EI help

[zenkatydid]

I have decided to use EI dosing. I have DIY CO2 via mist method and get results of around 45ppm, so even with room for error I should be above 30ppm. I have 1.5wpg, and am reasonably heavily planted with low to medium light plants. One tank is 50gal, and one is 28gal. I have KNO3 for N, KH2PO4 for P and will be getting K2SO4 for K (as soon as I can find it). I have Seachem Flourish for trace.

I've read the EI articles, but am unsure on how to translate this into a dosing regime. Can someone help me? How much, and how often should I dose these?

The EI page recommends this for a 50gal tank, but does this take into account my bioload, or does that not matter? Since I have only low-medium light, would I halve the dosages here? And is his 'trace elements' compatable with Seachem Flourish dosing?

1/2 tsp KN03 3x a week
1/8 tsp KH2P04 3x a week
1/8 tsp K2S04 3x a week
1/8 (10ml) Trace Elements 3x a week
50% weekly water change

Thanks!

 

[Purrbox]

The Light version of EI may help to clear up some of these issues for you.

I believe that the dosing amount for Trace, is actually based on Tropica Plant Nutrition. By using the calculators you can determine the amount of fe being dosed and then translate that as appropriate to determine the amount of Flourish or CSM+B that needs to be dosed.

 

[Plantbrain]

You can do 1/2 those amounts with a reasonable bioload with that light.
You should have little issue with good CO2.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[zenkatydid]

hang on, i'm confused. in a 50gal tank, 1/2 tsp of KNO3 = 5ppm N, 1/8 tsp KH2SO4 = 2ppm K... those are tiny amounts. my bioload is sucked up by my plants leaving nothing left over, so i'm basically starting with 0ppm.

what am i missing here?

 

[Purrbox]

Tom Barr did specify that you could go half with a reasonable bioload. My guess is that you have a light bioload, in which case you would need to dose more.

 

[Plantbrain]

hang on, i'm confused. in a 50gal tank, 1/2 tsp of KNO3 = 5ppm N, 1/8 tsp KH2SO4 = 2ppm K... those are tiny amounts. my bioload is sucked up by my plants leaving nothing left over, so i'm basically starting with 0ppm.

what am i missing here?

Try your math again, that should be about 8-9ppm per dose X 3 a week.
Or about 25-30ppm given a bit of dosing error with a teaspoon.

It's not liely with 1.5/w gal you will use that much.

The other larger issue: are you using a test kit to base your dosing on?
Are you calibrating this test kit to see if you have 0, 1,2, 4,8, 10ppm etc?
Perhaps a Lamotte or a colorimeter or a spect might, but it's not likely you have such a kit

Few hobby NO3 test kits are that accurate and even worse in the low ranges.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[zenkatydid]

i don't use test kits much because of their inaccuracy. i am a broke uni student so a lamotte is out of the question unfortunately.

i worked out the dosage using chuck's calculator... but i realise now that for some utterly bizarre reason i was looking at the target ppm not the dosed ppm. nevermind me

thanks for your help, i'll start using the full dosages and see how it goes. i have plans on adding more bioload in the future, so may reduce as i go.

 

[Plantbrain]

I'd just go 1/2 the suggested dosings you listed, and no need to add K2SO4 as well, maybe a GH booster, which tends to have K2SO4 anyway as well as Mg/Ca, say 1 teaspoon after the water once a week.

That's about it.
Focus on CO2 etc.
Do routine, dose, water change, prune etc

It's not meant to be complicated, precise etc, plants are pretty flexible over a wide range and we can use that to provide lots of wiggle room in our routine.

Please note: EI and any dosing routine is based, or at least should always be based, on the plant's health/growth rates. Then you apply fish health and other critter trade offs, your own habits etc trade offs and so on.

A routine should not be based on a ppm or test kit solely.
You waste a lot of time with that and ppm's and test measurements do not = plant health and requires a lot more $, time and monitoring that looking at the plants/algae etc.

So the plants and algae are the test kit.
Which is what you grow and is your goal here, not learning about water quality and nutrient analysis. Few get into this hobby for that aspect.


Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[zenkatydid]

i have another question. for my P dosing, i have monopotassium phosphate instead of KH2P04. is the dose the same?

 

[Plantbrain]

Most potassium phosphate is the KH2PO4, it's the cheapest.
You can use the other just fine as well.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[Purrbox]

Are you sure you have something different? Greg Watson had the KH2PO4 listed as being Mono Potassium Phosphate when he was still selling ferts.

 

[zenkatydid]

on the bottle, it says:

P2O5 52%
P 22.7%
K28.7%

is that KH2PO4 or something else? not that it matters, as plantbrain says.

also, i ordered K2SO4 and received a bottle marked KSO4... is that the same, or do i need to double the dosage because there's only 1 K instead of 2? (see how much i remember from high school chemistry )

i've purchased a little 7-day pillbox for each tank. i plan on putting the dose of the 3 macros into the mon, wed and fri boxes weekly, then all i need to do is tip it in!