# Ei ferts



## Dirtyninja99 (16 Jul 2021)

Hi im new to all this but have done a good bit of reading about ei ferts but im still unsure. My question is related to phosphates and ei dosing. Ive done test and result is showing that my phosphate level is higher than 1.8 ppm as the colour is a darker blue than the highest blue on the test chart. I tested my tap water and it appears that my tap water also has high phosphate so what i need to know is when i mix the ei salt should i exclude the potassium phosphate as i already have a high amount in my tap water. My nitrate at the end if the week is around 10ppm. The tank is quite heavily planted and heavily stocked 50 gallons. Its lit by a fluval plant 3.0 59 watt and a fluval aquasky 29 watt. Ive got the lights on for 8.5 hours a day in a set routine pre programmed. Comes on gradually and gets to 50 percent max as im having algae issues. Its green spot algae and bb algae.i fertilize with seachem flourish twice a week and api co2 booster atm. Im looking to get a jbl m503 co2 set soon as im aware of the importance of co2. Ive just had to cut away half the leaves in the tank because of the algae. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks


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## ceg4048 (16 Jul 2021)

Dirtyninja99 said:


> Ive done test and result is showing that my phosphate level is higher than 1.8 ppm as the colour is a darker blue than the highest blue on the test chart. I tested my tap water and it appears that my tap water also has high phosphate so what i need to know is when i mix the ei salt should i exclude the potassium phosphate as i already have a high amount in my tap water.


Hello,
        The worst thing you can do in a planted tank is to determine your dosing policy by using test kits. They are notorious for their inaccuracy as well as for their inconsistency. No one actually knows what PO4 test kit measure. As a corollary to that, the other worst mentality you can have is to be afraid of high nutrient levels. The combination of these two will always lead you down the path to nowhere. PO4 and NO3 are not the boogie man so many people are afraid of. The higher the nutrient levels the more healthy the plants are, and the more healthy the plants are the more oxygen they produce for your fish. Oxygen is in very short supply in tanks and the root of many diseases and other health problems with fauna in a tank can be traced to the poor supply of oxygen.

When you prepare an EI solution you should never worry about what your water's nutrient content is. Prepare the solution always assuming that the water has zero nutrient content and you will never go wrong.

Green spot algae (GSA) and black brush algae (BBA) are caused by poor CO2, so you should review your CO2 method. Until you have a working gas system it is suggested that you significantly reduce the light intensity and to perform daily dosing of a liquid carbon product such as Excel or equivalent.

Cheers,


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## Gorillastomp (16 Jul 2021)

I am bit a bit confused if you are already dosing with dry ferts or only seachem flourish ? Btw Seachem flourish only is not enough, its mostly a really lean trace mix.

It seems you have mostly slow growing plants too, so a lower light intensity would be better.

@ceg4048 Just a question about what is considered an heavily planted tank here ? To me OP is more on the medium spectrum than what he suggest to be heavily planted.


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## ceg4048 (16 Jul 2021)

Gorillastomp said:


> @ceg4048 Just a question about what is considered an heavily planted tank here ? To me OP is more on the medium spectrum than what he suggest to be heavily planted.


Hi Gorilla,
                 Well, that's a really difficult question to be definitive about. On the one hand I suppose you could define it in terms of the percentage of substrate square footage that is covered by plants and maybe pick some arbitrary value, like 60% or greater, but this may be meaningless if the plant choice is slow growing or carpet types. On the other hand you could pick some arbitrary number for plant mass in kilograms per unit area. This leads to all sorts of argument especially if the hobbyists can only afford a certain amount of purchase.

What I do is to first concentrate on the plant types and number that will be in the final scape and then I get as many cheap and large rooted plants as I can afford. The "filler" plants need not be anything special and they can be considered "disposable" because they are there for one purpose only and that is to help chemically stabilize the tank by
a) putting down and spreading as many roots in the sediment as quickly as possible so as to pump oxygen into the sediment and in so doing, encourage as many aerobic microorganisms as possible.
b) absorbing NH3/NH4 as quickly as possible.
c) grow quickly, and by so doing, pump as much oxygen into the water column as possible.

