Fish, Fertilizer and Parameters

[Dacotah7]

There are an endless amount written about fish and acceptable water parameters, with a focus on good water quality, cycling as it establishes biological filtration which has a direct positive effect, the filtration of water, types of filters, the correct amount of flow, the filter media, water changes, substrate vac' and testing the water.

Everything is about the water, its' chemistry and biology, yet I do not recall ever reading a single thing about the effects fertilization. For those of us with live plants, we must also address the plants' nutritional needs. For that we dose fertilizer in some form, starting with perhaps the type of substrate and its chemical properties, maybe blending soils, the additives in it, and directly dosing sticks, granular and liquid forms. Our perfect fish water becomes a chemical soup in some concentration, with the addition of ferts.

I have very few fish or water chemicals. Those I have, I seldom use or use sparingly.
* Dechlorinator - I have two types on hand, (chlorine and chlorimines) for emergecny water changes only. Normally I age the water and let the chlorine disapate naturally.
* Ich Rx - Just in case.
* Ph Decreaser - My tap dispenses, fairly consistantly 7.8 - 8.0. When I bought it, I thought I needed it. There are other better, non-chemical additive methods to adjust the Ph. Anymore I give Ph virtually no attention. Instead the fish have adapted and I am not forever fighting a ph battle.
* Bleach (from the laundry when needed). Cleaning, extermining, sanitizing. Rejuvenationg Purigen.
* Acid Buffer - Rejuvenating Pruigen.
With that the fish are happy, I'm happy, the costs are lower and the environment is much better off, in the tank, and with respect to our environment.

I don't use a lot of fertilizer, at least not yet, but may use more after my 125g make-over replacing the gravel with a more plant friendly substrate, and replant it.

Everytime I do use feritilizer I wonder what impact it has on the fish.
I also wonder at what level the various ingredients become toxic for the fish. Even before reaching a toxic level, how much of what starts to effect the fish in a negative way.

[Goes to 11!]

Everytime I do use feritilizer I wonder what impact it has on the fish.
I also wonder at what level the various ingredients become toxic for the fish. Even before reaching a toxic level, how much of what starts to effect the fish in a negative way.

Hopefully this issue is something that every responsible producer of aqauria plant ferts has researched and is cognizant of wrt their product. I don't see any company going very far in the aqua fert industry with a toxic product.

You could always check the products MSDS also if you have specific concerns.

[dragoonwoman]

It's called Estimative Index dosing (EI for short), and it has been incredibly successful in my tanks. I will state for the record, I am NOT a scientist nor a botonist, but I have healthy lush plants, happy fish and NO ALGAE in my tanks since I started EI dosing. I've only been doing this for 4 months, and the improvement in my plants is absolutely astonishing.

The basic premise of EI is that the water column is flooded with nutrients the plants need, so they never lack anything to grow. A regular, substantial water change (30% - 50%) once a week keeps the ferts from becoming too concentrated. CO2 from either a DIY or pressurized system, or from Flourish Excel, is added as well. That's it, in a nutshell!

For the chemistry, the whys and hows of the process, please read Tom Barr's write-up. I don't have a link, unfortunately, but Google will find it - that's how I did.

One thing I found very interesting is that you don't need huge amounts of light to make this work! The most I have on any tank is 2.3 wpg using ordinary household CFLs, which is middling-bright light by most standards, yet my plants are growing like mad. My plants are not low-light either! I have mostly swords in my 46 which gets only 1.7 wpg, and they are putting out new leaves every couple of days, and one of my Urguayensis swords has sent up flower spikes that have grown right out the top of my canopy!

I haven't seen any kind of negative reaction from my fish AT ALL. The only tank where I'm super careful about dosing is my shrimp tank, because the ferts I use contain trace amounts of copper. I w/c the shrimp tank twice a week to offset this, and under-dose on the ferts slightly to minimize the risk. I'm also watching the shrimp closely to see if they start hiding or showing any signs of stress, but so far they have not. If I see ANY kind of stress, I will discontinue EI dosing on that tank.

Just my 2 cents.

[Cermet]

I too just guess on amounts of trace plant nutrients and what to use/add (except for Fe since that can be deadly - that said, I rarely need my test system for Fe because after using it a few times, I have the exact dose known.) Needless to say, with WC all the time, I do not replace the nutrients every time but just once a week after a very large WC.

Now, with good light and the big three trace elements added from time to time, my plants did very so-so. Then I went to a passive CO2 delivery system and I'm starting to regret it (but for the good reasons.) My plant growth rate and spreading of new plants is past acceptable and gone wild. The upkeep and effort to trim, remove and keep the tank plants from taking all the free volume from my discus is getting old.

I guess most people who claim the key is light and CO2 know what they are saying. With enough plant growth, guessing on trace nutrients is safe (except for Fe - following dosing instructions carefully.)

That, so far, is my experience and time my change my mind. But the experts do seem to know what they are saying. Also, I never use liquid general ferts - they killed my community tank fish like crazy (I foolishly didn't believe it and murdered a second wave of fish - stupid.) I gave up on solid root ferts since they contain phosphates and mine keep going through the roof and I have a huge, powerful phosphate reactor and change it often (even with my large number of WC and no, my water is not the issue - it measures zero phosphate on the same kit that correctly measures my standard.)

Plants - great to look at, hard to maintain and a pain to clean around and impossible to treat sick fish with ... still, well worth it
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