Inconsistent Ei Numbers.

[FishFanatic04]

At the risk of driving everyone crazy. I have another question. I have been reading all over the place about EI dosing and the amounts need to make and dose a stock solution. I am just dry dosing right now. All of the numbers I get vary, and it's becoming really frustrating.

I wanted to make 500ml stock solutions because that's how big my bottles are. I figure I won't get more then 1 1/2 weeks of ferts from it, but I don't mind playing scientist and mixing more often.

One site says... Macro- 15g KNO3 and 5.8g KH2P04 and to dose 85ml 3x week.
Micro- 3.9g CSM+B dosing 85ml 2x week


Another site says...Macro 33g KNO3 & 7.2g KH2P04 Dose 35ML 3X week.
Micro 10g CSM+B 17.5ml 3x week.

What's right?

Edit: this is for my 46g

 

[ainsy]

I have been using this one since december:

EI calculator

and it seems to work fine.

HTH

 

[FishFanatic04]

Do you rest 2 days?

 

[ainsy]

nope.

but i do 35% water changes 2 or 3 times/week and just keep alternating the 2 mixes

 

[FishFanatic04]

hmm...thanks. I think I'll have to do the rest days. There's no way I could keep up that many water changes a week. I am EI dosing a 75g and 46g. lol Thanks for the help!

 

[SO19Firearms]

Is there a reason you don't want to dry dose?

 

[FishFanatic04]

Not really. Basically I have nothing but time to research right now, and I'm reading myself into circles.

 

[tribalbrit]

I dry dose and that calculator above is about what I'm dosing, a bit more trace than on there tho. I also add a little iron on trace days for the swords, greedy little buggers.

Three water changes a week is a bit much. one 40 - 50% should be fine IMO. just to get rid of excess nutrients.

I find dry dosing so much easier than having to keep mixing up solutions. Just chuck it in when I feed the fish.

Also I do rest but only on Sundays. (not religious tho. lol.)

Water change on Mondays... already a bad day so lets have it all at once!

 

[SO19Firearms]

one 40 - 50% should be fine IMO. just to get rid of excess nutrients.

Just to note that the water change isn't to get rid of excess nutrients - If that were the case we could skip the WC and just dose less the next week to save cash on ferts.
The water change dilutes the nasties the plants excrete.

 

[FishFanatic04]

Cool. Thanks.

 

[Mikaila31]

one 40 - 50% should be fine IMO. just to get rid of excess nutrients.

Just to note that the water change isn't to get rid of excess nutrients - If that were the case we could skip the WC and just dose less the next week to save cash on ferts.
The water change dilutes the nasties the plants excrete.

Except the point of EI is to over fertilize. I agree that water changes are to remove excess fertilizers and basically 'reset' the system. Overwise your fertilizer levels are going to get thrown off.

I don't agree that plant secrete many nasties, definetly not anything to require weekly 50% water changes. I run low tech tanks that get less EI fertilizer, still have great growth but can easily go 3 weeks between water changes.

 

[reignofcheese]

Just remember that EI dosing should be altered based on your own needs - not everyone uses or needs the same amounts, and a lot of people end up with plant growth and/or algae issues by blindly following EI methods posted on the web, larglely because these methods are serious overkill for many tanks and even 50% water changes may not be enough to keep up.

 

[SO19Firearms]

I don't agree that plant secrete many nasties, definetly not anything to require weekly 50% water changes. I run low tech tanks that get less EI fertilizer, still have great growth but can easily go 3 weeks between water changes.

You're mixing EI standard, with EI low tech in that quote, they're two different things - A low tech tank runs more slowly than full EI (high tech)
And it really isn't to reset the nutrients, although that does happen, as I said, if it was just that we could load the tank and dose 1 a month.....

 

[FishFanatic04]

Water changes are good for everything in the tank...there are plenty of minerals in tap water that are benefical to plants. It's a chance to get out excess waste and...blah...blah...blah.

50% was the plan. 50 % between all the tanks in the house and my Saturdays are going to be half gone Thanks for all the help...I may stick to dry dosing, it is easier to adjust if any plants seem lacking.

 

[Mikaila31]

I don't agree that plant secrete many nasties, definetly not anything to require weekly 50% water changes. I run low tech tanks that get less EI fertilizer, still have great growth but can easily go 3 weeks between water changes.

You're mixing EI standard, with EI low tech in that quote, they're two different things - A low tech tank runs more slowly than full EI (high tech)
And it really isn't to reset the nutrients, although that does happen, as I said, if it was just that we could load the tank and dose 1 a month.....

you haven't seen my low tech then lol. It doesn't run any slower then my high tech, just diff plants. My low techs use soil substrate, but still need fertilizers to keep them happy. It can get by on 1 water change a month as long as I prune the plants back about every week.

If you load the tank then you get algae. That the same reason we do water changes to reset things an make sure any excess fertilizers at the end of the week are removed.