# E I Dosing with soils



## Alastair (14 Dec 2011)

Purely out of curiosity, when using soils like Ada aqua soil or columbo flora base, as these are very rich in nutrients, would it be the norm to reduce dosing amounts or do people still stick to full ei dosing?  
It will also help me for future reference. Thanks


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## Matt Warner (14 Dec 2011)

Hiya Alastair. I don't see that it would do any harm dosing full EI whilst using soil. I know that the soils contain the macronutrients, but I'm not sure how much of the micro nutrients they have. I have recently planted up my fluval flora which has nature soil. I didn't dose anything for the first week or so but I am now adding a few ml of tpn+ each day. At least if you dose EI then you don't have to worry about not having enough nutrients.


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## danmil3s (14 Dec 2011)

I think in high tec tanks most still dose full EI as they see the soil as more of a safety net.


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## Tim Harrison (14 Dec 2011)

Plantbrain's comments after my tutorial, "Introduction to Underwater Gardening with Soil Substrate" might be of some help. Just follow the link below.

http://www.ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=18943

Troi


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## Alastair (14 Dec 2011)

Cheers Matt, and troi, I read toms reply earlier, how ever the reason I'm asking is my tank is 125 gallons, with 3wpg of halides and full ei dosing. Fairky heavily planted but I've just used a fair amount of spare columbo flora base over the top of my cat litter as with the colour of the litter, it was very bright due to the halides. So I've topped it and mixed in the columbo. Saves it being sat. So just thought that I'd need to reduce the amount I'm fertilising with putting it in. I can still continue dosing the full amount but was wondering if I'd need to reduce slightly 


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## Tim Harrison (14 Dec 2011)

As far as Ada aqua soil or columbo flora base are concerned, at least, I guess the message is so long as nutrients, CO2, and lighting are in balance you can pretty much please yourself. And as already mentioned, the high nutrient content of these substrates acts as a safety net buffering against mistakes, or as Tom puts it soil based substrates give you 'more wiggle room'. So I guess the answer is, all things considered, you can still stick to full EI dosing if you want to. 

Also, full EI dosing is a useful reference point or base line upon which to base any subsequent tweaking, this way you can be sure that nutrient levels are maintained at ppm that ensure no limits to growth, so its a good place to start anyway. 

The following link takes you to another topic where Tom explains this himself. Better from the horses mouth, so to speak, in case I've misunderstood.  http://ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=18937&start=30

Anyway, it would be interesting to know how you get on.


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## milla (14 Dec 2011)

The columbo flora base like ADA releases ammonia when first wet so you may want to think about upping the water changes for a while.


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## Alastair (14 Dec 2011)

Yep I'm doing or will be doing a 20 percent water change every other day for a few days plus my 50 percent on Saturday. I also run two big filters on the tank which will help towards any increase of ammonia. 

Me too, I may just stick with the full dosing but also see what the soil does for the plants. If I get a better growth from it then I'm clearly not dosing enough lol


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## plantbrain (19 Dec 2011)

I like ADA As a lot, I had some in 1998, but did not give it a chance......thought it was weird, soft and too light and fluffy.

In 2003 I think, I tried it again and really never looked back.

I dose funny these days, generally 15ppm NO3 and 5ppm PO4 and about 0.5ppm of Fe every dosing, this might be 2x a week or 3.

ADA AS in all the tanks. 
ADA BTW suggest good 50% weekly water changes, every other day for the 1st 1-2 months(these will really help a new tank and prevent algae in most cases), even if you do not use ADA........


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