5G Low Tech Non-CO2
Testing out a low tech setup for the first time.
Setup:
Substrate: Flourite Black Sand
Lighting: two CF 9watt Coralife bulbs 8hrs/day
Ferts: Excel 1/day
Plants: Java Fern, Cardinal Flower (just found out this is not a true aquatic :\ ), Crytocoryne Ciliata (I think var. latifolia), Amazon Sword, Hygrophila Corymbosa
Day 6:
Water Perams. before WC…
PH 8.0 (my water’s hard outta the tap)
Ammonia 0.25
Nitrate 5.0 (don’t know where nitrite test is)
After WC:
Ferts: Excel 1/day, pinch of Nitrate, Phosphate, Potassium Sulfate, approx 2ml TMG
Comments:
Welp, it’s been 6 days and I ended up doing a WC one day early cause the plants were not fairing too good. I don’t know if I was supposed to start out with putting ferts in the first day when I set up the tank, but I didn’t. I was allowing the plants to get settled first and get used to the water parameters. I kept the two 9watt CF Coralife lights on it to test out how much algae would sprout with it vs plant growth. So far, I have developed a minor case of fuzzy algae (I think it’s hair algae but it’s not green). By minor, I mean that it’s settled on some leaves and stems of the slower growth hygro. The filter’s working OK. I didn’t end up putting anything over it. The grains are too heavy, and end up falling to the ground after only a little while of being disturbed. The plant growth is minimal. I didn’t notice much growth. Because of the deficiencies in the plants, I ended up putting some iron and nitrate in the water (I have also been dosing Excel daily). Those were my guesses to what the deficiencies were in. It didn’t seem to help much and I put too much iron in cause the water turned yellowish lol. Woops! :P This was before the WC. After the WC, I put a pinch of Potassium Nitrate, Mono Potassium Phosphate, Potassium Sulfate, a few dribbles of TMG, and a ml of Excel.
