[Cap10Squirty]

Guys and Gals,

Last week everything was going fine in my tank, in fact so fine I came home from being a week away (my brother added ferts for me while I was gone) to find an enormous amount of growth from every plant. So much so I had to take out my glosso entirely and start over because the bottom layer had started to die. Every plant was super green - ludwigia repens had no sign of red in it, instead big bushy green leaves. My jungle val grew over a foot last week. My baby tears, narrow chain swords, rotala indica, an limnophila indica had all grown twice in size.

Along with CO2 I dose my 20 gallon long with EI daily ferts as recommended for a 20-40 gallon tank.

This week however, I've decided to cut the KNO3 back just a tiny bit - from 3/16 tsp daily to about 2.62/16 tsp (I make a stock solution of 2tsp divided by 12 doses instead of 2.25tsp divided by 12 doses)

Other than that I have not changed my other fertilizers. Other macros and micros are all 1/16 tsp on their days until I do a water change of 50%

I do add 1/2 tsp of MgSO4 (Epsom Salt) on Macro days...and recently checked my GH for the first time finding it to be 16 dhk and my KH 6 dhk...is this too hard of water in my aquarium? Out of the tap both are 2 dkh

The only thing that I can think of other than changing the KNO3 dosing amounts is that I made my stock solutions with tap water this week instead of distilled water...Could this have caused a problem? My Alternanthera reineckii has new leaves coming in that are very long and thin compared to the original leaves.

New leaves are also coming in with clear spots.

I'll see about getting some photos when I get back today.

Thanks all,
Garrett

 

[Cap10Squirty]

Alright I was hoping someone would have chimed in. Here's a picture that I took of the Ludwigia repens, at least that is what I was told it to be.

By the way I took a nitrate reading on the aquarium this afternoon and it was suggesting 0 ppm. I dosed nitrates yesterday as today is a "micro fert" day.

Also I checked the GH and it came out to 14 today whereas yesterday it was 16 dkh. Does it lower over time as plants use up the dosed magnesium and calcium in the water?

- Garrett

 

[Cap10Squirty]

Thanks for the link. I'll make some adjustments on the KNO3 dosing.

Is there a good GH booster formula on the forum? I think my Ca to Mg ratio might not be ideal.

Edit: I checked the link out and it matches what is going on with most of my plants. I'll up the KNO3 dosing this week and see what happens.

I just need to figure out how to dose calcium and magnesium properly using measuring spoons as I don't have a decent scale to take weight measurements. The smallest measuring spoon that I have is 1/64th of a tsp.

 

[Cap10Squirty]

Zappins,

I know these are not the greatest photos but hopefully you get the idea of how things *were* growing and how things are stunted now, and I think only because I short changed them on the KNO3. Today is a water change day and I'll be starting over on the KNO3. Do I need to use distilled water for making my stock solution?

Tank just before I left for spring break:

Tank just over one one week later when I returned:

So I thought holy moley, I need to cut back on KNO3 dosing to slow the crazy vegetative growth! So I did and after trimming here is the one week result:

 

[Cap10Squirty]

That is translucency you see there. The only algae that I can see in my tank right now is what's forming where the glosso used to be. Hopefully the carpet will grow back soon.