Aquascape Guide - Providing Nutrients in a Planted Aquarium / EP 4 - Nutrients
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- čas přidán 21. 07. 2024
- #AquascapeGuide #Nutrients #PlantedAquarium
In this video we talk about:
0:00 - Introduction
0:32 - Nutrients in our planted aquariums
0:59 - Liebig's Law of the Minimum
2:05 - The EI Method
2:40 - How much should you dose?
6:06 - What is the best all-in-one in your region?
7:25 - How do we deliver this nutrient to our plants?
12:27 - Recap!
OUR LINKS:
Free online ASG Course: www.aquascapeguide.com/asgu
ASG's Store - www.aquascapeguide.com/shop
REFERENCED VIDEOS & ARTICLES:
AquascapeGuide - Selecting a Light For a Planted Aquarium / EP 2 - Lighting
• Aquascape Guide - Sele...
AquascapeGuide - How to Set Up a CO2 System For An Aquarium / EP 3 - CO2
• Aquascape Guide - How ...
AquascapeGuide - Best Fertilizer For a Planted Aquarium
• Aquascape Guide - Thri...
Blog Post - EcoComplete Versus ADA Amazonia
www.aquascapeguide.com/post/e...
**USE OUR COUPON CODE "ASG10" TO RECEIVE 10% OFF YOUR NILOCG ORDER**
PRODUCTS REFERENCED:
NilocG EI Kit
www.nilocg.com/shop/ei-based-...
NilocG Thrive All-In-One
amzn.to/3mtSsHA
NilocG Thrive C (includes an algaecide for non-Co2 inject tanks)
amzn.to/3DhL2NO
NilocG Thrive S (for shrimp tanks, no copper)
amzn.to/388xCFo
TNC Complete - thenutrientcompany.com/produc...
APT EI - www.2hraquarist.com/products/...
LCA All In One - www.liverpoolcreekaquariums.c...
After taking multiple biology, chemistry and soil sciences classes in college I slowly pieced this all together. That was back before this video was made. This such a great video for people starting off and explains things simply.
Thank you so much! That mean a lot. I too started keeping tanks in 2007. We didn't have information like this back then. lol. So I've been making these videos to help share the science behind planted tanks :) Anything I missed that you might be able to share, or expand upon?
@@aquascapeguide Just watched it through again and it's well put together. Maybe this has been spoken of before in a aquaria but I haven't heard it mentioned, is how slightly acidic water is helpful for nutrient uptake. It's more of a well known topic in horticulture. At certain pH levels some nutrients become available for plants, but once you go towards the end of the pH scale certain nutrients become unavailable. Even if you have these nutrients in the water they become unavailable for plants to uptake. I also theorize that pH in deeper substrate will be different than the pH in the water column, something I'd like to experiment with when I have time. That would also be something that affects the nutrient uptake of plants. Goggling "soil pH nutrient levels" has some really nice charts.
This is awesome! I googled it and it looks like the sweet spot is 6.0 to 7.2 for most major and micro nutrients updates. Which is fun because it falls in line with what we've seen and what we teach. At a GH/KH of 4, your PH should sit around 6.8 to 7.0, and with CO2 injection, you wont get below 6.0. Trippy stuff! Thank you for sharing. Just more evidence on why the ASG method works. Love it.
I actually found this channel while talking about nutrients and fertilization in my Agronomy class. Similar principles apply.
Phil you are a great teacher. Thank you
Why thank you! We try really hard to make complex scientific principals very simple and digestible... because at the end of the day, we just want to enjoy our tanks and not be chemists. hahaha.
Brilliant, perfectly clear and concise, very thorough. So entertaining and engaging also!
Thank you Tristin! I hope you were able to learn something. And if you happen to go to the year 2848, pick us up a regulator. I hear they are INSANE in the future ~ Phil
This is one of the best videos I've ever seen I must see. I'm gonna. provably end up watching it at least 20x 😆
Thank you soooo much! I try to take these really complex systems, and simplify them so they are easy to digest! And furthermore, give everyone a system to follow, so they are successful right out of the gate. No more "everyone runs their tank different". If you run the ASG method, you'll be balanced and your tank will thrive! Make sure to watch all the Part 1 Playlist to get the full ASG approach :) And share the videos too! Newbies in the hobby needs these videos.
@@aquascapeguide Ur welcome 👍.. Now if I could get some help with this green hair algae on my staurogyne sp porto velho carpet plant... The only plant in the tank that has it on it...
