# How much TPN+ & EasyCarbo to dose daily?



## AdAndrews (3 Jun 2009)

I have a 35litre nano, fairly planted, not heavily though i was wondering how much tpn+ and easycarbo i have to dose daily, i am currently doing 1.5ml for easycarbo and 2.5ml for tpn+, but im not sure if this is too much and is one of the reasons for an algae attack 

please help

thanks


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## Nick16 (3 Jun 2009)

yes that is too much. i would only dose no more than 1ml of easy carbo, preferably a bit less and about the same for tpn.

Cut down to 1ml of each for now and see if it makes any differance.


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## AdAndrews (3 Jun 2009)

1ml of each it is.. is it best to give the plants a rest for a couple of days then? i have cleaned some of the algae up with a water change, but if i was dosing that much the clay substrate surely would have absorbed loads!

thanks nick


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## Nick16 (3 Jun 2009)

to a degree some substrates do absorb nutrients out of the water column, especially the clay based ones (most substrates are). However, you need to make sure that the algae is there due to the over dosing and not anything else. 
what type of algae is it? 
i would just slowly reduce the amount you are dosing. dont dose tommorow but the day after (fri) that reduce the dosing down and then sat reduce it a little more to the desired level


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## AdAndrews (3 Jun 2009)

well tbh the algae has several reasons to be there, the tank is getting too much sunlight through the closed curtains in the mornings- i am planning to move it onto a cabinet out of the sun in my room- see thread about cabinet..

and plus the tank is still in a cycle so the levels are changing all the while, te algae is diatoms(which i would expect anyway) green spot on glass, diatoms on hc and p.helferi, green hair algae on hc aswell, and lately, some blue/green horrible looking stuff, although i have sucked most of that up- i have lowered lighting to 6 hours a day from 8.5. and i will keep a cardboard box around it when sun is likely to hit it. ie. in the mornings.

thanks


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## ceg4048 (3 Jun 2009)

Wait a minute: your tank has algae and you decide to reduce your dosing? haven't you been paying attention? Your tank has algae because you are not dosing enough.



			
				AdAndrews said:
			
		

> ... green spot on glass, diatoms on hc and p.helferi, green hair algae on hc aswell


This is due to not enough CO2/Excel. you need to be increasing this dosing.


			
				AdAndrews said:
			
		

> and lately, some blue/green horrible looking stuff


Yes, that's called Blue Green Algae (BGA) and that happens when the hobbyist fails to add enough nitrate. So you'll be in real trouble if you decide to lower your dosing. You need to lower your lighting levels. It's not the sun that's your problem, it's the intensity of the light bulbs over your tank. Lower the intensity and these problems will be easier to handle.

Cheers,


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## Nick16 (3 Jun 2009)

but surely dosing more than 2.5mls of liquid carbon and TPN will have an adverse effect upon the inhabitants? 
im sure you dont normally need to dose than much. i know the same old... every case is unique... but there must be another way round. cutting back on lighting for example by moving the tank (as you are going to do) this IME is a much better method, rather than using the ferts in such heavy doses to fight the algae, if the tank didnt have a lot o exposure to sunlight you woulnt need to do this, and could save on the W/C and Â£Â£Â£


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## ceg4048 (3 Jun 2009)

Nick16 said:
			
		

> but surely dosing more than 2.5mls of liquid carbon and TPN will have an adverse effect upon the inhabitants?


Well this is always a possibility but is this a certainty? How can you be so sure? Have you actually tried it? Have you ever dumped enough TPN in a tank to kill or in any way harm it's inhabitants? I've not seen anyone actually demonstrate this. What I _have_ done is dump massive quantities of nutrients in a tank and the only problem I had was too much growth. The inhabitants were unharmed.



			
				Nick16 said:
			
		

> im sure you dont normally need to dose than much. i know the same old... every case is unique... but there must be another way round. cutting back on lighting for example by moving the tank (as you are going to do) this IME is a much better method, rather than using the ferts in such heavy doses to fight the algae, if the tank didnt have a lot o exposure to sunlight you woulnt need to do this, and could save on the W/C and Â£Â£Â£


Yes, I absolutely agree that the lighting in the tank is the main culprit. However, there is an even more fundamental issue at stake. The notion that the OP's algae problem was due to adding too much nutrition is the equivalent of saying that people starve when they are given too much food. This thinking leads to trouble ultimately. As far as I can see, it's a lot more trouble to build a cabinet to house a tank just because there is sunlight? Lower the light intensity add more flow, keep up with water changes/maintenance and dose more nutrients. And there is really no need to worry about TPN harming the tank inhabitants, thats for sure. The liquid carbon products are possibly a hazard to inverts but fish are a bit hardier.

This is what a tank looks like when given "such heavy doses of ferts":





This is what a plant can look like under heavy sunlight and "such heavy doses of ferts":





This tank get massive amounts of sunlight and "such heavy doses of ferts", yet there is no algae:





I don't see this as such a burden. I mean, isn't this the point? Why shove your tank in a closet and avoid dosing just so that you can practice mediocrity? If I had to choose between amazing and mediocre, I'd choose amazing, even if it meant that I didn't "save on the W/C and Â£Â£Â£".

Cheers,


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## Nick16 (4 Jun 2009)

i have actually killed quite a few things in my small tank, due to dosing 2.5mls everyday in my 40L tank. It killed all my shrimp, several neons and most of my white clouds. the tank was very heavily planted and established. I put it down to the constant exposure to the product. but the plants were growing rampantly.


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## AdAndrews (4 Jun 2009)

thanks, i think the problem is that it isnt cycled fully yet, so levels are all over the place.

thanks guys


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