I have been unimpressed with the plant growth in my 20 litre tank since it was planted about 4 or 5 weeks ago. Plants seem to be surviving, but not thriving. My light is generous, and I have no significant algae.

The problem comes because nearly all the iron in the aquarium isn't plant available, so even though there might potentially be a lot of it, in plant terms there isn't any, if that makes sense? Have a look at /www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/why-add-fertilisers-and-additional-plants-to-combat-algae.58866/#post-575638']Why add fertilisers.....[/URL]"> We also have our own <" UKAPS nutrient calculator under development">, which should soon become available as a fully tested version.The dwarf hairgrass is doing very nicely, and I am gradually trimming that shorter and shorter because I want it to be very low in the foreground. All macroalgaewill be well protected when posted to youto ensure that it will arrive in the best condition at yours. Hey all! Looking for advice on how I can best change my dosing over from TNC Complete to DIY Salts for my low light/low tech tank. I know EI was designed with high light/high tech tanks in mind so I want to figure out what I would need to dose to roughly equal what I am dosing now with TNC Complete and maybe what I can safely increase/decrease from there. The price match offer is only valid for identical, same size/amount and available macroalgae species.

In that scenario, a 500ml bottle of APT would have lasted 18 months, whereas the 500ml bottle of TNC would have been 6 months (at a 3ml/day dose). Where both get expensive is when using it for large tanks, which is why I use dry salts and mix my own for my 350L. If it were me, I would work out how many doses (I do it in days) you'll get from both fertilisers and see what's more value for money that way. I've seen somewhere before that someone was dosing the salts separately but within the same day so the tank was getting everything every day rather than alternating macro/micro nutrients on different days. Is this a thing and if so is it better? Does it make any difference? Would you recommend it? I’m beginning to point the finger at fertilisation. I’ve been dosing TNC Complete, using the 3x dosage which supposedly approximates EI. But I’ve just done some sums, and I’m not sure it does. I’m pretty sure my CO₂ is okay, and I have repositioned my spray bar to give good distribution - the bubbles from the Twinstar M3 can now be seen sliding down the front glass. (Being able to visualise the water flow has been a major plus of having that device, and prompted me to improve my flow). Thank you-I didn't mention any values here because different amounts work well for different people. I would personally encourage you to aim for Dennis Wong's values: (in ppm)

If you test the potassium and iron coming out of the tap and in your tank at different points in the day, it should give you a rough idea of how much fertiliser you need to add. Nitrate testing is quite hard to do, so see if your water company has any info, or if you want to you could buy a more accurate test kit (I haven't done this) https://www.aquasabi.com/Macherey-Nagel-Visocolor-ECO-Nitrate-Test-kit TNC Complete includes 0.0002% Copper, which is 20 times more than in Seachem Flourish, whilst Brightwell's ChaetoGro does not include any Copper. We won't be beaten on the premium quality of our live algaecultures, and surely not on the price either! TNC Complete is an aquatic plant food specially formulated for use in all planted aquariums. For aquariums where the fish load is not meeting the requirements to supply the necessary Nitrate and Phosphate – TNC Complete is ideal for making up this shortfall. I'm not usually an advocate of test kits, but in the case of iron (Fe) it is quite easy to get an accurate reading for your tank water, mainly because nearly all iron compounds are both coloured and insoluble.

I’m minded to go with people’s advice and try upping to 2ml per day and see what happens. I read somewhere (it may have been one of Clive’s posts) that a phosphate shortage can interfere with nitrate uptake, so it seems worth a try to increase everything. According to Rotala Butterfly, it agrees with what several of you have said, that I should indeed be dosing 2ml or even 3ml a day of TNC Complete. I think it suggests 2.5ml a day. TNC Complete is an aquatic plant food specially formulated for use in all planted aquariums. For aquariums where the fish load is not meeting the requirements to supply the necessary Nitrate and Phosphate TNC Complete is ideal for making up this shortfall.

I've have used and still use TNC and APT and both are good fertilisers. When I used TNC in a high energy tank however, I found I was using a lot more of it in comparison to APT so it was debatable how much money was actually being saved. For example, like @The grumpy one said, I was dosing several ml on a 5 gallon tank (can't remember the exact figure), but when I switched over to APT, I was dosing less than 1ml for the same results.

So I've just installed a Twinstar 1200s 3 days ago. And its nice having the ability to ramp up and ramp down the intensity of it. Add Aquarium volume, directly into the aquarium is set to default. Then fill in the number of grams of the salts you have. So, taking an imaginary tank of 1,000 litres (i.e. 1,000,000 grammes), the 3x dosage of TNC complete would be 300ml weekly. Therefore our dosage contains the following:The spectrum of your light output can make the tank look better also, much of this is down to what the user likes, but ADA Solar RGB really make the reds pop - seeing is believing.