What those that I mentor, I've been mostly irradiate hair algae with balancing out phosphates. I teach to keep the redfield ratio of 1ppm of P, to 10ppm of N. When phosphates get high, we can start to see hair,string or thread algae. I have a couple resources on my website. 1) Jump over to my "blog", there is a filter for algae, and I have articles on the 10 most common algaes. It covers how to identify, treat and prevent them all. 2) I have an interactive algae guide. Its a trip. I need to do a short video on this to bring it to people attention. Go to my site, scroll down until you see Official Algae Guide. Run it on a computer with Chrome. You can do phone or table, just turn it sideway and run on chrome. Hit me up if you have more questions. On here or on the website.
@@aquascapeguide Thank you 👍...
@@aquascapeguide I tested phosphates and mine is 0.5 at best so that might not be my problem
This is absolutely fantastic!
Thank you Martin! We hope you were able to learn something from the video ~ Phil
Really fantastic video. Thank you soo much for posting this! subbed
Thanks Mario! We hope you were able to learn something from he video.
This is a brilliant guide !!!!
Thank you Trevor! Help us spread these video around. The hobby needs it. And make sure to check out the other videos in the discription. This is one of many videos in the guide that cover all the element needed to keeping plants super happy!
Very neat and clean. become a big fan of your videos. very easy to understand and informative. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and ideas.
Thank you for the kind words! And you're more than welcome :) These videos are designed to help hobbyists become successful right out of the gate! We hope you've been able to learn something and please help share this knowledge with others so they can be successful too.
@@aquascapeguide Yes, i Do and Sharing in my Social media platforms too. Do u have a account in Insta ?
You are AWESOME! :D ~ Phil
Great video!!!
Thank you Brandon! Lots of hard work went into this one. We hope you were able to learn something! :) ~ Phil
Perfect guide 👌
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it!
I really enjoy your videos! They have been extremely helpful. Quick question... If using the EI method, should my nitrates be kept at 20ppm for plants and fish?
Thanks Carson! I'm glad you've been able to learn from these vidoes ;) They are a lot of work, but great for the hobby and those starting out. And I like where your mind is headed... your nitrates should be higher than 20ppm if your running the EI method and have a higher bioload. But this all depends on how big the bioload is! A handful of neons in a 50gal is going to produce WAY less nitrates, than a 30gal with TONS of fish it in. So it all depends on where your nitrates sit prior to the EI method. We do need to make sure that we are dosing enough of the EI ferts to INCREASE your nitrates by 20ppm, BUT if they are already sitting at 15ppm due to fish out dosing, and we ADD the EI ferts, you should be hovering around 35ppm. Make sense? Furthermore, the cool thing about the EI method is we can omit the nitrates from the mix all together and simply rely on the fish to produce nitrates! Can't do that with an all in one and this is what makes the EI method so powerful. The only downside is that we can not test nitrates to get a levels reading of where we are in dosing, but you can watch out plants for pin holes, twisted leaves, nutrient deficiency in general. Lastly, if we have green dust algae on our glass, we're probably dosing too much. And if we have green spot algae on our glass or plants, then we're probably not dosing enough. You'll learn to read your tank over time. Hope that answers your questions! Ask more if you have them.
@@aquascapeguide Amazing answer! Seriously, the way y’all explain things just clicks 🙌🏼
@@carsondecker9814 Awesome! We pride ourselves on making things really simple to understand :) Oh, and make sure you are subscribed. We are going to release a video shortly on the EI method, and how to go about following it! See you around!
So can i change out my substrate for aquasoil w/the fish in there or will that hurt them with the amonia spike mentioned?
This is a great question. If you change out your substrate, and depending on the one you chose, yes, you can run into an ammonia spike/issue. What I would suggest is to go with a shrimp buffering substrate like Fluval Biostratum. Then tend to have no nutrients in them, thus will not leach out ammonia. I've mentored a handful of hobbyists that I've helped make this switch with minimal ammonia. If you need help navigating an ammonia situation, we have a free downloadable PDF on our website that will let at what point you need to process water changes when you have ammonia and nitrites present - www.aquascapeguide.com/product-page/api-emergency-test-chart
I have apt complete dosing daily on a 10 gallon. If I want to ensure it has all ther nutrients in abundance, can I dose more than recommended? Do I measure nitrates to gauge if I'm overdosing?
