Aquario dosing chart
Aquario's Neo range does not use one dosing rate. Neo Black, Neo V and both Boosters are double the rate of some others, Neo C is a fraction of it, and Neo Guard changes with the age of the tank. Dosing any of them from memory will get at least one wrong, so here they are side by side.
Every bottle uses the same caps: the 300 ml cap holds 5 ml, the 1 L cap holds 10 ml. So “10 ml” is two caps of the small bottle, or one of the large.
Unless noted, every figure below is read from Aquario's own product pages.
Read this before the tables: start low
With any liquid, start at half the stated dose — or a quarter in a shrimp tank — and work up from there.
Every figure in the tables below is Aquario's, and Aquario are writing for aquariums generally: planted tanks, community fish, tropicals. Shrimp are a good deal less forgiving than fish about sudden changes in water chemistry, and a dose that a fish tank shrugs off can be a real event in a shrimp tank. Starting at a quarter and increasing over a few doses costs you nothing but a bit of patience; going straight to the full rate and finding out it was too much costs you shrimp.
Work up gradually, watch how the tank responds between doses, and stop where you get the result you wanted. The manufacturer's number is the ceiling to approach, not the starting line.
Bags and capsules are a different matter. The mesh bags are filter media, not additives — they adsorb things out of the water rather than adding anything to it, so an extra bag is generally fine, and Aquario themselves say to add a second one if you want a quicker effect. Capsules sit in between and it depends on what the capsule does: the bacteria and bacteria-food ones behave much like the bags and are forgiving, while the ones that treat water chemistry — Cap Remover and Cap Complex, the chlorine ones — are better treated like the liquids above.
Water conditioners
| Product | Aquario's dose | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Neo Black | 10 ml / 40 L | Increase it for a larger pH drop. Aquario say to measure pH as you go. |
| Neo V | 10 ml / 40 L | Nitrate only falls once the filter cycle is stable and balanced. |
| Neo Booster Plants | 10 ml / 40 L | Use alone when there is already plenty of fertiliser in the water or substrate; otherwise dose alongside fertiliser. |
| Neo Booster Tropical | 10 ml / 40 L | Aeration with an air pump must run during use. Don't use it while fish are diseased. |
| Neo Essence | 5 ml / 60 L | Plant-side additive. Overdosing can cloud the water. |
| Neo Guard | 10 ml / 60 L for the first 10 days, then 5 ml / 60 L | Changes with tank age. Dose the day before a water change. |
| Neo Clean | 5 ml / 80 L | Slightly lowers pH. Filter flow may drop while it works; change the water afterwards. |
| Neo C | 5 ml / 200 L of tap water | Far weaker per litre than the rest — it treats tap water. Dosing straight into the tank instead? Go by tank volume. |
Remember the rule above: these are Aquario's full rates. In a shrimp tank, start at a quarter of them.
Overdosing most of these bottles clouds the water; Aquario's remedy is a water change. Shake before use — a slight smell and visible natural ingredients are normal and dissolve shortly.
Filter media (mesh bags)
All four bags share the same instructions, and Aquario publish them identically:
- 1 bag per 60 L, plus a second bag if you want a quicker effect
- Put it in an external or hang-on filter, wherever the flow is strongest — the slower the water moves past the bag, the less it does
- Shake it in clean water about 20 times first. Black water comes out; that is the black energy ball and is normal
- Aquario say the energy ball slowly disappears after a month or two
- 8 bags per pack, each roughly 12 × 8 cm
| Product | What it removes | Extra |
|---|---|---|
| Neo Bag Plus | Cations — calcium and magnesium | Aquario also claim it lowers pH. Monitor pH and stop if it drops too far. |
| Neo Bag Minus | Anions — nitrite, nitrate, phosphate | Regenerable: 10 min shake in 300 ml of 10% salt water, soak a day, rinse well. |
| Neo Bag Carbon | Organics, tannins, odours | Aquario specify no effect on pH — low ash, unlike carbons that raise it. |
| Neo Zeolite | Ammonia, plus heavy metals | Regenerable by the same salt-water method as Minus. |
One caveat even here: Neo Bag Plus is the exception that behaves a bit like a liquid, because it moves pH and hardness rather than only stripping pollutants. Run one bag and watch your readings before adding a second.
Fertilisers
| Product | Aquario's dose | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Neo Solution 1, 2, Fe, K | 1 cc (one pump) per 10 L, every 3 days | Twice after a water change. Aquario publish a table adjusting each of the four by scenario — 50% less for a completed tank, 50% more for fast growth — so treat 1 cc/10 L as the baseline. |
| Neo Solution Complex | 10 ml / 40 L, every 3 days | All-in-one; combines the roles of Solution 1 and 2. |
| Neo Plant Tabs (1, K, Fe, ST.long) | One tab every 5 cm; one per root for large rooted plants | Lasts about 2 months. ST.long is the one for long-rooted plants; Fe plus a half-dose of Tab 1 is Aquario's suggestion for reddening. |
No fertiliser for the first 30 days after setting up — that applies to the whole Solution and Tab range, and Aquario are explicit that the doses are a guide, not a fixed rule. In a planted shrimp tank the start-low rule matters here too: liquid ferts are dosed repeatedly, so a rate that is slightly too high compounds every three days.
Capsules
| Product | Dose |
|---|---|
| Cap Bacter, Cap Starter, Cap Booster Tropical, Cap Accelerator | 1 capsule / ~57 L, every 3 days |
| Cap Complex, Cap Remover | 1 capsule / ~197 L, after a water change |
These are the one exception on this page. The capsule range has no product page on Aquario's site that we can find, so these rates come from stockists reproducing Aquario's material rather than from Aquario directly. They are also published in US gallons (15 and 52); the litre figures are our conversion, so round to the nearest capsule.
Why we bother saying where a number came from
Because it has already caught us out. Four figures on this range reached our own product pages wrong after being taken from stockist listings — two doses at half the real amount, and one staged schedule flattened into a single number. Every one of them was corrected only after reading Aquario's own page.
So: the figures above are Aquario's, the capsule rates are not, and none of it beats a test kit. If a dose matters to your tank, measure the water rather than trusting any chart — including this one. And start low.
