Nanno and Tetra Fertilizer

[JulioC]

I´ve having a few problems with my phyto cultures. They don´t get dark as they used to.

My method:
- Fill 1.5 Gal botles with fresh water (200 ppm, Tap water)
- Add FAF fertilizer. I get a 700 ppm reading so it´s 500ppm of fertilizer.
- Add salt to get 1018.

I Tried adding more fertilizer to have 800/1000 ppm of fertilizer but I´m not sure if it is correct.

How many ppm of fertilizer do you have in your cultures? I don´t want to add too much because I co-culture rotifers and ocellaris larvae and having too much fertilizer will make me add amonia to the tank.

[rayjay]

I add the fertilizer to the already mixed and aerated overnight salt water.
I add the f/2 at the rate of one and a half ml/gal. Then add this to the starting culture.
If I'm not harvesting, I add more fertilizer after a week.
For me, I add stronger lighting to get the cultures more dense.

[JulioC]

Thank you rayjay.
Do you know how much is one and a half ml/Gal in ppm? I add 20 ml/gal and I´m thinking of doubling it but I think my mixture (I bought the salts of f/2) in not as strong as yours.

I first thought it was the light and changed the bulbs. I´m using 3 fluorescent lamps and last year it was Ok.

Is it possible thay salt mix of f/2 fertilizer is too old? I´he had it for one year.

[rayjay]

What are you measuring ppm of? I've never had any need to do that.
The f/2 is made up of a lot of things but as for strength of the solution, if it is weaker than normal it is not f/2
I get a mass pack from Florida Aqua Farms and it mixes up into 4L of f/2. If I mix it up to make just 2 litres, then it is f strength.

[Suzy]

That is cool to use a tds monitor to check the fertilizer amount! Cool idea.

My phyto always seems to peter out after a few months. I restart it with a plate.

[Suzy]

Another post to put a fork in MOFIB.....


Why?

[Suzy]

Jim? Really?

Wow....

[JulioC]

Thank you Suzy, In your post says that F2 has 54 ppm of nitrate. Then I founf in faf web page that 2.2 lb should fertilize 10.000L of water, that is 100ppm and is consistent with 54 ppm of nitrate since nitrate it is the most important nutrient.

I was adding 5X the recomended amount...... I will try with different concentrations to see if improves growth.

rayjay: I add f2 fertilizer to fresh water and I test ppm. Then I add the salt.

Suzy: I´ve had this cultures for 2 years now. I´ve never restarted them (It is not easy to get the disks in Argentina...). Do you restart them to remove contaminants?

Thank you all for your responses!

[Suzy]

No, I use the original disk I got from FAF. I use it once but dont remove all the cells, then put it on a dark shelve. I have only reused it once but it worked!

[JulioC]

Well, after trying everithing it seems light was the problem.
I have 3 18W tubes, 2 TLD 18W/54 PHILIPS and one 18W/840. I replaced both of 54 and the problems continued. Then I thought It was fertilizer but nothing changed. Cultures were weak.
Finaly i replaced the 840 and now it is all improving. It seems that 54 tubes does not provide quality light and algae was starving despite there were 2 new tubes.
The cost is 1.5 Usd for the 54 ones and 5 for the 840, sometimes cheap things are expensive...

Julio