Quick Thoughts

Reading this very interesting post on Aquatic Plant Central, in addition to my on-going thread have opened my eyes to all sorts of things. I'd like to think I'm starting to come to some kind of consensus on how to run a tank, but as you know, I am quite fickle, as well.

Here's what I would like to do, then:

• Get my nitrates down to hover ~10-20 ppm (can be higher for my harder water)
  
• Drop phosphates to ~1-2 ppm (must avoid high phosphate, low nitrate condition which will lead to algae outbreak)
  
• Continue to dose micros every day; shortages are trouble and iron, for instance, is quickly made unavailable by forming compounds with other stuff in the water
  
• Dose potassium consistently; dose nitrates iff fish load is inadequate
  
• Ensure sufficient Mg levels (available in Plantex, but may need supplementation with MgSO4) to prevent stunted growth; try to maintain ~4:1 Ca:Mg ratio
  
• Maintain CO2 at consistently high levels
  
• Limit water changes in order to get/keep kH levels low(er)
  

The main objective here is to improve plant growth, but I'm also hoping the cories benefit from the less frequent water changes. I'm already seeing barbel reduction and a little raggedness in some fins. Depressing....