# 55gal need dosing routine



## JustJoshinYa (Mar 25, 2006)

hello i need to get some help on mixing and dosing and an appropriate schedule to do so, i have a 55gal with a 5gal inwall wet/dry sump, XP2 w/co2, and XP3 w/heater, i had a beautiful tank that was growing well with community fish and a lot of string green algae that was easy to clean off, that was before i put my 3" sanchezi in there, he killed everything and alot of my plants didnt make it but recently a few days ago i purchased a new stock of plants and i need to get a good starting base formula to dose for my aquarium, i have the greg watson ferts full line with iron chelate but i kinda like the idea of a pmdd but whatever will be best for my plants

55gal at 2.5WPG,
8.0 base ph 6.8ph adjusted with co2 injection
a 12 hour photoperiod with about 1000gph turnover rate during the day
600gph turnover rate during the night
Temperature maintained at 84F

Any suggestions?? i cant seem to keep black hair algae off my micro sword and a few anubias


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

JustJoshinYa said:


> hello i need to get some help on mixing and dosing and an appropriate schedule to do so, i have a 55gal with a 5gal inwall wet/dry sump, XP2 w/co2, and XP3 w/heater, i had a beautiful tank that was growing well with community fish and a lot of string green algae that was easy to clean off, that was before i put my 3" sanchezi in there, he killed everything and alot of my plants didnt make it but recently a few days ago i purchased a new stock of plants and i need to get a good starting base formula to dose for my aquarium, i have the greg watson ferts full line with iron chelate but i kinda like the idea of a pmdd but whatever will be best for my plants
> 
> 55gal at 2.5WPG,
> 8.0 base ph 6.8ph adjusted with co2 injection
> ...


First, I would say to make sure you have the right CO2 ppm (30ppm or slightly over up to 40ppm) by measuring KH vs pH, and checking THIS chart.
The next thing I would look into is making sure large weekly waterchanges were being done.
You can download 'Chucks Planted Aquarium Calculator' on this page if you scroll down.
I personally mix 1 tablespoon dry fert with 250 ml water.
Then you should keep checking water params until you get a feel for how much ferts your tank is using.
You want to keep nitrate @ 10-25ppm, phosphate @ .5-2ppm, potassium @ 20ppm(I dose more potassium now more than any other macro) 
Since there is no cheap test kit for potassium, I eye it up using Chucks calculator.
Micros and iron I also eye up. If the plants are turning pale, I add more iron. string algea, and i lighten up on micros.
I would drop the temp slowly to 78-79d, but that is me. 
Try that for a while, and I hope that helped


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## JustJoshinYa (Mar 25, 2006)

thanks dippy i will get all the iron and kh and gh measurements when i get home from work


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## JustJoshinYa (Mar 25, 2006)

anyone know a cleaning solution for the SMS122 ph probe?? im having a hell of a time calibrating the damn thing i can calibrate for 7.0phbuffer and then when i calibrate for the 4.0phbuffer it wont go to 4.0 it only goes to about 4.5 4.4ph which sucks because everytime i switch solutions the ph is different than the previous calibration anyone had similar problems?? is it just time to get a new probe??


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

JustJoshinYa said:


> anyone know a cleaning solution for the SMS122 ph probe?? im having a hell of a time calibrating the damn thing i can calibrate for 7.0phbuffer and then when i calibrate for the 4.0phbuffer it wont go to 4.0 it only goes to about 4.5 4.4ph which sucks because everytime i switch solutions the ph is different than the previous calibration anyone had similar problems?? is it just time to get a new probe??


There is a screw that turns on the face of the controller that adjusts the pH value. You have to turn the screw until it goes to 4.0pH to calibrate it. 
Do you have the 7.0 solution as well?


