question on fertilizing

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Bschowa

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Apr 21, 2011
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419
Location
Wisconsin - River Falls
hi, i got some dry fertilizers the other day and i was wondering how you guys go about adding them to your tank? do you test first and see what is needed or do you just go ahead and add them, im guessing that the appropriate thing to do would be test and then if you do that how do you test them? i couldnt find an iron test kit out there, they have phosphate and nitrate but they dont have iron

let me know what you guys do,

i have a 40 gallon breeder tank running 3 bps presurized co2 with 4 36w t5 ho lights and currently all i am dosing is 1tsp calcium and 1 cap (5ml) of flourish excel daily.

i have rex griggs dry ferts
k2so4
plantex csm+b
kno3
kh2po4
 
Last edited:
You got ferts from Rex Grigg? So, he's shipping again?


That said... why are you dosing calcium? Why are you dosing excel? What's the co2 concentration?


I never test anything other than nitrate. I'd just pick a dosing method and let the plants tell you what you need. PPS Pro is probably the easiest if you run autodosers... EI and PMDD are others you can use. Never used EI or PMDD, but they're basically the same concept.
 
You got ferts from Rex Grigg? So, he's shipping again?

not sure about that, i got them from a member on here jnam with plants and a co2 system

im dosing calcium at the moment because my nerite snails shells are chipping and they are blue for some reason so i am trying to help them grow back.

excel is what i was using before i got the fertilizers from jnam and i was using diy co2

i feel dumb but how do i know what the co2 concentration is? all i know is the drop checker thing is green?

again i feel dumb but what do you mean by this?
I'd just pick a dosing method and let the plants tell you what you need. PPS Pro is probably the easiest if you run autodosers... EI and PMDD are others you can use. Never used EI or PMDD, but they're basically the same concept.

thanks for all the help!
 
Drop checker green is close to 30ppm... give or take. So, that's good then. Excel isn't really necessary if you're injecting co2, so you should be good to stop dosing it.


For the dosing method, you have 3 basic methods to dose.

EI or Estimative Index - EI light: for those less techy folks - Aquarium Plants

PMDD or poor mans dosing drops - PMDD: Dosing Guide for Freshwater Aquarium Plants | eHow.com

PPS Pro w/ autodosers - http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f20/diy-auto-doser-build-143431.html


I used autodosers, which are really hassle free. You mix two containers (one with trace, the other with N,P, and K) and they dose your ferts for you... you just have to mix and refill every week or two (depending on how big they are, how much the pumps put out, etc). You can also dose PPS Pro without autodosers by using two containers and manually dosing every day... it's just so much easier to use the autodosers.

It's a bit overwhelming at first, but once you understand how it works and do it for a while, it's actually quite simple. The main thing is to watch your plants/algae. If your plants show deficiencies, you need to up the dosing on something. If you're getting a ton of algae, depending on the type, you might need to increase or decrease your dosing on something... it's kind of a case by case thing.
 
awesome, thanks! i think i am going to go with the EI for now and then if i can find water pumps i will build a doser and go that way! i made a post in the classifieds to see if anyone had any for sale but if not i will go out and get two of them
 
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