Benvilles' Roma 240

[Martinspuddle]

I would but only a small increase, see how it progresses.

[plankton]

Could you feed daily (but a bit less obviously) instead of every other day?

[Martinspuddle]

I dose 10ml a day EI alternating.

Just realised what @plankton has pointed out, no you should be dosing every day with EI dosing.

Try 5ml per day to see if there's any improvement.

[Stephen]

I'm not a lover of EI dosing in a low-tech aquarium.
Plants require 3 things, nutrients, carbon and light and getting the balance right is a task in itself.
The more intense the light then more nutrients and carbon is required.

I have a low-tech system and only dose about 1/3 the recommended nutrients and liquid carbon.
Some plants do well and others just die off.
My Amazon swords also need a good plant substrate and additional root tabs as they are a root hungry plant.

Some plants (such as Amazon swords) get the nutrients via their root system, others take in nutrients via their leaves, some do both.
Dosing liquid fertiliser provides the nutrients to the plants that take it through the leaves but not for those that take in through the roots.
Over feeding can cause excess algae, under feeding can show signs of nutrient deficiency.
Feeding the plants daily provides nutrients daily but is not always necessary, every other day can also work or even twice weekly can work but daily is best.

I personally have tried many different plants over the years and most have failed.
The reason they failed is because I don't use CO2 or have the correct lighting. I'm not an aquascaper, I'm a keeper of fish.
I'm currently growing Tropica Alternathera reineckii 'mini' 1-2-GROW! in my 120L aquarium, previously this plant has failed on several previous occasions.
I believe it is because my 120L aquarium has LED lighting that it is now growing (even I'm surprised).
Some plants work and others don't, I have tried over 40 different plant species (I keep a record) and most have failed in my low-tech system, but some have done well.
The ones that have done well include Echinodorus species (Amazon swords etc..), Aponogeton species (bulbs), Cardamine lyrata, Cryptocoryne Wendtii green/brown, mosses, Hygrophila corymbosa (Siamensis 53B), Nymphea Zenkeri (Tiger Lotus) Red (I loved this plant), Hydrocotyle leucocephala, Rotala Rontundifolia.
Some plants describes as "easy" have failed such as Bacopa species, Ceratopteris Thalicroides (Water Sprite) and even Staurogyne rubescens.

All the best

[Benville]

Could you feed daily (but a bit less obviously) instead of every other day?

Just realised what @plankton has pointed out, no you should be dosing every day with EI dosing.

Try 5ml per day to see if there's any improvement.

When I say alternating, I mean I feed Macro on Mondays/Wednesday/Fridays, and Micro on Tuesdays/Thursdays/Saturdays. Sundays is a rest day/water change day.

The vendor recommended dosage for my tank would be 48ml per day, but I am lowtech so started at 10ml. Earlier in this thread I tried dropping to 6ml, can't remember why now, but seeing dieback now. I've upped to 15ml now and will monitor.

@Stephen thank you for the detailed information. I am not running liquid CO2 but perhaps I need to be given the nutrients I am also putting in; I had been hesitant (I have some EasyCarbo in the cupboard already) given recent events with gasping and low O2 in the tank. I can pick up some root tabs for the Swords easy enough.

My lighting is the default white LED strip that came with the Fluval Roma 240 so far from high spec. Currently timed for 10 hours a day.

[Martinspuddle]

Remind me what substrate do you have in this set up?

[Benville]

It's a black sand, if I stretch the memory I think it's a Fluval brand but its just black sand.

[Martinspuddle]

It's a black sand, if I stretch the memory I think it's a Fluval brand but its just black sand.

Without a nutrient rich substrate you'll need to increase your dosing and are presumably following Tom Barr's Estimative Index of daily dosing.

Are you using premixed fertilizers or mixing your own dry NPK and trace ferts?

[Benville]

Mixing my own, using the kit below:

https://www.aquariumplantfood.co.uk/fer ... r-kit.html

It recommends 10ml per 50L, so with my 240L I would dose 48ml, but then I read without CO2 you go down to 20% so I was trying 10ml. Last 3 doses have been 15ml now and I was going to monitor. I've tried reading up on EI but it seems the more I read the more I find it confusing and it gets pretty math-sy, and my brain isn't what it used to be.

[plankton]

Johnny is pretty accurate with his advice for his EI ferts.