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## JustJoshinYa (Mar 25, 2006)

i have both the 7.0 and 4.0 solution but heres the thing, when i calibrate the ph to 7.0 if i leave the probe in the solution for about fifteen minutes the ph will change to about drop all the way to 4.5ph or so, same with the 4.0 solution if i leave it for a while in the solution after a while it will drop ph to 2.5 or so, and my tank has a base ph of 8.0 and if i leave the probe in there it says that the ph drops to 3.0 or 2.5 WTH?? it wont hold a calibration i think i may need a new probe. i adjusted both the screw on the front with 7.0solution and the screw on the back with 4.0solution but it wont hold a calibration


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

Hmm.. Sounds like your probe isn't working!

If you find a place to buy a probe, can you tell me where?








I don't even use my controller anymore since my regulator went on the fritz and killed my compressus.
Come to think of it, it might have been the probe on the controllers fault.


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## JustJoshinYa (Mar 25, 2006)

yea im gonna be looking for a new probe i guess i dont really need one as long as i dose 20-30ppm co2 but its a nice little feature to conserve co2 and make everything more fluid in the tank, but i will let you know if i find some at a decent price,

yea its so weird it will calibrate and work but if you leave it in the tank the reading just keeps dropping and wont return even when i stick the probe in my tap water which i know is 8.0 it will read and stay at whatever reading it ended at in my tank which it stops around 2.0 to 3.0ph, i think it may have leaked some tank water into the reference fluid inside the probe and now it has no refrencing point to hold a calibration too.

ohh and thanks for the help dippy i am currently dosing a pmdd formula the conlins one with added extra iron chelate i dose about 2capfuls daily, and as long as i remove string algae daily it really cant get too established its only if i neglect to remove algae for a few days it tends to take off and steal all the nutrients before the plants can use them.


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

Do you dose any potassium, phosphates or nitrate?

I think you can try doing 2 caps every other day IMO-how much light u got?


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## JustJoshinYa (Mar 25, 2006)

i have 2.5wpg
12hr photoperiod i was thinking about adding an hour or 2 of dark during the midle of the photoperiod
with co2injection

i have the greg watson dry ferts i mix

1tblspn csm+b
1tblspn MgSO4
2tblspn K2SO4
1tblspn KNO3
1tblspn Fe Chelate

i mix it in about 1 liter of water and dose 2 capfuls everyday but i just started this regime so i will monitor the plant growth and how healthy they look, so far i have string algae and black hair algae the black hair algae is on a few plants but not all, some of the younger leaves on new plants are light green kinda yellowish so i know i need to tweak my formula a little bit but i want to wait and see before i change anything


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

JustJoshinYa said:


> i have 2.5wpg
> 12hr photoperiod i was thinking about adding an hour or 2 of dark during the midle of the photoperiod
> with co2injection
> i have the greg watson dry ferts i mix
> ...


I think it's a bad idea to put a break in the middle of the photoperiod. I would just gradually try shortening the photoperiod itself. The plants will be in the middle of their light cycle, and then be in the dark for 2 hrs then lights back on again, seems unnatural to me.
Umm, I wouldn't mix all the nutrients together like that either, and I'll tell you why.
You are getting algea of some sort, that means 1 of 2 things. You are either dosing too much of 1 thing and not enough of another, or there isn't enough CO2.
Maybe even both. If you mixed your ferts separately, you would have much greater control over what goes into the tank and when.
Then, if you check water params for say phosphate or nitrate and 1 was too high, you would know to limit dosing on the 1 fert, and not the rest.
Make sence?
I always check water params for the first few weeks of my new planted tank so I can get used to the amount of ferts to dump in.
You can do that with no3 and po4 anyway. 
Hey, do it how you want to, but I say mix the ferts separately so you can be in much better control of your tank.
EDIT: you don't have po4?


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## JustJoshinYa (Mar 25, 2006)

ohh you are right!!! i dont have any PO4 damn i completely overlooked that i have it in separate form also, ok dippy i will mix the ferts all separate and dose individually but i tried that before and i got so confused thats why my first planted tank bombed, if i start dosing individually will you help me get my params in control?? i did that once but didnt know what i was doing and i got one or the other out of control and melted alot of my plants!!

also just the tips of some leaves are starting to yellow?? what does this mean what nutrient is this most commonly mean im lacking??


