Another EI dosing routine. . .

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workfortheman

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Joined
Oct 14, 2004
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Okay, for those of you who aren't sick of reviewing dosing routines, here's the "rough draft" for my ferts.

Setup: 29gallon tank, 2x55 watt CF, high fish load, "aged" pebble substrate (enriched with crap), heavily planted, soon to have pressurized co2 (yay!)

Day 1: 50% change, 1/4 tsp KNO3, 1.1 ppm KH2PO4, 1/2 tsp K2SO4
Day 2: micros
Day 3: 1/4 tsp KNO3, 0.55 ppm KH2PO4
Day 4: micros
Day 5: repeat Day 3
Day 6: micros
Day 7: none

Obviously, I have not figured out the micros yet. Any suggestions on covering all the micronutrient bases using greg's ferts, and how much to dose? I plan on CSM+B+Fe, but do I need others? And how much?

For the calculations click here for a screenshot of the spreadsheet!

Any suggestions?
 
CSM+B plus iron is all you need for trace unless your Gh is very low, then you may need some epsom salt for magnesium and calcium.

Follow gregwatson's site instructions for mixing the CSM, something like 1Tbsp per 250ml of water. I'd dose no more than 5mL of trace on micro days, possibly less is needed, so start slow and build up. Use the plant growth, algae (or lack of) and health of plants to determine trace dosing needs.
 
Eh, okay I guess I'm gonna have to use the plants as indicators, especially since I really don't wanna go buy 3-4 more test kits!
 
Thats very similar to mine except my NO3 uptake is much greater and I need to dose 1/2 to 3/4 tsp of KNO3.

I was using this for my micro solution but whenever I use it my water starts clouding and I start getting green algae outbreaks so I just stopped using it. I am thinking of trying just some plantex and some iron and see what happens.

500 mL Water
1 TBL MgSO4 (Magnesium Sulfate) = Mg + 0.03 ppm/mL or Mg + 0.6 ppm/20 mL Dose
1 TBL Plantex CSM + B (Iron and Traces) = Fe + 0.0025 ppm/mL or Fe + 0.05 ppm/20 mL Dose
1 TSP Iron Chelate (Fe only - Get it from Greg)
1 TSP CaCO2

f
 
Ernie,

test kits for iron and potassium aren't accurate anyway. a little extra potassium doesn't hurt anything, and as long as you add some iron, you'll have enough, as it's a very very small trace amount that's needed.
 
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