Viet! Thank you for reaching out. We have not personally used APT complete (version 3) before.. but looking at the ingredients I would say, yes! You can dose a little more. Its hard for companies to really give great directions on how to does, because there is no way to know if someone is running CO2, if they have high lighting, or if they are running an aquasoil, etc. This is why we teach others how to track their nitrates, and use that as an indication of where their fertilizations table is. Just know that if you are going to run the system a little more rich, you need to be doing your 50% water changes weekly and make sure you are taking it slow with adding more. Don't go tossing in the whole bottle ;P What we'd suggest you do is watch this video, and follow how this is being dosed... just pretend they are talking about your fertilizer ;) Good luck! - czcams.com/video/Gu9BOulkAjA/video.html
I made the mistake of buying eco complete. So after watching this I am assuming I need to use root tabs? Which ones do you recommend. I have a lightly planted tank. How often would I place tge tabs?
OH NO! They got you. See, this is EXACTLY why I made this video, to try and prevent that. But hey, at least you know now :) We sell Tropica root tabs if need some. The proceeds go back into making these videos :) - www.aquascapeguide.com/product-page/tropica-nutrition-capsules-10pcs .... Thrive by NilocG also sells some nice caps - amzn.to/3JQl8Ve .... You generally want to push them into the substrate with tweezers, and separate them out in a 1-2" grid. Depending on the maturity of the tank. You could need to add tabs every 2-4 months. I would just put them where plants are feeding. Like in the front up next to the glass if there are no plants, there is no need to put tabs there. Hope that helps! Let me know if you have more questions.
If we dose to get our nitrates to 20-40ppm with fish in the tank, do we dose the bottle dosage everyday until we get to 20-40ppm?
Hellooooo! Thanks for your question. Yes, we want to slowly raise our feralization table until we get to our ideal range, then we try to that feralization table there indefinitely. It will be a little bit of a moving target as plant mass fills in. Plants will start to use more and more fertilizers, so it something you'll just need to keep an eye on. Also, don't add a TON of fertilizer at one time as it can kill sensitive livestock and or cause a green algae bloom in your water. Just raise it slowly over time. Lastly, if you are running an aquasoil as we suggest, the soil will absorb a lot of this nutrient until it hit is saturation point. So if you feel like you are adding a lot, and your nitrates aren't raising up, its probably because of the high CEC soil absorbing the nutrients. So just keep dosing little bits each day until you get your fert table up :) Let me know if you have more questions about this subject. Again, thanks for asking. It allows me to elaborate a little more on these more complication topics. Cant' fit everything into a video, even with it being a 15min video! hahaha. Late scaper!
I'm watching your method very well explained. By this days changing 50% of the water weekly is a lot, especially if you have few big tanks. I wondering if it's possible to use the EI method without changing 50% water weekly?
This is the downside of having large tanks. The large water changes have been calculated with the dose to help prevent fertilizers from building up in the aquarium. You can always dose less and run it more lean, but then you could be limiting nutrients to some extent. As mentioned in your other comment on the "Best Fertilizer" video, ADA has a different approach. They do not rely on the CEC of the substrate to soak up nutrients from the water column. Instead they keep the soil nutrient rich, and the water column super clean. This is why ADA's fertilizations methods are super lean. The thought process is that less fertilizers in the water column, the less algae, which is a viable approach that relies heavily on root tabs. Unfortunlety, planted tanks just really love freshwater regardless of our fertilizations methods. In this hobby, more water generally equals more time and money. This is why a lot of scapers have smaller tanks. They are quicker and easier to care for. To run any tank properly, epically a large one, you're going to have to keep up with large water changes. We really like the "no spill" pythons. Have you invested in one of those? They help a lot with water changes - amzn.to/3I8Hqk4
@@aquascapeguide Thank you for your very interesting answer. I understand better. For the water change, I try to recycle it as much as possible. I use canisters to collect cold water as it heats up before taking a shower. I use this water to put in the aquarium and I use the dirty water from the aquarium to water the plants. The issue of water saving will be increasingly present in the years to come. With your method, would it be possible to give only the necessary nutrients to the plant for slow growth? Low and medium lighting would avoid having the plant on steroids? This could avoid having too much fertilizer residue and having me change the water, right? The ADA method also needs frequent and important water changes, right?
That is awesome that you recycle that way! As you stated, it will get more and more important to make sure we do this. I am in California, and we are in a massive drought. You still dose the EI method, but just less of it for slower-growing systems. You can cut the recipe in by 75%. If you watch out EI method video, it comes out to .25ml per gallon, but you still need to process water changes. There is no way around that in this hobby. The only thing I would suggest is just setting up smaller systems. If you do not process water changes, the system will crash. People call it "old tank syndrome", but it's really just the tank imploding on itself due to neglect.
@@aquascapeguide Have you tried the PPS method? What do you think of it?
