new tank question

Hi folks, I planted my new tank last Friday. Friday and Saturday I saw
a lot of "pearling" on glosso, but starting from Sunday, no more (not
less, but absolutely nothing). I did not adjust lighting, or CO2
injecting (carbon plus running at 80%). Is it possible that my tank is
running short of nutrients? Or maybe it takes sometime for the plants
to settle first? FYI, my tank is 75G and nitrate=15ppm, I do not have
phosphate test kit, it is not easily available unless I go online. I
kind of suspect the lack of phosphate is the cause, since I did not
see any algae problem either.

My plants practically effervesce and the only phosphate
inputs are less than 1g/day food @1.3% P Min.; and 0.25 ppm
(below the bottom 0.25 test chip, but not zero) in my tap
water (A 5g/day change goes into a 135G tank).

I use PMDD. The tank is fairly well planted (12 odd
species; 3-4 4" pots of each; 8 6" Swords; a mass of java
fern the size of a basketball; a good chunk of floating
Hornwort).

If you are serious about your plant tank's good looks, you
need to come to grips with a proper, long term, nutrient
regimen. Algae is bad, and adding stuff (including P) at
random until you get it is also bad.

Algae is a plant, after all, so you're always walking a fine
line.

I recommend PMDD (Poor Man's Dupla Drops). At least they
offer a prescription regimen. They give you a basic recipe
and how to conduct a proper, test based, tuning of that
recipe for your tank's unique situation; and proper dosing
control. Yea, you have to buy an suitable "pass/fail" Fe
test; you already have the nitrate. Mail Order works.

If you dose P, and you might have to if you have 0 P in your
tap and not enough fish to feed, then a PO4 test may be good
to have too. My tank always read dead clear (no
indication), so it was rather a boring waste of $10.

************************
BobWu wrote:
Hi folks, I planted my new tank last Friday. Friday and Saturday I saw
a lot of "pearling" on glosso, but starting from Sunday, no more (not
less, but absolutely nothing). I did not adjust lighting, or CO2
injecting (carbon plus running at 80%). Is it possible that my tank is
running short of nutrients? Or maybe it takes sometime for the plants
to settle first? FYI, my tank is 75G and nitrate=15ppm, I do not have
phosphate test kit, it is not easily available unless I go online. I
kind of suspect the lack of phosphate is the cause, since I did not
see any algae problem either.

(BobWu) wrote in message . com...
Hi folks, I planted my new tank last Friday. Friday and Saturday I saw
a lot of "pearling" on glosso, but starting from Sunday, no more (not
less, but absolutely nothing). I did not adjust lighting, or CO2
injecting (carbon plus running at 80%). Is it possible that my tank is
running short of nutrients? Or maybe it takes sometime for the plants
to settle first? FYI, my tank is 75G and nitrate=15ppm, I do not have
phosphate test kit, it is not easily available unless I go online. I
kind of suspect the lack of phosphate is the cause, since I did not
see any algae problem either.

You can always do a water change(50%) and see if that helps by adding
1/2 teaspoon of KNO3 back, that will take care of the NO3(about 2 days
worth~ 6ppm) and the K(~4ppm about 3 days worth or so).

I add 15mls of a traces 3x a week, that should take care of any of
that.

I add about 1/8-1/16th of a teaspoon of KH2PO4 3x a week, you can use
a generic or a regular Fleet enama also at a few drops 3x a week.

That should take care of the nutrients, the rest is stable CO2, good
regular pruning, routine cleaning etc.

Just keep after things.
The other issue, when ever you have a "tank stall", check the CO2 very
carefully.

The water change will re set the tank's nutrient levels so you don't
have to trust cheap crummy test kits.
So the water change and the dosing afterwards will actually allow you
to estimate with bette rprecision the NO3, K, PO4 levels than even
some of the best test kits like Lamott etc.

I'd check that Carbon plus for delievery of CO2, maybe turn it up a
notch just in case.

Reagrds,
Tom Barr