[Ddrizzle]

My stem plants grew by like 50% and the alage on the glass and plant leaves halted and are now receding (a little blackbeard was on the edges of slower growing plants lioe anubias and buce). Also, a ton of snails showed up and there was much less detritus covering the moss abd substrate moss.

Any idea what would have happened? I didn't change my 5 hour lighting and the co2 is still a light green or 1.2 ph drop.

 

[EmotionalFescue]

how old is this tank? are you using aquasoil substrate?

 

[Ddrizzle]

The tank is about a year old and it uses amazonia aquasoil.

I have been using NilocG liquid fert mixes for macro and micros, following its instructions for my 20 gal. If I missed a water change the algae would grow really quickly even by the next day. However, I started the routine because I thought my ferts were too low, due to stunted growth and algae when was using dry ferts before all of this.

I can't help but feel like my tank got a nice rest and reset. I'm just not sure what exactly happened or why it needed it. How could 4 weeks of poop be better than the fert routine?

I'm actually really surprised at how clean my tank looks due to not disturbing the substrate (I think).

 

[stlhokie]

I had a similar experience when I cut back on dosing NilocG. (I was dosing Thrive+) I'm wondering if the recommended dosing/overdosing was causing a micronutrient toxicity. While I was dosing as recommended and running 50% water changes weekly I constantly had stunted growth in my stem plants. I cut the dosing back by about 50% and suddenly my stems have started growing like crazy.

 

[Ddrizzle]

Good to know. I will definitely be cutting it down if and when the tank starts suffering due to lack of ferts.

 

[DerangedCorgi]

I had a similar experience when I cut back on dosing NilocG. (I was dosing Thrive+) I'm wondering if the recommended dosing/overdosing was causing a micronutrient toxicity. While I was dosing as recommended and running 50% water changes weekly I constantly had stunted growth in my stem plants. I cut the dosing back by about 50% and suddenly my stems have started growing like crazy.

At least from what I can see, NilocG's dry ferts dosing chart is based on the higher tank volume. So a 10-20Gal dose of nitrates would be 1/8 tsp but if you're on the lower end of the volume it's double of what you need to dose. I'm just sticking to the calculator on rotalabutterfly.

Rotala Butterfly | Planted Aquarium Nutrient Dosing Calculator

Planted Aquarium Nutrient Dosing Calculator

rotalabutterfly.com

This is what the calc comes up with for Thrive+