Great questions. I ran PPS-Pro for years prior to the EI method. I ran it because it was more lean, and I was thinking that would help with the diatom algae I was experiencing at that time. Spoiler, if you cram a bunch of fish in a 28gal and overstock the heck out of it, the organics feeds diatoms. lol. Anywho, I was not happy with the growth, and was showing signs of deficneies, so I moved over to the EI method, relitantly, and found WAY better results. A few years back I pulled up the newest PPS-Pro recipe from GreenLeafAquariums, and the PPS-Pro method is looking a lot like the EI method now in concentrations. The thing I don't understand about PPS-Pro, is the have you dose magnesium, which just increases your GH. If you weren't processing water changes, your GH would rise over time. So anymore, I'm not a fan of PPS-Pro, and just tell people to dose more or less of the EI method. Here is where a link to what I was reffering to - greenleafaquariums.com/products/pps-pro-aquarium-fertilizer-package-jars.html
So if my 55 gal is already set up with the ECO-Complete what do I do? Should I just remove it and replace with aquasoil, or can I get away with removing some of it and then adding aquasoil?
I'll start off by saying that you only really "need" aquasoil where root feeding plants are. So if you want to put some stems in the back of your aquascape, you can remove the EC from the back where the stems will be, add some hardscape like rock to create a barrier between the EC and where the soil will be, and only add soil in the back. With that being said, there are MANY benefits to having your entire substrate aquasoil. The hummus that develops helps detoxify heavy metals that could be harmful to fish and shrimp. It also naturally reduces nitrates. And, you can have a nice looking carpet as well if your entire tank's substrate is aquasoil. One soil that I would recommend is BioStratum. It doesn't have a lot of nutrients in it, even though they say it does, and this means that it won't leach a lot of ammonia when its new, like Tropica and ADA V2 do. You can remove your EC, install the Bio Stratum and off you go. I would just watch your ammonia and nitrite levels just to make sure there isn't a spike from the removal of the EC, kicking up organics that were stuck in the substrate, or with the addition of the new aquasoil. If you do start to see ammonia and nitrites, follow our free downloadable API Emergency Test Chart to help you navigate the situation - www.aquascapeguide.com/product-page/api-emergency-test-chart
Thanks for the videos but I dont get the "+10ppm Nitrates" formula. If my tank naturally generates 30-50ppm (via the bioload), why do I need to add another 10 no matter what? And I assume that is why Leaf Zone only gives you K and Fe, because N and P tend to be naturally generated and Fe is the main Micro... (My not be enough for high tech, but perhaps it is fine for low tech).... anyway,,,
Hellooooo. Thank you for the questions as dialog like this helps give those passing by a better understand of the ASG method. To address your question, boosting your nitrates up +10 would ensure that your plants are getting all their micro and macros needed to be happy and healthy. Fish waste (indirect and direct) only produces nitrates, from fish poop and pee, and phosphates, from fish foods. But sometimes fish food don't provide enough phosphates. So that is why we boost everythign with fertilizers. A few things to address are 1) I would not suggest stocking a tank to the point where you have 50ppm of nitrates each week while processing 50-75% water changes. Though you might have enough filtration to remove all the organics to keep fish safe, there is going to be a nice amount floating around prior to being filtered out, which can feed aglae. We all love to see movement in our tanks, but if you notice, professional scapers generally have a very light bioload for this reason. 2) Your thinking is spot on with LeafZone. To try and give them some credit, we'll assume that they had the same assumption you did where fish are "providing" the nitrates and phosphates so they omit them from the fert. ADA's dosing regimen does this as well. They dose micros, and K. We are big fans of the EI method for this reason. You can customize what is being dosed and in what ratios because you are mixing the ferts yourself. Check out that video because it might make more sense for you to go that route versus using an all in one, since your bioload is high. I hope this all makes sense! Reach out if you have more questions :)
Does NaThrive need refrigeration?
Nope! No refrigeration needed :)
@@aquascapeguide thanks
@@ruslanbayadian749 You're welcome ;) Later scaper!
Magnesium, Sulfur and Calcium are macro nutrients.
They're considered secondary macronutrients, I cover them in the water chemistry video I have. I don't really see them as fertilizer.
Kyle jones sent me here
I sure did ;) I hope you were able to learn something! ~Kyle
Wow 😂 I was looking through the group in face book and kept seeing you giving good information. This explains it all! Keep up the good work man, love the format of your videos.
@Pesticide Thank you for the kind words. That means a lot. I've been in this hobby and actively learning the science for 18 years ;) I've failed more times than others have tried. Lol. My goal is to help others learn the science quickly avd easily, so they can focus on the fun part, which is the art of aquascaping :)