Nano planted tanks and fert dosing

[JustOneMore20]

I apologize if this has been addressed before. I am guessing it has, but have searched and don't come up with what I'm looking for.

In my other planted tanks (55g, 29g) I have DIY CO2 going and I try to do EI dosing. I don't follow it strictly though. I have KNO3 and KSO4, plus Flourish for micro ferts.

Here is my dilemma though. I just setup a 3g nano planted tank and it has DIY CO2 on it as well. My goal is to eventually get pressurized hooked up on it, since my new tank will have pressurized. I am having trouble figuring out how much ferts to dose.

The tank has ADA Aquasoil Amazonia substrate, 27w desk lamp above it, and Blyxa japonica and Downoi as plants right now. It will soon have some HC as well.

Does anyone have a dosing schedule for a small tank that they could share? Is it even worth it to try to dose dry ferts in a tank this small? I'm sure it would be like a pinch of the dry ferts (or another small amount), but does anyone know how much to add to water? I could mix up some just for my 3g and dose with a small syringe.

Thanks!

 

[maxwell1295]

For a tank that size, I would use Excel + EI and scrap the DIY CO2 idea. I'm doing that on my 7G Minibow tank. Excel is very economical for a tank that size and is a lot less hassle than DIY CO2.

 

[JustOneMore20]

Are you doing EI in your 7g? If so, how much of each fert do you use? I don't know how much Excel to use either. When it comes to calculating and figuring out the amounts...I get really confused.

 

[Mosaic]

The dosing instructions are on the bottle. Use a syringe to measure. I do Excel every other day on my 2.5. I need to bump it up to every day, though, as it's worked a little too well.

 

[Sicklid]

I dose .25 ml via syringe daily in my 2.5 gallon. The math is easy: 5 ml doses 50 gallons; that breaks down as 1 ml per 10 gallons, and 2.5 is one fourth of ten, so .25 ml is the dose... For a seven gallon I would bump that up to .75 ml, you should be good.

Except after major water changes, when it calls for 5 ml for every 10 gallons... So on my 2.5, that equals one fourth of 5 ml, which is 1.25ml... That would be roughly 3.75 ml for a seven gallon dose.

As a side note, I do double the dose some days to keep algae at bay, and it works well. Excel can't build up in your system, that's why it must be dosed daily or every other day.

 

[fish 'n' fries]

I really wanted to dry dose for my not-quite-5 gallon, but other than the K it's too small of amounts (if you're somewhat anal like me...I suppose you could just used pinches etc.). I also do Excel, not CO2 for that tank. Chuck's planted aquaria calculator's great to figure out how much to put in (also gives guideline of goals)...just plug in the numbers and it gives you the answer!

 

[maxwell1295]

I use solutions in the 7G, dosing macros and CSM+B on alternating days. The tank is in my office, so I don't do anything to it on the weekend. I do water changes on Friday mornings. On those days I dose the macros in the AM and the CSM+B before I leave for the day. All of my ferts are in water based solutions that I dose 5ml at a time. I treat it as a 10G tank when dosing Excel (1ml/day).

 

[Purrbox]

I concur that mixing up a solution is probably your best bet when it comes to dosing dry ferts in 10 gallon and smaller tanks. I recommend using Chuck's Calculator to figure out the best strength to mix the solutions so that you can dose it easily. Since I use baby medicine droppers for dosing my ferts this means that I mix them so that the dosing levels come out to 1/2ml multiples (preferable 1ml multiples).

 

[JustOneMore20]

Thank you all! I used Chuck Gadd's calculator and figured out how much KNO3 and KSO4 to add to 250ml to get the amount I need for the tank. I emptied out some Flourish Potassium and Nitrogen (wasn't much left in the bottles) and mixed me up some ferts. I found a small syringe to dose with, so thats what I'm going to use. I'll dose 0.3ml of Excel and figure out how much Flourish to dose (will look at the bottle). I think that will do. Hopefully that will keep my plants happy.

 

[Sicklid]

Let us know how this works out, as I am thinking about doing just what you are planning.