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Iron addition for heavy planted tank

28K views 38 replies 5 participants last post by  redchigh 
#1 ·
Hi all,
I have tested the aquarium for iron 1 day after I dosed Seachem Flourish which should have some iron but resulted around 0.1mg/l which is low right?

Test kit is advising to add more iron. Should I get Seachem Iron? Or something else? Should i dose iron weekly and seperate from the Seachem Flourish?
 
#31 ·
the 9000 K rating is for the t5. i have the t8 which i think have a different kelvin.

About the crypts i have

Cryptocoryne balansae
Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Mi Oya'
Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Tropica'
Cryptocoryne pontederiifolia

Maybe when i make water change the temp will be a bit cooler but ph, gh and all other parameter are the same.

temp right now is 27 degrees. Well high because of the summer still hot here in Malta.

I have marsilea hirsuta in another aquarium but with co2 and t5 lights and they seem to grow a lot.
 
#34 ·
You definately don't want to change the temp with a water change.. Fluctuating temps cause all sorts of problems.

Could still be the heat or ph though. Especially since you said the plants do better in CO2 tanks... Is it the CO2? or is it the ph-lowering affects of the CO2? ;)
 
#36 ·
Drop checker is required to measure proper CO2 level. The pH controller is totally unnecessary, a simple solenoid would of been better. Setting you system at a certain pH means nothing in regards to proper CO2 levels. You could be under or over the ideal and IMO it feels like you are under pretty far. Turning up the CO2 would be a good idea, but it is risky till you have a drop checker. You are basically running blind right now. It is working ATM. It also worked for me for a while too, till I found out the hard way why you should never run your pressurized CO2 blind. That lesson was learned at the cost of over 100 shrimp. A CO2 Drop checker costs $10 off ebay so its just silly not to use one.

Have you thought maybe high tech is not for you? IDK how you plan to get by with biweekly water changes. You might be able to later in the game, but setting up and balancing the tank will go much quicker with weekly water changes of 50%. Your going to need tons of ferts w/ biweekly and its more likely they will become unbalanced. Also your nitrate is low, shoot for 20ppm at least. As far as ferts I stand by the dry EI ferts, which cost about $25 for a 2 year supply for 75 gallons. Those seachem ferts you want to use cost $10 a bottle and probably close to $20 for a months supply, you need to dose higher then recommend for most of those ferts. For dosing fertilizer you are going to need Nitrogen, Potassium, and phosphate(though be very sparing with phos), and also a trace fertilizer. You dose NPK one day and traces the next day then just repeat that. If you are doing that you should get good plant growth. If you plants grow weirdly they you have a nutrient deficiency, which can take some work to fix.

This is how I run my tanks, but mine are setup for maximum growth possible. I desire growth, where you look at the tank each day and you can see change. This also means weekly pruning is normally required, which is okay since I sell enough plants to cover costs of fish food, ferts, and CO2. I don't always have time to sell everything though, tossed over a pound of plants last week -_- I always run out of room for the plants and got to balance plant room with fish swimming space(that doesn't always work out though lol) This is the same tank that is in my sig if I go two weeks without trimming.
 
#38 ·
That is not a problem. pH and temp will fluctuate all the time in the wild. The problem is large sudden pH and temp changes. What is okay are regular cycles of these. I run both my CO2 setups with just solenoids and two of my tropical tanks do not have heaters either atm. pH is 7.6 out of tap and 7 to 7.2 in the tanks during the day. At least it was when I tested a couple months ago. I do 50% water changes every week using straight tap(which is from a well) straight into the tank. Solenoid runs on the same timer as the lights. The big tank does have a heater and in there I have spawned, german blue rams, angels, boesemani rainbows, emperor tetras, and some other easier fish. My other tank currently the CO2 is empty, but the heater is off cuz I'm messing with a way to more efficiently heat the tank. Currently the tank sits at room temp which was 71 earlier this week, then cycles up to 3 degrees warmer during the day. The house heater got turned on though and my room gets an large amount of the heat, so now that tank sits at 77F at night and cycles up to about 80 during the day. Temp does effect fish though. It won't harm them by changing, but it will effect metabolism, breeding rate, and sex ratio of offspring. Of example run an endler tank at 86 and you get loads of male fry very quickly.

Knowing your pH is much less important then knowing your current CO2 level, so again drop checker.

Also going by just pH using a pH regulator will result in you using more CO2 then necessary since you do not need it at night. And instead of pH or CO2 levels fluctuating O2 levels will fluctuate. So in the end something is going to fluctuate one way or the other and IMO it doesn't matter if it is pH, CO2, or oxygen as long as it is regular and within acceptable measures.
 
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