[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Fine-tuning my tank
Hi everyone,
I'm now determined to make my plants grow better and
pearl in the big tank. I can usually spot some bubbles
under the big sword leaves and occasionally on other
plants too, but... The growth isn't the best I've
seen, and pearling is only occasional.
I guess there are 3 things to look at:
* CO2
* Other fertilization regime
* Light
About the CO2... I only have liquid kits for pH and
KH, so I don't get very accurate readings. KH seems to
be around 4, pH around 7, so according to the
KH/pH/CO2 chart I should have 12ppm of CO2. I guess it
should be fine-tuned just a bit.
I'm going to have a new CO2 reactor soon, and I'm
considering switching from DIY yeast generator to a
compressed gas system. I'll make up my mind about that
after I've tested the reactor.
About the other fertilization... I don't really know
how good the regime is. I'm adding PMDD every second
day (no nitrate) according to a plan a friend made me.
I've tested for Fe, P and NO3. The test kits aren't
very good, but anyway, these are the values I got: Fe
0.05 ppm, P 0.25 ppm, NO3 somewhere between 1 and 5
ppm. I guess the P is fine, Fe should be somewhere
near 0.1 ppm and NO3 should be somewhere closer to 5
than 1, right? Should I try adding nitrates? Anything
else I should test?
I currently have 4x58W of fluorescent light (the tank
is 630l (150g)). That seems to be really low wattage
compared to what most of you have, but I'm doing fine
with my Rotala macrandra and Eusteralis stellata...
The tank is really shallow, only 45 cm (18 inches), so
that probably helps a lot. But still, do I need to
upgrade the lighting to get to the pearling stage?
Details about the setup can be found on my web page at
http://www.helsinki.fi/~kmlaine/630.html. I've added a
section for ideas and projects like this, check it out
too!
Thanks for your help,
Kati
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Everything you'll ever need on one web page from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts
http://uk.my.yahoo.com