EI journal

well, admittedly not quite in the same league as houndours (and many others on these boards!) but here are the latest photo's...at precisely 6 days old!

This is a full view shot...(more comments on my 'hand holding thread' - didn't want to wander too far O/T!) Excuse the mass of floating 'escapees' I decided the fish had experienced enough messing around for a few days and will re-plant at tomorrows water change.


This plant (I have no idea what it is!) is planted on the far right of the tank. The increased lighting, and the addition of injected CO2 has resulted in about 1.5" of stem growth over the past week. The new leaves have a slight red sheen to them...


Another fast grower...this one lives on the far left of the tank and has shot up over the past week. The leaves are red on the underside.


Especially for houndour...this is my little conker. The leaves have already doubled in size...if it get's to be as big as yours houndour, it will need moving firther back into the tank!

well.... what can i say - Its all coming together in here

I'm just setting up my co2 system again (tomorrow the system goes live with a new cylinder and the diy can go out the window (like the last mix did today due to me using the 'wrong sugar' - it was the half and half stuff - oops)

any way. I have not had a chance to read the 16 page artical i printed on thursday (wedding planning - sorry).

I have a couple of things I hope you nearly armed EI guys can clear up...

Q1. Do the doses have to be added slowly every time? or just to start with?
Q2. This system only complements normal frets, it dosn't replace them?
Q3. can the doseing mixes be mixed together?

More Q's to follow I'm sure - I've got to go to the local plant specilists tomorrow - where i will probubly be spending a 'few quid' on new plants.

smithrc said:

Q1. Do the doses have to be added slowly every time? or just to start with?
Q2. This system only complements normal frets, it dosn't replace them?
Q3. can the doseing mixes be mixed together?

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Q1 It is my understanding that once the levels have been raised (slowly) that you dose up to the recomended levels after the 'reset' waterchange. You then add much smaller qty's every day or so to replace that used by the plants. (someone please shout if I'm wrong ) )

Q2 Yep...I will be using API LeafZone as a companion to the KNO3 & KH2PO4.

Q3 I can't see why not, they will of course mix in the tank once they've been added. But because you are dosing quite specific quantities it's probably easier/safer (at least in the beginning) to dose as seperate solutions.

ND, you have a long way to go yet and your tank is looking similar to mine when I first got my plants:
http/houndour.freestarthost.com/images/aquarium/tank6.jpg

I love the conker! Looking great

Thanks for the tip jimboliana.

Let me get this straight then, macros are KNO3 and KH2PO4 and micros are??? the stuff that comes in Kent Grow?? Is Fe a micro?

At present I dose 8ml of Kent Grow once a week and I was doing Fe twice a week, but have found I only need it once a week. But if I am doing all this EI stuff, I might dose smaller amounts more regularly instead. Trial and error I guess.

Q1. Do the doses have to be added slowly every time? or just to start with?
Q2. This system only complements normal frets, it dosn't replace them?
Q3. can the doseing mixes be mixed together?

Click to expand...

1. Um, I don't know. I got the impression from reading Tom Barrs report that over time the nutrients will increase but I'm not sure. Can someone tell us please?

2. well dosing with KNO3 and KH2PO4 only supplies phosphates and nitrates and potassium. So you need to still dose micro nutrients...which I'm not sure what they are, but Zig mentioned in an earlier post a list of suitable ferts. I use Kent Grow. and Fe cos my irons non-existant.

3. do you mean mixing KNO3 and KH2PO4 in the same solution? I would say no. Cos the amounts you dose would change I would imagine so you want to keep it separate so you can control your dosage of Nitrates and Phosphates separately.
If not, what did you mean?

//edit - you beat me to it nodding dino!

at least we agree on the answers to smithrc's questions!!! (phew!)

right then... i'm off to my local plant shop in a bit... I'll have a look at the ferts...
(actually dino - It might be handy for you too... its on the A5 just before stony stratford on the way to MK)

The answers are what i was hopeing for too its a gently dosing to start with to get teh ammounts up then its just a case of keeping them there

Thanks guys

I've just completed all of the tests so that I can compare them with those that I will take after todays water change...

pH 6.8
GH 16.7
KH 7.8

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5 mg/l
Phosphate 0.5 mg/l

Based on these figures, the CO2 is now running at about 35ppm, so will watch it over the next few days and if necessary throttle back on the yeast at the next mixture change (just a touch) if it gets too much higher.

smithrc said:

(actually dino - It might be handy for you too... its on the A5 just before stony stratford on the way to MK)

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what's it called smithrc...I'll look it up...do they have decent fish as well as plants?

Just to help out a little while Zig is away. Here is a list of macro and micro nutrients.

Macros include nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulphur, carbon, oxygen, hydrogen.

Micros include Iron, zinc, manganese, chlorine, boron, copper, nickel, molybdenum.

Adequate amounts of micros can usually be found in tap water and the commercial trace fertilisers, which most of you are already using. Macros of course need to be dosed at higher levels, KNO3, KH2PO4 etc.

Jimboliana's dosing schedule is spot on IMO. Not sure about nutrients becoming useless if macros and micros are dosed together. You do run the risk of cloudy water though if you dose phosphate(PO4) and iron(FE) at the same time.

It is obviously wise to start off dosing slowly if you are starting from say 0 mg/l nitrate. However, IMO you don't have to be quite so cautious if you already have more than 5 mg/l.

Hope this helps!

thanks iggy01!

I have just completed the water change, and am going to let the tank settle down for an hour or two. I will then re-test everything to get an idea of how things look at 'reset'.

I will start dosing tonight, but will run everything past you guys first just in case I've got anything wrong!

update...I'm all ready for my KNO3 and KH2PO4. Got measuring spoons (£1.99 from sainsburys...which will also be handy for measuring the yeast) and RO water...unfortunately not for free (maybe having my boyfriend with me didn't help ) but I only had to pay 50p for about 3 or 4 litres worth.

CO2 is doing so much better at 28ppm so I'm ready to add my ferts (when I get them *sigh*).

Thanks Iggy for the advice there.

nodding_dino said:

smithrc said:

(actually dino - It might be handy for you too... its on the A5 just before stony stratford on the way to MK)

Click to expand...

what's it called smithrc...I'll look it up...do they have decent fish as well as plants?

[snapback]856842[/snapback]​

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Its called HobbyFish - I'll go with no on the fish front - we've heard all sorts of horror stories about tanks wipped out after adding their fish.

I spent £100 in there today (i got a new light unit for the trigon though (£74)

I got some plants too - Piccy in a new thread soon

OK - I've taken another set of readings (post water change) and aside from a very slight drop in pH all levels remain constant.

As far as I understand, the suggested levels are something like this:

Target Level:

Nitrates 5-10 ppm
Phosphates 0.5-1.0 ppm

--------------------------------------------------------

Actual:

phosphate reading is currently (at reset) 0.5mg/l
Nitrate reading is currently (at reset) is 0.5mg/l

--------------------------------------------------------

My solutions are:

KNO3 (Nitrate) 1ml = 0.99ppm
KH2PO4 (Phosphate) 1ml = 0.06ppm

--------------------------------------------------------

How do I convert these figures into their ppm equivalents? Can anyone give me a suggested first dose - I don't want to overdose anything!!!

Nodding Dino are your figures correct?

As I understand it, you had 5 mg/l nitrate before a 50% water change and you are now saying you have 0.5 mg/l after the change.

oops..thanks iggy, typo, 5mg/l after water change )