EI Dosing and Holidays

[ricardo48]

If you are following EI dosing for your planted tank and go on a 1 to 2 week holiday whats the best procedure to follow for your tank.

Obviously i dont want to dose nothing for 2 weeks and come back to a forest of algae and all my hard work wasted.


Is it best to turn lights down to only 4-5 hours a day to limit algae growth?

Leave co2 going at 30ppm 24 hours a day?

Overdose 2 weeks worth in one day to last?

 

[neilanh]

Definately don't overdose 2 weeks worth, nothing good could come from that.

Consider building up autodosers. Check this link.

Short of that, I would cut my lights down to yeah, about 5 hours a day, leave the CO2 going, and leave it at that.

However, do you have someone that's going to feed your fish for you? Could you teach them how to dose?

 

[ricardo48]

Was thinking of an auto timer feeder for my fish, but didnt think they did auto dosing systems?

 

[ricardo48]

Auto dosers sound good but alot of work. I aint worried about gaining no growth in the time im off... just want everything to stay alive and algae free so that whem im back I can get it all growing again.

With next to zero nutrients in the tank except what the fish waste provides would the plants survive 2 weeks with just co2 and light without any adverse effects?


Is it worth mixing up 2 bottles worth of fertiliser? Combine all my dosage of

kno3
po4
so4

into one bottle and divide it into 4 bottles. Then get someone to pour the bottle in my tank twice a week for the 2 weeks im away?

 

[neilanh]

The EI method is dependant upon the weekly water change to get rid of the excess at the end of the week.

I think you'd be safer off cutting your photoperiod and not dosing. You may have a little cleanup to do once you return, but you're probably better off than overdosing even more than EI already does.

 

[247Plants]

What you can do if you have somebody to dose and do a water change, get the weekly pill dividers and measure out your daily ferts. You can do the same thing with food so the fish dont get overfed. Cheap, easy and foolproof IF you have somebody to do it.