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2,419 Posts
Hello all -
My new 55g tank is moving along nicely, and I've planted some swords, microsword grass and java moss into the 100% flourite substrate. A few pieces of driftwood, a school of 10 x neons, 5 x cory cats, 3 x nerite shrimp ghost shrimp and 3 african dwarf frogs.
The tank is new so I've been doing a lot of water changes and testing, and the cycling appears to be over and the tank is stabilizing. There is a small amount of brownish stuff growing on some of the leaves, which I assume is algae but I'm not sure.
I currently have 1 30 inch Coralife 36w T5NO light on the tank, and tomorrow I'm adding 3 x 4 watt Powerbrite LED strips to help distribute the light to the back of the tank and bring a bit more light to the plants.
So far I am feeling pretty good about the tank, and I'm ready to plan a fertilization regime. I bought some Flourish and some Excel (no CO2 in this tank), but I'm not 100% on how to determine how much to use.
It seems like if you fertilize then change teh water, you really alter the amount of ferts in the tank. The regimes that read about on this [very helpful] forum are mostly for high-tech tanks so I'm not sure how to proceed.
My hope is to come up with a fairly simple approach where I can eventually have a simple schedule for water changes and fertilization. But, where to begin? Is there something I can test for or do I just monitor the health of the plants and adjust the fertilization accordingly?
Any tips much appreciated
My new 55g tank is moving along nicely, and I've planted some swords, microsword grass and java moss into the 100% flourite substrate. A few pieces of driftwood, a school of 10 x neons, 5 x cory cats, 3 x nerite shrimp ghost shrimp and 3 african dwarf frogs.
The tank is new so I've been doing a lot of water changes and testing, and the cycling appears to be over and the tank is stabilizing. There is a small amount of brownish stuff growing on some of the leaves, which I assume is algae but I'm not sure.
I currently have 1 30 inch Coralife 36w T5NO light on the tank, and tomorrow I'm adding 3 x 4 watt Powerbrite LED strips to help distribute the light to the back of the tank and bring a bit more light to the plants.
So far I am feeling pretty good about the tank, and I'm ready to plan a fertilization regime. I bought some Flourish and some Excel (no CO2 in this tank), but I'm not 100% on how to determine how much to use.
It seems like if you fertilize then change teh water, you really alter the amount of ferts in the tank. The regimes that read about on this [very helpful] forum are mostly for high-tech tanks so I'm not sure how to proceed.
My hope is to come up with a fairly simple approach where I can eventually have a simple schedule for water changes and fertilization. But, where to begin? Is there something I can test for or do I just monitor the health of the plants and adjust the fertilization accordingly?
Any tips much appreciated