# 'Correct' EasyCarbo dosage?



## NeilW

Finally thought I would ask this as I've been looking at a lot of peoples journals who dose EasyCarbo daily.  I dose once a week on the water change.  I have read however that the C in liquid carbon combines with the O in 24 hours?  Is this true?  Obviously this would mean my tank is getting very little carbon.

I would be grateful for a new dosage recommendation from anyone in the know?  Also is a weekly water change also the best option for this setup? 

Tank specs;
14 litre
11w T5 compact
1ml TPN+ per week on W/C
0.5ml EasyCarbo per week on W/C

*I know you can safely overdose on EasyCarbo BUT I have both CRS and an otto in the tank which are both known to be sensitive to liquid carbon so this is also a big consideration.*

Thinking of it, the recommendation for TPN+ is 5ml per 50litres weekly so could I up this to 1.5ml instead of the current 1ml without hurting the creatures?

Cheers!
Neil


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## Dolly Sprint 16v

Neil

217 ltr tank medium to heavy planting - 10mls of easycarbo everyday.

Regards
paul.


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## viktorlantos

Neil, i would not overdose Easy Carbo. Especially if you have otto and CRS. Easy Carbo is really concentrated, and with a little overdose the CRS will die. I had bad experiences in the past with shrimps. Using carbo a while ago on my tanks. But in these days i do great without it too.

I am not using Easy Carbo anymore in a small tank like yours. Especially with Shrimps. They are more tolerate to CO2 than Easy Carbo. If you do just use the default dosage.


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## NeilW

viktorlantos said:
			
		

> Neil, i would not overdose Easy Carbo. Especially if you have otto and CRS. Easy Carbo is really concentrated, and with a little overdose the CRS will die. I had bad experiences in the past with shrimps. Using carbo a while ago on my tanks. But in these days i do great without it too.
> 
> I am not using Easy Carbo anymore in a small tank like yours. Especially with Shrimps. They are more tolerate to CO2 than Easy Carbo. If you do just use the default dosage.



Thanks Viktor, your advice has always been really helpful to me, I'll stick with the default dosing.  They recommend 1ml per 50 litres per day, so I'll up my 0.5ml per week to to 0.5ml per day just to be safe.

p.s cheers for the recommendation on the Eheim 2232...its awesome!


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## viktorlantos

NeilW said:
			
		

> viktorlantos said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Neil, i would not overdose Easy Carbo. Especially if you have otto and CRS. Easy Carbo is really concentrated, and with a little overdose the CRS will die. I had bad experiences in the past with shrimps. Using carbo a while ago on my tanks. But in these days i do great without it too.
> 
> I am not using Easy Carbo anymore in a small tank like yours. Especially with Shrimps. They are more tolerate to CO2 than Easy Carbo. If you do just use the default dosage.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks Viktor, your advice has always been really helpful to me, I'll stick with the default dosing.  They recommend 1ml per 50 litres per day, so I'll up my 0.5ml per week to to 0.5ml per day just to be safe.
> 
> p.s cheers for the recommendation on the Eheim 2232...its awesome!
Click to expand...


Neil, You're welcome


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## a1Matt

I am with Viktor, I think people get carried away with high dosing of liquid carbon.

Daily dosing at 0.5ml a day sounds good.

I dose AE's liquid carbon at 0.75-1ml a day in a medium density 160l tank. This is a third of the recommended dosage. I also have CRS and Oto's. They have not been affected. Except for the oto's getting obscenely fat (the carbon kills the BBA which they then eat).


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## NeilW

a1Matt said:
			
		

> I am with Viktor, I think people get carried away with high dosing of liquid carbon.
> 
> Daily dosing at 0.5ml a day sounds good.
> 
> I dose AE's liquid carbon at 0.75-1ml a day in a medium density 160l tank. This is a third of the recommended dosage. I also have CRS and Oto's. They have not been affected. Except for the oto's getting obscenely fat (the carbon kills the BBA which they then eat).



Excellent, thanks for the reassurance.  Now wether I manage to remember to do it daily is another matter   Hopefully it'll be OK if its not spot on time everyday.


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## a1Matt

... when I say daily, that really means an average of 5 days a week and at completely random times


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## NeilW

a1Matt said:
			
		

> ... when I say daily, that really means an average of 5 days a week and at completely random times



I can deal with that


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## mlgt

What affects will you see for instance if you were to dose easycarbo say every other day at random times?

eg, I dose today, forget to dose monday so does tuesday morning etc..


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## a1Matt

mlgt said:
			
		

> What affects will you see for instance if you were to dose easycarbo say every other day at random times?
> 
> eg, I dose today, forget to dose monday so does tuesday morning etc..



I make an effort to dose each day, but make no effort to dose at a regular time. I see no effects from this routine in my tank (which is a low light non injected slow growing tank).

If we were talking about injected CO2 instead of liquid carbon then I would say erratic levels is a recipe for disaster (disrupting the rubisco cycle and whatnot). That is a no brainer for me, I have messed up my co2 enough in the past to see the effects.  I doubt the liquid carbon works in the same way though.  If anyone actually knows the science of how the liquid carbon works enough to be able to give your question a good answer I would be curious to hear about it too.  

Tom Barr posted this about it a few months back, which I thought was interesting: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/ferti ... post825977


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