The Planted Tank Forum banner

Too much fert/fish going nuts

2K views 33 replies 15 participants last post by  jspk 
#1 ·
I tried using a friends pre-mix fert. I guess I put too much as fish are darting about and breathing like crazy.
Water change is the best I can do?
 
#9 ·
Good point. My grow tanks are set up outside my house. I siphoned water down to 3 inches or so and at the same time hosed in fresh well water for 15 minutes. I then filled tank back up. Did this twice. So more like 90% change. So drastic turn over.
Guppies didn't really show too much distress but sams and otos where in trouble.
Person I got the fert from mixes dry blends of fert with water. Will ask later what it could be.
 
#12 ·
Wait a minute here. I am not a serial fish killer. I do not get thrills watching fish labor while I pour 2 lbs. of granular palm special into the tank. The product I used was home made yes but carefuly meausered and put into 1 gallon plastic containers in liquid form and then I dumped it into the tank.
 
#15 ·
To prove or disprove the 100% theory one would need to tint the water with color and then see how long it would take with flow through system to clear water.
Fish are 100% better by the way. I just poured in way too much fertilizer formula. I was lucky.
 
#17 ·
Yes, but that would not be true to my case. I siphoned 3/4 or 15 gallons of the water from 20 gallon tank. I then left siphon going but added new water to hold water line at given level. I did this for 15 minutes, removed siphon and topped off tank.
So we need to figure with a continuous flow for 15 minutes dilution factor on 5 gallons. Guessing the volume of water from hose is 2 gallons/minute, that would 30 gallons replacing 5 gallons of dirty water. Then subtract the additional 15 gallons of top off water. Holy smokes....
 
#19 ·
Same idea.....The advantages I have are I do a 25% water change daily, plant tanks are on the exterior of house so water mess no problem. I have great well water and natural light for plants. But I like to tinker with stuff for no reason and it gets me into trouble.
 
#25 ·
It was about dosing an unknown amount of unknown fertilizers into a random tank and expecting good things to happen, after which it then degraded to a quasi scientific discussion on whether or not 100% water changes were possible. Then, the thread went full retard. You never go full retard.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
#26 ·
Exactly, I got to be more consistent, no more full retard. I go anal on some stuff but when a friend hands me his mix I just pour it in the tabelspoon full with no plan of attack... just really stupid of me. I don't want to tell you what I do for a living.lol's
The more I read the more it seems to be pointing toward the Nitrogen.
 
#31 ·
King Kong, what specifically did you actually add to your tank?

I've dosed 10x the suggested amounts for ferts and not had any adverse effects.

Eg,

150-200 ppm NO3
150ppm K+
50ppm for PO4
10 ppm for Fe(as a mix of CMS+B).
GH- 10 degrees additional

I loss some Amano shrimp after a week or so........but it may have been something else.

Dosing a nitrogen ferts with NH4 in there............that's a good way to kill fish. But as long as the daily dosing does not exceed say 0.5-0.8ppm and the tank is packed full of healthy plants, you can be okay.

Ferts are salts. Fish can tolerate a fair amount relative to the dosing we add. They cannot handle high levels of copper(but even at 10X, the CMS+B will not get there or for shrimp)) and NH4, but otherwise the ferts dosing is fairly tolerant to fish.
 
#32 ·
The dude that made the formula is on vacation so next week I will have the ingredients.. It had to be this stuff because nothing new was added. I bet I used at least 100 x too much but we got to wait.
Thinking salt, I do have a salt meter I use for medication in pond, never thought of using that. I do have an empty tank so might try out to see if meter picks up fertilizer added.
 
#33 ·
The rest of the story. The portion of NPK used should be 1 ounce per 10 gallons once a week as per directions, 50% water change between. Well I did not measure one and two I probably put in 10x that amount 2 days in a row. The plants loved it, the fish darn near expired.
Double stupid....
What did I learn?
I made a killer fitting that goes on the suction side of my siphon. I got baby gups so must filter when doing massive water changes.
Learn to read directions too.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top