When To Dose Ferts In New Uncycled Tank

hI there! I just set up my 10 gallon low-tech/low-light tank a few hours ago. I'll be doing a fish-in cycle with a single male betta, but I won't be getting the fish or using tss+ just quite yet. I'll start cycling in a few days, maybe a week.

right now I have 6 plants and plan to add a few more soon. my question is, when should I start dosing liquid ferts? I have nilocg thrive+. it says use one pump per 10 gallons 1-2 times a week with partial water changes for a low-tech tank.

my concern is that the ferts might mess with my cycle and test kit readings, since it adds nitrates. i'm also admittedly confused about the water changes part. how often am I supposed to do them, and how much water do I take out and replace each time? i'm assuming I dose ferts after a water change? and should I be doing the eI method and overdosing ferts each time?

if this has already been addressed before, I apologize. I did do some looking around the forum and the interwebs but i'm still a bit lost. this is my first time using ferts and ~properly~ cycling a tank.

thanks!

 

Don’t dose until your tank is cycled, the plants will help by using some of the ammonia and nitrite as a food source. What plants are you going to use?

 

okay! i'm guessing my plants be all right if it takes over a month for the tank to cycle though? I have no idea how long it's gonna take, it seems like everyone has different cycling times. it's just a betta, so he's probably not gonna produce that much ammonia :/

right now I have small tissue-cultured plants: 2 java ferns, one java fern windelov, 2 anubias, and 1 crypt wendtiI green, so the only one that's planted w/ root tabs is the crypt. I have a long list of plants, but i'd like to get an amazon sword (maybe -- too big for a 10g?), hygrophila corymbosa, a tiny buce, an anubias nana petite, maaaybe pennywort or moneywort, bunches of hornwort, frogbit, s. repens, and maybe some vals. eventually some christmas moss too, but not until later.

 

I actually recommend you start dosing now, tissue culture plants are young and need more food. Water change once a week, it’s 30% if you’re dosing 1-2 times a week and 50% if you’re dosing 3 times. In newly planted tanks frequent water changes (every day, every other day) will prevent algae too.

 

all righty, so the every day or every other day wcs won't get rid of the ferts? should I wait a day after I dose ferts to do the wcs? let's say I dose twice a week. how much water do I take out each time if i'm doing those frequent water changes? and then do I still do a 30% at the end of the week to ~reset the nutrients or whatever? sorry about all the questions and if I sound dense lol, I apologize!! also, will dosing prime after a wc affect the ferts? how long do I wait to dose after I use prime?

oh no lol, I just realized thrive+ and thrive are meant for different phs. I haven't tested my ph yet but I have thrive+ I need to learn how to use the master test kit lolololol brb

edit: so it looks like my ph is between 8 and 8.2 :/ should I return the thrive+ and get thrive instead?

 

all righty, so the every day or every other day wcs won't get rid of the ferts? should I wait a day after I dose ferts to do the wcs? let's say I dose twice a week. how much water do I take out each time if i'm doing those frequent water changes? and then do I still do a 30% at the end of the week to ~reset the nutrients or whatever? sorry about all the questions and if I sound dense lol, I apologize!! also, will dosing prime after a wc affect the ferts? how long do I wait to dose after I use prime?

oh no lol, I just realized thrive+ and thrive are meant for different phs. I haven't tested my ph yet but I have thrive+ I need to learn how to use the master test kit lolololol brb

The high frequency of water changes does remove ferts. Prime does neutralize some heavy metals, but since Seachem doesn't say how much, we don't know how much it affects the fertilizer, though I don't think it would have the ability to remove all of the heavy metals in fertilizer. I usually dose right after water changes, some people wait 24 hours.

If you dose twice a week, during a frequent water change I'd still do 30%, but you can do more or less if you prefer. So there's no end of the week reset, because you've been doing frequent changes, until you slowly phase into weekly water changes. It's just a guideline to prevent algae, so bigger and more frequent water changes remove more algae spores and organics

 

okey dokey! thanks for clearing that up. I just tested my ph and it's in the 8-8.2 range. should I return my bottle of thrive+ and buy thrive instead? i'm not using co2 either, so i'm sure regular thrive will be a better fit. and it's a whole buck cheaper, woohoo.

 

okey dokey! thanks for clearing that up. I just tested my ph and it's in the 8-8.2 range. should I return my bottle of thrive+ and buy thrive instead? i'm not using co2 either, so i'm sure regular thrive will be a better fit. and it's a whole buck cheaper, woohoo.

You could, though does it cost shipping to send it back? The ph for Thrive+ might have something to do with the form iron is in, not sure if it it's just ideal for low ph or actually only usable at a low ph. You can email Colin at Nilocg to be sure

 

I don't think so, since I used amazon prime. I'll have to check. on the website this is said for thrive+ "Thrive+ contains higher levels of iron then [sic] its predecessor, as well as nitrogen in both its nitrate and organic forms for increased growth. It is specially formulated for tanks with a ph under 7." they go on to say it's ideal for demanding high tech tanks that use co2.

thennn there's thrivec: "4. Now with the new ThriveC I'm really confused on which to use?

ThriveC is designed for lower tech tanks or tanks with a high bio load where nitrates can reach elevated levels. ThriveC has lower levels of nitrate compared to the other nutrients. When dosing ThriveC you are still getting all the other nutrients without adding as much nitrate as you would with Thrive and Thrive+.

5. Why use ThriveC when I could just reduce the amount of Thrive or Thrive+ that I dose to limit nitrate levels?

You certainly could just dose less Thrive or Thrive+ to help with elevated nitrate levels, however when doing this you are also reducing the levels of all the other nutrients. Nutrients such as iron and potassium as well as a few other micronutrients are not commonly supplied by fish waste so dosing a well rounded fertilizer is important in these tanks. ThriveC does just that, it has lower levels of nitrogen as well as phosphorous(which can also creep high in heavyily stocking tanks), while still providing adequate levels of potassium, iron and other important micronutrients."

hmmm... definitely not gonna have a high bioload, but I do consider it to be a lowtech tank. I think I'll just go with regular thrive to be on the safe side~

edit: oh darn, it looks like it is going to charge me for a return :/ oh well. I hope this will be okay meep