Dosing Schedule

[QQQUUUUAADDD]

Hey guys! I'm new here but not new to aquariums.

I have a 5 gallon planted betta tank. It has a black sand substrate with amazon swords, anubias nana (attatched to driftwood), and ludwigia repens.

I put in Flourish Root Tabs every 3 months around the swords.

Can anyone come up with a liquid fert dosing schedule for me that would benefit my plants?

Thanks!
All help appreciated.

[QQQUUUUAADDD]

Bump.

[Hoppy]

What lighting do you use on the tank, and do you use CO2? Fertilizing has to keep up with the plant growth rate, as driven by the amount of light you have. If you have very low light, no fertilizing will be needed. If you have high light you will need lots of fertilizing plus CO2.

[QQQUUUUAADDD]

I have a Zoomed Ultrasun 10W 6500k CFL. For now I don't run CO2.

[Hoppy]

That light probably should be about 12 inches from the substrate to avoid having high light. Assuming you have it there, it may be enough to light up the whole tank, so the middle part of the tank has low medium light, and the ends, low light. If you were to start a DIY CO2 system, with a one liter bottle, for example, the plants would grow faster, and then you would probably want to dose the tank per the fertilizer forum sticky on fertilizing schemes, but at about half the recommended dosage. Without CO2 you probably don't need any more fertilizing.

[angelsword]

As far as fertilizer goes you could just use the EI method. You might have to cut the doses by 1/4 to match your tank size.

Having experience with the plants you mentioned I can tell you that the Amazon Sword and the Red Ludwigia will grow better and faster with DIY CO2. The sword leaves will grow longer and with more leaf and less stem and the Ludwigia's leaves will grow the size of fifty cent pieces. They'll seem like different plants.

But then they'll be too big for your tank. The sword for sure, but it'll get to big anyway soon. And with the Ludwigia you'll be constantly trimming the pretty tops off.