Hello,
I have a question about aquarium environment, not I new topic about lean vs rich dosing, but I would like to understand why in some cases (the majority), if the fertilization is inadequate, plants will show deficiencies (and we will get algae) while in others, we will be able to get a limited growth of the plants, which could be (very) slow but in perfect health (without algae).
The first case is very common, an aquarium where fertilization is insufficient, or often when the CO2 is not optimal, or with an incorrect water flow ... This results in unhealthy plants, with often visible deficiencies (and most often with algae). What's interesting here is that the plants can show deficiency (I guess because of an element not present in sufficient quantity to cover their needs), but they still continue to grow, sometimes even quickly. The deficiency is clearly visible but the missing nutrient does not always seem to highly affect its growth rate, or at least does not block the growth of the plant.
On the opposit, I took a specific tank as exemple, from a french forum where I often discuss. Here is the tank :
With the topic here (in french) : Aquascape Optiwhite 90x45x45
In this tank, the plants are mostly healthy (in my opinion, at least much better than some tanks showing deficiencies with a growing speed which remains significant), we do not get visible algae and plant growth is severely limited. For illustration here is the tank 1 month later without any trim :
Look pretty similar I think.
For the analysis :
The tank is 90x45x45 cm (35"x18"x18") 180 L (48 gal)
Light : Chihiros A901 plus, 100% intensity, 8 hours/day, pretty close to the surface. According to the data here, I think the PAR value should be arround 100 at the substrate level, maybe a little bit more.
CO2 : 2 bubbles/sec, cheap diffuser, under the filter outlet (I think he loses many bubbles), drop checker < green (dark green or blue), no pH analysis, I think we can consider the diffusion as low / poor.
Water changes : 20 % per week
Soil : ADA aquasoil 1 year old
Fert : nothing for the first year. After 1 year, he started to fertilize, not because he identified deficiencies but because the plants were growing too slowly to his taste. Then he added daily (but he said he often forgot) easy life products :
1.5ml nitro = 1 ppm NO3
1ml fosfo = 0.03 ppm PO4
1ml ferro = 0.07 ppm Fe (not daily)
1ml carbo
1ml profito = 0.016 ppm Fe
1ml potassium = 0.27 ppm K (not daily)
Flow : pretty strong eheim filter on paper but from what I saw on these videos, very little movement in the plants and almost no surface ripple, so low flow I guess.
Everything seems low in comparison to what we can see on other tanks which could present deficiency issues.
My question is: according to you, how an aquarium like this one will succeed in having a very slow growth of plants, very close to stop growing completely, but without deficiency, whereas in other tanks, plants can show deficiencies while continuing to grow?
The Liebig law talks about the scarcest resource as limiting factor but the line between limitation of growth and deficiency is no longer very clear to me.
And then, how to create a such environment where fert would only regulate plants growth, without deficiency issue (and algae) in parallel?
Thank you !
I have a question about aquarium environment, not I new topic about lean vs rich dosing, but I would like to understand why in some cases (the majority), if the fertilization is inadequate, plants will show deficiencies (and we will get algae) while in others, we will be able to get a limited growth of the plants, which could be (very) slow but in perfect health (without algae).
The first case is very common, an aquarium where fertilization is insufficient, or often when the CO2 is not optimal, or with an incorrect water flow ... This results in unhealthy plants, with often visible deficiencies (and most often with algae). What's interesting here is that the plants can show deficiency (I guess because of an element not present in sufficient quantity to cover their needs), but they still continue to grow, sometimes even quickly. The deficiency is clearly visible but the missing nutrient does not always seem to highly affect its growth rate, or at least does not block the growth of the plant.
On the opposit, I took a specific tank as exemple, from a french forum where I often discuss. Here is the tank :
With the topic here (in french) : Aquascape Optiwhite 90x45x45
In this tank, the plants are mostly healthy (in my opinion, at least much better than some tanks showing deficiencies with a growing speed which remains significant), we do not get visible algae and plant growth is severely limited. For illustration here is the tank 1 month later without any trim :
Look pretty similar I think.
For the analysis :
The tank is 90x45x45 cm (35"x18"x18") 180 L (48 gal)
Light : Chihiros A901 plus, 100% intensity, 8 hours/day, pretty close to the surface. According to the data here, I think the PAR value should be arround 100 at the substrate level, maybe a little bit more.
CO2 : 2 bubbles/sec, cheap diffuser, under the filter outlet (I think he loses many bubbles), drop checker < green (dark green or blue), no pH analysis, I think we can consider the diffusion as low / poor.
Water changes : 20 % per week
Soil : ADA aquasoil 1 year old
Fert : nothing for the first year. After 1 year, he started to fertilize, not because he identified deficiencies but because the plants were growing too slowly to his taste. Then he added daily (but he said he often forgot) easy life products :
1.5ml nitro = 1 ppm NO3
1ml fosfo = 0.03 ppm PO4
1ml ferro = 0.07 ppm Fe (not daily)
1ml carbo
1ml profito = 0.016 ppm Fe
1ml potassium = 0.27 ppm K (not daily)
Flow : pretty strong eheim filter on paper but from what I saw on these videos, very little movement in the plants and almost no surface ripple, so low flow I guess.
Everything seems low in comparison to what we can see on other tanks which could present deficiency issues.
My question is: according to you, how an aquarium like this one will succeed in having a very slow growth of plants, very close to stop growing completely, but without deficiency, whereas in other tanks, plants can show deficiencies while continuing to grow?
The Liebig law talks about the scarcest resource as limiting factor but the line between limitation of growth and deficiency is no longer very clear to me.
And then, how to create a such environment where fert would only regulate plants growth, without deficiency issue (and algae) in parallel?
Thank you !