[HybridS130]

It's been awhile since my last post so I'll refresh everyone's memory about my little tank. It's a 2.5G with an AC20 filter, instead of carbon I used polyester pillow stuffing. Im using eco-complete for my substrate, 27watts which works out to be 10.8WPG and that sits about 6-8'' over the tank. I dose with both flourish and flourish excel. I use a mixture of 50/50 distilled and tap water to get a good PH.

I have 5 ghost shrimp, 2 otos, and some neons (those will be leaving soon though). For plants I have a decent amount of glosso, hasn't fully established yet though, a handful of egeria najas and about 10 little java fern rubberbanded to a piece of slate. I'd like to get a taller carpetting plant for the back, Im just not sure what though.

Anways, should I go all out and get the greg watson dry ferts or is what I have good enough? I only ask because I haven't seen much growth in the plants, it's slow but steady. Surprisingly the glosso is doing fairly well but I'd expect the egeria najas to explode under these conditions but it hasn't. I've thought about a diy C02 setup but, on such a small tank I worry that it would be too inconsistent. I guess Im not 100% on what Im asking but, with 27 watts, excel, and regular flourish should I be expecting poor growth?

 

[Solstice]

I think you could speed it up a little bit with some macros. I'll cost you about $10 and last you for 5 years. LOL.

I dose GW ferts in my 2.5 and my pellia and HC are growing really nicely.

 

[HybridS130]

He has quite a bit on his site, how do I know what I need?

 

[Solstice]

Just the ones listed under "Odd days" here roud:

EI in 21 Days

The micros it says to dose on the even days are taken care of by your Flourish and unless you use RO water, you won't need Equillibrium.

Just FYI, I dose my 2.5 once and sometimes twice a week. Don't do it as often as this says to....

 

[HybridS130]

HAHA! I finally know what EI means, I always felt silly about asking since it seemed to be such a common term. So it seems like I only need two things, great I'll order those this weekend or sooner if I become impatient.

Thanks again for the link, I just learned a good bit of basics to start off with.

Oh, how much does the eco-complete help out? Would I be better off going to something inert and just use root tabs? I also have several flourish root tabs if those would be good to use.

 

[Solstice]

I use Eco in one tank and AS in my other. I also have a section of my Oscar/Convict tank that's been divided off that I have some plants and a few critters in using inert sand, but I haven't put any root tabs in it. The sand definitely doesn't grow stuff nearly as well as my tank with Eco does, but then again, there are no substrate ferts. Since your tank is so small, I'd get some AquaSoil and call it a day. One 3 liter bag will be plenty and will cost you about $20 shipped.

 

[HybridS130]

Cool I might do that.

Question: I ordered the dry ferts from greg watson last night but, when I clicked the finally button to checkout it said the transaction couldn't be completed. I later checked my bank account and there was money taken out for the greg watson purchase. Does this mean my bank just has to update and take off that transaction or is it likely that the order did go through after all?

Oh and joy joy, I had plenty of money in the bank and for some reason my bank decided to tell me that a $15 purchase caused me to overdraw, eventhough I had pppplenty enough to cover multiple purchases. I've talked to a few people and I found out that the bank Im currently with is notorious for screwing people out of money.

 

[Solstice]

Just send Greg an email and ask if he received the funds. He's very helpful...