These are my tap water parameters and fertilizers...Please help get started.

[Jersey Scape]

First of all, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Kamil (Camille) and I am 23 years old. I am trying to get into aquascaping as a hobby. I attend Rutgers University where I am dual-majoring in accounting and finance so I need a little side project to work on.

I just started a planted tank (no fish so far but will probably keep shrimp).
I would like someone to help me figure out a fertilizing routine--would like to use the EI method. I hope we can figure something out because I just spent way way too much money on all these fancy test kits. My room is starting to look like a mini-laboratory.

I would test my aquarium parameters but it would be useless since I have been dumping a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I had no routine going and I was putting stuff in without even testing the parameters. I will be doing a big big water swap once someone helps me with the amounts of each fertilizer to put in.

PS. I am here from Aquaticplantcentral.com

Thank You for your help.

Tap Water Parameters:
PH 7.8
GH 3.5 degrees or 62.65 ppm
KH 2.0 degrees or 35.8 ppm
Phosphate (PO) 2.5 ppm
Nitrate 0
Nitrite 0

Fertilizers I bought from Greg's site:
KNO3 Potassium Nitrate (dry powder)
KH2PO4 Mono Potassium Phosphate (dry powder)
Seachem Equilibrium
Seachem Flourish

Equipment:
15 gallon tank
55 watt compact flourescent (3.66 WPG)
Co2 Pressue 5lbs bottle going at 2 bubbles per second
Eco-Complete Substrate (3 bags)
A piece of driftwood
The light stays on for 11 hours.

 

[Spar]

Re: These are my tap water parameters and fertilizers...Please help get started.

Try my beginners edition scheduler. Should get your dosages down pretty good. I have not added Equilibrium yet, but just dose how the bottle says in the mean time.

http://www.fwstingrays.com/DosingCalculator.htm

On a side note, if your KH is 2, then your tap water is not 7.8 pH. It will be 7.2'ish assuming you don't add co2 (which would be lower in that case). This means one of two things: 1) your pH testkit is not accurate, or 2) you are testing your tap water directly out of the tap (you should let it sit out for 24 hours before getting a reading first).

You need to increase your KH to at least 3d (54ppm) for the safety of your fish. If Equilibrium does not do this, then you need to start using Baking Soda.

 

[Jersey Scape]

Re: These are my tap water parameters and fertilizers...Please help get started.

I did test the tap water right away without waiting. We also have a filter in the basement that filters the tap. It does not use chemicals but it is a very complicated mechanism with all these different filters.

 

[Jersey Scape]

Re: These are my tap water parameters and fertilizers...Please help get started.

You are right on the PH being wrong. I just tested some tap water that I had sitting for a few days and the PH came out 7.0 exactly.

 

[Tom Barr]

Re: These are my tap water parameters and fertilizers...Please help get started.

First of all, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Kamil (Camille) and I am 23 years old. I am trying to get into aquascaping as a hobby. I attend Rutgers University where I am dual-majoring in accounting and finance so I need a little side project to work on.

I just started a planted tank (no fish so far but will probably keep shrimp).
I would like someone to help me figure out a fertilizing routine--would like to use the EI method. I hope we can figure something out because I just spent way way too much money on all these fancy test kits. My room is starting to look like a mini-laboratory.

I would test my aquarium parameters but it would be useless since I have been dumping a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I had no routine going and I was putting stuff in without even testing the parameters. I will be doing a big big water swap once someone helps me with the amounts of each fertilizer to put in.

PS. I am here from Aquaticplantcentral.com

Thank You for your help.

Tap Water Parameters:
PH 7.8
GH 3.5 degrees or 62.65 ppm
KH 2.0 degrees or 35.8 ppm
Phosphate (PO) 2.5 ppm
Nitrate 0
Nitrite 0

Fertilizers I bought from Greg's site:
KNO3 Potassium Nitrate (dry powder)
KH2PO4 Mono Potassium Phosphate (dry powder)
Seachem Equilibrium
Seachem Flourish

Equipment:
15 gallon tank
55 watt compact flourescent (3.66 WPG)
Co2 Pressue 5lbs bottle going at 2 bubbles per second
Eco-Complete Substrate (3 bags)
A piece of driftwood
The light stays on for 11 hours.

Muumk,
KH is 2, leave it, GH is 3.5, add about 1/4 teaspoon after a water change only of the SeaChem Eq.

Add enough CO2 to get a pH of 6.2-6.3 range, try and keep it there.

Change about 50-60% weekly.

Add 3x a week:
4mls of flourish
1/8 teaspoon of KNO3
A smidge(1/2 a rice grain) of KH2PO4.

You can add a tad more of the PO4/NO3 above the day before a water change if you want, say 1/4 teaspoon KNO3 and 1/16th of the KH2PO4.

This is called mega dosing, you can dose very high and then remove it a few hours/day later.

Some have tried this for contest when they are really doing a lot of gardening, most folks do not work that hard on their tank all the time.

CO2 is the main issue for most, the dosing is simple.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[Jersey Scape]

Re: These are my tap water parameters and fertilizers...Please help get started.

Add 3x a week:
4mls of flourish
1/8 teaspoon of KNO3
A smidge(1/2 a rice grain) of KH2PO4.

Tom Barr

Tom,

So add the three fertilizers all in one day x 3 right?

thanks

 

[Spar]

Re: These are my tap water parameters and fertilizers...Please help get started.

dose the Traces and Phosphates on alternating days. So dose 6 days of the week.

 

[Jersey Scape]

Re: These are my tap water parameters and fertilizers...Please help get started.

thanks