# Aquarium plant food recipe vs nutrient calculator



## Daniel Andres (15 Mar 2021)

Good morning, 

I have just set up a new scape and am considering using EI to reduce my running costs (currently dosing Tropica specialised). 

I thought I would compare the suggested recipe that came with my aquarium plant foods dry salts with the suggested amounts from the dosing calculator on this site and they are quite a bit different in terms of quantities. 

I do understand that the whole point of EI is to over estimate so the plants won't develop deficiencies but am just wondering if I would be better off fallowing the amounts from the calculator rather than the recipe card.

Cheers Dan


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## Geoffrey Rea (15 Mar 2021)

Hi @Daniel Andres 

The whole point of APF’s recipe is it’s adequate to achieve EI for a whole range of water parameters and it is difficult to get it wrong using spoons.

There’s a decent amount of nitrate and magnesium in the tap water here and would still just use the recipe on the card regardless. It’s simple and you’re less likely to mess up your mix (we’ve all done it using scales when tired/distracted). Just make sure you’re doing large water changes each week to reset and all will be well.


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## Zeus. (15 Mar 2021)

Hi and welcome to the forum,

EI dosing is about dosing ferts in abundance doing large Water Changes (WC) 50% and not testing water parameters with test kits. The only test kit is the plants and do they look good, minimal signs of algae with good healthy plant growth. There isn't a magic level that suits all tanks and all commercial ferts vary in what they contain and what salts are used to make them. Tap water varies also with location and seasonally, so unless you take the Reverse Osmosis (RO) route for water which can be costly, it can be hard to know whats in your tank water. Many folk just accept the tap water and trail and error work out what they can grow well and what they struggle with.

Then we have are lighting levels/intensity's light duration CO2 injection and CO2 concentration, flow is tank, is CO2 stable, fish load.

So choosing which fert to use is tricky, I would advise EI dosing and watch you plants, APFUK is a good staring level of ferts esp if using Aqua Soil (AS) which has nutrition already. If plants look deficient increase you dose or do a post with dosing levels and a few pics and tank details. Doing a journal is very handy as you will have everything noted down ready if you run into problems and getting help is easier, plus good to follow as well.




 

Zeus


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## Daniel Andres (15 Mar 2021)

Thank you so much for your responses. 

So I'm best just sticking to the apf recipe then. I have used JBL proscape soil with the volcanic powder base so the roots should be well supplied with nutrients for a good while at least. From the table @zeus Provided it looks like apf is a slightly weaker mix so understand the importance of a decent soil in this situation. 

Thank you again for shedding some light on this for me.


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## X3NiTH (15 Mar 2021)

JBL don’t state the elemental analysis for the Volcanic Powder but they do state it’s from Eifel Germany, which would be the Goldberg Volcano. Because it’s in a powder form the easiest (cheapest) rock type to process would mean it’s source is likely to be the pyroclasts.

Here’s a compositional analysis of the Goldberg deposits - Composition of tephra of the Goldberg volcano (West Eifel, Germany)...

For ease here is the analysis for pyroclasts-


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## Daniel Andres (15 Mar 2021)

Thanks for taking the time to  find this out for me. I'm not going to lie, I haven't got a clue what to make of all those figures! 😆


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## X3NiTH (15 Mar 2021)

The figures tell you that it’s all oxides undergone an exceptionally long time being exposed to the elements and remains almost wholly unchanged in composition when compared to lava deposition.

The only way these minerals become available to plants is if there are reactions in the water due to chemical or biological processes that may be able to cleave some ions free from the oxides to allow the plant roots that physically interact in this space to uptake the nutrients.

You can’t compare this source of nutrition with water column fertilising dosing because they are leagues apart.


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