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

JustJoshinYa said:


> ohh you are right!!! i dont have any PO4 damn i completely overlooked that i have it in separate form also, ok dippy i will mix the ferts all separate and dose individually but i tried that before and i got so confused thats why my first planted tank bombed, if i start dosing individually will you help me get my params in control?? i did that once but didnt know what i was doing and i got one or the other out of control and melted alot of my plants!!
> 
> also just the tips of some leaves are starting to yellow?? what does this mean what nutrient is this most commonly mean im lacking??


sure, I'll try to help the best I can. I really am no expert. I'm just a dump n flush guy. I got the basics down and that is all I really want to know lol
Hmm.. plants melting? were they Crypts? If so, they sometimes melt.. But if left alone, they can absolutely start growing again.

I've heard yellowing leaves is a lack of potassium. I don't really know. What I do is try and cover all the bases, and hope for the best. It seems to work for me.
I try to make sure there is a proper balance between light, ferts, and CO2.
That is what we will try to do in your tank.


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## JustJoshinYa (Mar 25, 2006)

i just did a waterchange and some testing so here it goes, im looking for what and when i should be dosing and i am using dry ferts however they need to be used. here is my tank setup

55gal to 60gal
[email protected]
1000GPH turnover
0ppm ammonia
0ppm nitrite
30-40ppm nitrate
7dGh
7dKh
<0.25ppm copper
30-40ppm calcium
0.25-0.5ppm phospate

i am waiting on an iron test kit and mangnesium test kit as well. any suggestions dippy im using the calculator to figure out all my fert setup and i didnt quite understand the co2 chart relating to ph and kh any suggestions or what is my co2 ppm? thanks for any help!


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

JustJoshinYa said:


> i just did a waterchange and some testing so here it goes, im looking for what and when i should be dosing and i am using dry ferts however they need to be used. here is my tank setup
> 55gal to 60gal
> [email protected]
> 1000GPH turnover
> ...


You should download chucks planted aquarium calculator and see how much it helps you. It helped me a lot
Umm, do you have this already??
Your nitrate is a tad high, maybe dose less, if you are dosing any. If not, maybe do more water changes.
If you have a KH of 7d, you should have a pH of 6.8 for 30ppm CO2. More spiecies of aquatic plants like softer water than 7d KH, 3-5 is optimum for more speicies to be very happy in. You should not have much trouble with moderate growing plants tho.
I hope that helped a tad


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## JustJoshinYa (Mar 25, 2006)

it did thanks dippy, so i need more co2 to lower my ph to about 6.8 or 7 in order to have optimum growth potential?? so do you think co2 is my limiting factor?? and i can cut my source water with my tap water because my tap has a very low gh and kh so they would meet around 5d of gh kh, im going to see how many days to bring down my nitrates without dosing so i know the plants current uptake rate, then i can better measure dosing i guess. good news is the algae is kinda going away and not as widespread im going to crank up the co2 a bit and invest in a better diffusor. i will post pics as soon as i have a cam available. thanks for the help the calculator helps alot.


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

JustJoshinYa said:


> it did thanks dippy, so i need more co2 to lower my ph to about 6.8 or 7 in order to have optimum growth potential?? so do you think co2 is my limiting factor?? and i can cut my source water with my tap water because my tap has a very low gh and kh so they would meet around 5d of gh kh, im going to see how many days to bring down my nitrates without dosing so i know the plants current uptake rate, then i can better measure dosing i guess. good news is the algae is kinda going away and not as widespread im going to crank up the co2 a bit and invest in a better diffusor. i will post pics as soon as i have a cam available. thanks for the help the calculator helps alot.


According to the chart, if you have 7d KH, you should be around 6.8pH for 30-40ppm CO2 and yes, that is where you want to be.
I'm not sure if that is your only limiting factor, but what I do is a process of elimination. Try to get everything in their target levels, and go from there.
Low KH and GH is usually great for live aquatic plants, so maybe (for another idea to try) just use your tapwater, and Flourish equalibrium to stabalize it from crashing too bad.
Are you sure your diffusor is not good? as long as it is blowing around your tank for a while, it should be diffusing into the water


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