Extra fertilizer after water change

[Art]

I know we may have talked about this in other places but wanted to clarify what everyone is doing. I don't think there is a universal answer to this but I think it would be helpful to capture what everyone is doing. This way, you can decide what to do for your aquarium.

After you do your weekly water change, do you add extra fertilizer with the thinking of replacing what you took out?

I suppose this assumes that you want to have a consistent amount of nutrients in the water column on a daily basis. Or, it could mean that you think you need to add a larger amount of something to help the plants recover from a trim.

What do you do?

At the moment, I manually add the equivalent of one-half of one day's dose after my 50% water change. My tank is too new to really see how on target this is.

 

[Unexpected]

Thankfully, @GreggZ front loading advice solved this for me. And per @Burr740 recommendation, I do dose a micro round right after the water change.

 

[GreggZ]

Thankfully, @GreggZ front loading advice solved this for me. And per @Burr740 recommendation, I do dose a micro round right after the water change.

This can get into a very deep in the weeds discussion about dosing, water changes, and accumulation. When I started front end loading many thought I was nuts. I mean every EI description said dose every other day and then a day of "rest" on water change day.

But when you understand more about accumulation you realize that front end loading is at least as good, and in most cases better than dosing daily/every other day.

If anyone wants to go down the rabbit hole here are links to two posts in my build thread when I take a deep dive.

Journal - Greggz 120G Rainbow Fish Tank - Part Deux!

I hope everyone who has joined is enjoying the forum. Over time my plan is to post summaries of many of the discussions from my old long running thread that I kept on another site. Keep in mind these posts are my thoughts on a particular subject based my experience. Others may have other ideas...

scapecrunch.com

Journal - Greggz 120G Rainbow Fish Tank - Part Deux!

I hope everyone who has joined is enjoying the forum. Over time my plan is to post summaries of many of the discussions from my old long running thread that I kept on another site. Keep in mind these posts are my thoughts on a particular subject based my experience. Others may have other ideas...

scapecrunch.com

 

[Dennis Wong]

I do not front load nowadays, though I can see why it can make a difference for folks that are very dependent on heavy water column dosing. My technique nowadays focus on having some substrate enrichment coupled with low N in water column to slow down growth rates. With the slower growth rates, there is no need to balance water column nutrients on a razor's edge. Tank is also more stable, the slower growth allows better artistry and arrangement as aligning plant bushes and trimming takes place more gradually. Less work, more time to enjoy the tank, still grows any plant well or better than folks that are overly reliant on heavy water column dosing.

 

[Art]

substrate enrichment coupled with low N in water column

Great pictures, as always, @Dennis Wong. Can you explain a bit more? I'm transitioning plants to growing submersed at the moment so I'm running higher than I want on N, but I do want to bring it down later.

1. Substrate enrichment - what are you using and what's the general guidelines for it (e.g., how many per specific area, how often are you adding)?

2. Low N - what do you consider to be low N but enough to meet plant needs? Does this require that you lower your light levels also?

 

[Dennis Wong]

Great pictures, as always, @Dennis Wong. Can you explain a bit more? I'm transitioning plants to growing submersed at the moment so I'm running higher than I want on N, but I do want to bring it down later.

1. Substrate enrichment - what are you using and what's the general guidelines for it (e.g., how many per specific area, how often are you adding)?

2. Low N - what do you consider to be low N but enough to meet plant needs? Does this require that you lower your light levels also?

1. I'm using my own root tabs and substrate additives of course, but any DIY method that adds ammonicial nitrogen over time (root tabs, or adding fresh aquasoil now and then) works. You can gauge the depletion of the substrate by observing plant growth forms/speed, and enrich according, its not a cliff fall, it happens gradually. Tops of plants become smaller, growth rates slow when you are dependent on substrate N and it depletes. For mini macrandra type 4 for example, it changes from the fuller leaf form on the left below to a thinner form on the right.



2. No I do not lower my light level. Essentially, almost every tank I run is low N in water column and high light (150 -300 umols of PAR at substrate). In NO3 equivalents, I dose between 0.5 to 1.5ppm through the water column daily, depending on the tank design. Most tanks will end up with 0 or near zero ppm No3 in water column if they are well planted. Most rooted plants will get their N through the substrate.

 

[Art]

Thanks, @Dennis Wong, that's very clear. As I've always been a "plant guy", my method requires uprooting plants relatively often for trimming and replanting. When I've done the root tabs (ADA ones), I always end up pulling them up when I uproot plants. They end up on top of the substrate and end up causing problems. Do you ever experience that?

It's for this reason that I've taken to replacing a percentage of the Aqua Soil every few years. I believe Marian replaces all of his soil on a regular basis too.

 

[Dennis Wong]

Thanks, @Dennis Wong, that's very clear. As I've always been a "plant guy", my method requires uprooting plants relatively often for trimming and replanting. When I've done the root tabs (ADA ones), I always end up pulling them up when I uproot plants. They end up on top of the substrate and end up causing problems. Do you ever experience that?

It's for this reason that I've taken to replacing a percentage of the Aqua Soil every few years. I believe Marian replaces all of his soil on a regular basis too.

I always have a siphon running in the area where I am up-rooting plants, so stuff that gets uprooted gets siphoned away. Generally I will also clean up the area that has been up rooted, insert new root tabs etc. I don't think the aquasoil itself has to be replaced that frequently if there are good methods to enrich it.

This tank below is around 1.5 year mark. Never added new soil, just root tabs every few months


Changed various plant species over last 2 years without replacing the soil. But growth still has a lot of vigor due to continual enrichment of the substrate.

 

[Art]

I always have a siphon running in the area where I am up-rooting plants, so stuff that gets uprooted gets siphoned away. Generally I will also clean up the area that has been up rooted, insert new root tabs etc.

Yup, that will work. I also always run a hang-on micron filter for 24 hours after uprooting.

 

[Art]

@Dennis Wong what is the yellowish plant in the second photo, center right of the tank?

 

[Dennis Wong]

@Dennis Wong what is the yellowish plant in the second photo, center right of the tank?

That's Myriophyllum "golden"

 

[Pepere]

I have a fair amount of Easy Green and Easy Iron on stock that I am working through before going to dry ferts.

I do a 50% water change Saturday mornings and then test my Nitrates a few hours later. I then dose Easy green to raise nitrates to 20 ppm, and dose 1 pump of Easy iron to 10 gallons of water. I then dose 1 ppm nitrate daily which by and large keeps my tank in the 10-20ppm range, and another pump of Easy Iron per 10 gallons Wednesday morning.

I also dose my tank with Equilibrium and Alkalinity buffer Saturday morning as I refill my tank. My tap water has 1 degree of Gh and 1 degree of KH. My target is 5 degrees each. Equilibrium also gives me all the potassium I would ever need. Phosphorous pretty much stays around 3ppm if memory serves me right from fish waste.

And just A shout out to @Dennis Wong who’s 2 hr Aquarist articles helped me get algae under control….