive amount of plants there was very little circulation left, so in theory less CO2 is reaching the plants. However, less CO2 is probably needed because of the lack of light. I have no idea whether the (micro)nutrient levels were higher (due to less light) or lower (due to the duckweed that is probably eating away nutrients like hell). In any case PO4 level was 0.8 (versus 1 normally) and NO3 between 5-10 (lower than normal). So maybe the netto effect wasn't that big.
I any case I wonder what I now should do in order to keep the tank healthy.
I think I don't have to much light above the 90 liter tank: 2 TLs each 30 watt, one without reflector and one with for 10 hours. blyxa japonica is green and glosso used to grow upwards.
So, what is next? CO2! I think it is okay since I have 2 rhinox diffusors with powerheads and a lime coloured 4 KH diy dropchecker (and shrimps still seem to die).
NO3 and PO4? I add 0.2 mg/l PO4 to keep it at a level of 1 mg/l. I add 5 times more NO3 per day. can't be that for off, I would say.
micro's??? I add 14 ml per week according to EI. as well as 7 ml flourish iron. To little?? seems not really likely.
before I forget: 50% is changed each week.
and some (bad) pics:
before pruning:
after pruning:
thanks!
yme
. The only this I don't have is an external reactor. But reading all your posts, I wouldn't call this necessary.