Hi, I’m new to planted tanks and have been keeping it simple at first with dosing EI dry ferts following this guideline:
40-60 Gallon Aquariums
+/- 1/2 tsp KN03 3x a week
+/- 1/8 tsp KH2P04 3x a week
+/- 1/8 (10ml) Trace Elements 3x a week
50% weekly water change
My tank is 68g but closer to 60, I’m sure, with substrate, hardscape and the water level I keep. All is going well, the cycle is complete, plants filling in nicely and a half dozen danios just introduced. Nitrate holds pretty steady at 20ppm during the week and phosphate at 5ppm.
My question is that during my water change I am meticulously cleaning the surface of the substrate with a siphon tool, and also have diatoms on my buce leaves to rub off and some kind of green algae on other plants and the wood that I hand pick or rub off with the syphon right there to suck it up. All this takes more than 50% of the water, even with my syphon hose pinched way down.
I can only get half the tank cleaned the way I like it.
So, I would like to do a 50% WC twice a week, at least until the algae is under control. Can someone recommend how to change my dosing schedule to accommodate this? Should I just keep to the same 3x a week and not worry? Or will the levels get too diluted with the extra new water ... help please?
40-60 Gallon Aquariums
+/- 1/2 tsp KN03 3x a week
+/- 1/8 tsp KH2P04 3x a week
+/- 1/8 (10ml) Trace Elements 3x a week
50% weekly water change
My tank is 68g but closer to 60, I’m sure, with substrate, hardscape and the water level I keep. All is going well, the cycle is complete, plants filling in nicely and a half dozen danios just introduced. Nitrate holds pretty steady at 20ppm during the week and phosphate at 5ppm.
My question is that during my water change I am meticulously cleaning the surface of the substrate with a siphon tool, and also have diatoms on my buce leaves to rub off and some kind of green algae on other plants and the wood that I hand pick or rub off with the syphon right there to suck it up. All this takes more than 50% of the water, even with my syphon hose pinched way down.
I can only get half the tank cleaned the way I like it.
So, I would like to do a 50% WC twice a week, at least until the algae is under control. Can someone recommend how to change my dosing schedule to accommodate this? Should I just keep to the same 3x a week and not worry? Or will the levels get too diluted with the extra new water ... help please?