So the type of "disposable" plants are those that excel in these areas. Quick spreading rooted plants are, for example, run-of-the-mill large crypts and swords. Quick growing plants for oxygen supply are, for example hygrophilas and Ludwigias. Strong absorption for NH3/NH4 are the "old school" plants such as Egeria densa - the champion of NH3/NH4 absorbers. These happen to be the cheapest plants as well so it would be easy to buy a lot of these and to just place them anywhere, without regard to "scape". I think too many people get obsessed with scaping perfectly from the outset and this is really not productive and pales in comparison to stability of the tank.

So in the case of the photo above, although there is a large open area that could use some more of these helper plants, the plants that are there seem to have substantial mass both above and below the substrate.

Sounds wishy-washy, I know, but how long is a piece of string? 

Cheers,


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## erwin123 (16 Jul 2021)

ceg4048 said:


> So the type of "disposable" plants are those that excel in these areas. Quick spreading rooted plants are, for example, run-of-the-mill large crypts and swords. Quick growing plants for oxygen supply are, for example hygrophilas and Ludwigias. Strong absorption for NH3/NH4 are the "old school" plants such as Egeria densa - the champion of NH3/NH4 absorbers. These happen to be the cheapest plants as well so it would be easy to buy a lot of these and to just place them anywhere, without regard to "scape". I think too many people get obsessed with scaping perfectly from the outset and this is really not productive and pales in comparison to stability of the tank.



This is really great advice. I just want to add that some of these "disposable plants" are actually quite nice.  Ludwigia "Super Red" is a very pretty stem plant and it grows like a weed both submersed and emersed.

If the plants outgrow their usefulness in the tank, find them a good home outside the tank by growing them emersed in a pot.   L. Super Red is also quite pretty emersed.


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## Zeus. (16 Jul 2021)

Dirtyninja99 said:


> .i fertilize with seachem flourish twice a week





Gorillastomp said:


> Btw Seachem flourish only is not enough, its mostly a really lean trace mix.



Weak is an understatement. When we was putting the IFC fert calculator together we had to de-active Seachem Flourish as all that was showing was '0.0'

From my version-




One of the minor possible extras you get with Seachem Flourish is it does have a little Cobalt, which 'may' be handy if using RO water


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## Dirtyninja99 (16 Jul 2021)

Hi thats great advice thanks. Im not using ei ferts yet im just reading up on it to get the confidence to start with it as im aware the seachem flourish is very weak and doesnt have much macro ferts in it. So to sum up i dont need to worry about current nutrient levels and i just need to start with the recomended ei ferts regime. Ive seen a set on ebay for 25 pound for everything needed. Should i get this or can you recommend a good supplier of ei ferts package. Im getting a jbl co2 system with computer soon e 503 i think its called, its 360 pound for co2 canister, regulator, reactor chamber, monitoring computer, calibrator wand,  airlines, ferts and ph up and down. Does this sound like a good deal. Advice much appreciated. Thanks again.


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## Gorillastomp (16 Jul 2021)

What you need is a Co2 canister, some dual state regulator with a needle valve, Co2 air line tube, any type of diffuser/reactor (imo reactor are better) and a good quality/calibrated PH Pen to monitor your PH while setting up the co2.

IMO the PH monitoring/controlling unit is unnecessary, It can even make your co2 concentration going up and down during photoperiod which is not great. Always better to have a constant flow of co2.


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## Dirtyninja99 (18 Jul 2021)

Ok yea ill leave the ph controller as their quite expensive and ive seen a good few other ppl saying there not worth it and can cause issues. Does anyone have any recommendations for a good ei ferts supplier?. Thanks


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## Zeus. (18 Jul 2021)

APFUK starter Kit


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