# EI calculation help



## eminor (27 Nov 2021)

Hi, I use the rotala butterfly calculator to make the doses for the EI method, I have distilled water to make things easier. I have an aquarium of ~51 liters, I want to dose 3 times a week for macro and micro, so I aim for 30ml to add 10ml each time. I don't have much magnesium left, so I need a huge dose. Can you tell me if this is correct?

For the traces I took the tnc trace as an example because mine looks very similar: Composition: Fe 7.48%; Mn 1.82%; Zn 1.16%; B 1.05%; Cu 0.23%; Mo 0.15%.

can i put micro and macro the same day ?

thx guys



> KNO3 :





> 1000 ml -> 30 ml = 41.5 grams
> NO3 target : 15 ppm
> N: 3.3
> K: 9.4
> ...


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## Gorillastomp (27 Nov 2021)

eminor said:


> can i put micro and macro the same day ?


Yes you can, just don't drop them together wait an hour or 2 between the dose.


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## eminor (27 Nov 2021)

Gorillastomp said:


> Yes you can, just don't drop them together wait an hour or 2 between the dose.


thx do you think my "calculations" are correct ?


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## Gorillastomp (28 Nov 2021)

You want to create a solution ?

What ppm you want to reach per week ?


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## Gorillastomp (28 Nov 2021)

eminor said:


> thx do you think my "calculations" are correct ?


Looks fine to me, you could ditch the K2s04 if you want.


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## MichaelJ (28 Nov 2021)

eminor said:


> Hi, I use the rotala butterfly calculator to make the doses for the EI method, I have distilled water to make things easier. I have an aquarium of ~51 liters, I want to dose 3 times a week for macro and micro, so I aim for 30ml to add 10ml each time. I don't have much magnesium left, so I need a huge dose. Can you tell me if this is correct?


All Macro salts I dose with my weekly WC water and don't really worry about mixing it up in water first.

As an example, If your doing a 25 L Water Change weekly:

NO3 Targeting 15ppm you add 0.5 grams of KNO3
PO4 Targeting 3ppm you add 0.1 gram of KH2PO4
K2SO4 targeting 20 ppm you add 0.5 gram of K2SO4 which yields ~9 ppm of K plus ~8 ppm from the KNO3 and ~1ppm from the KH2PO4.

In addition you need to dose Calcium - so based on your target of 10 ppm of Mg per week (very high btw.), Id say 30ppm of Ca:

Mg targeting 10ppm you add 1 gram of Magnesium Chloride
Ca targeting 30ppm you add 2 gram of Calcium Chloride

This will yield a GH of about 6.4.

Again, all above is based on 25L water changes. If you do 80% WC (or 40 Liter) you can multiply the above quantities by 1.6....   if you only do 30% WC (15 L) you can multiply the quantities by 0.6.

After a couple of water changes the tank will reach the equilibrium of your target ppm's minus the uptake - but don't worry about that - there will be plenty of everything. Just make sure you dose it consistently.



eminor said:


> For the traces I took the tnc trace as an example because mine looks very similar: Composition: Fe 7.48%; Mn 1.82%; Zn 1.16%; B 1.05%; Cu 0.23%; Mo 0.15%.


TNC Trace is a good option. Just dose the recommend or double it.


eminor said:


> can i put micro and macro the same day ?


Do the Macros with the WC - and wait a day before adding traces.  To make it easy on yourself, add the whole week of Macro as dry salts when doing the weekly WC and dose Micros (traces) every other day or so. This is not supposed to be tedious.

Cheers,
Michael


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## Gorillastomp (28 Nov 2021)

MichaelJ said:


> No its way off.


I think is making solutions which the calculations seem correct.


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## MichaelJ (28 Nov 2021)

Gorillastomp said:


> I think is making solutions which the calculations seem correct.


Yes, your right... I missed that part I guess. I edited my post. Thanks!


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## foxfish (28 Nov 2021)

Just keeping it  simple works for the  majority


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## eminor (28 Nov 2021)

MichaelJ said:


> Do the Macros with the WC - and wait a day before adding traces.  To make it easy on yourself, add the whole week of Macro as dry salts when doing the weekly WC and dose Micros (traces) every other day or so. This is not supposed to be tedious.
> 
> Cheers,
> Michael



thx guys, it's possible to do a single dose of macros per week, really ?


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## MichaelJ (28 Nov 2021)

eminor said:


> thx guys, it's possible to do a single dose of macros per week, really ?


Yes, @eminor  It's been working for me for a long time now in both my densely planted low-tech tanks. I am pretty consistent with my weekly WCs (and dosing) as well. I have no deficiency symptoms or algae to speak of. For a high tech tank (CO2 injected) however it might not suffice as you have a much higher level of metabolism in such tanks (10x - 100x usually).

With micros (traces) its a bit different. Everything micro is supplied in such small quantities (fractions of ppm's) and some have a relatively short lifespan so the micros you should provide a couple of times a week.

Also, I forgot to mention above that mixing up the dry salts (Macros) in a dosing bottle can be problematic because of their relatively poor solubility. Which in turn makes the water mix hard to dose consistently (i.e you end up with a lot of undissolved residue at the bottom of the bottle). I tried it. I find it much easier and consistent to measure out the salts using a small microgram scale such as this

Cheers,
Michael


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## eminor (29 Nov 2021)

MichaelJ said:


> Yes, @eminor  It's been working for me for a long time now in both my densely planted low-tech tanks. I am pretty consistent with my weekly WCs (and dosing) as well. I have no deficiency symptoms or algae to speak of. For a high tech tank (CO2 injected) however it might not suffice as you have a much higher level of metabolism in such tanks (10x - 100x usually).
> 
> With micros (traces) its a bit different. Everything micro is supplied in such small quantities (fractions of ppm's) and some have a relatively short lifespan so the micros you should provide a couple of times a week.
> 
> ...


yes macro is hell especially po4 to dissolve, i shake them great before use, i'll dose everyday, one day macro, next day micro, it will be better i think


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## MichaelJ (30 Nov 2021)

eminor said:


> yes macro is hell especially po4 to dissolve, i shake them great before use, i'll dose everyday, one day macro, next day micro, it will be better i think


Hi @eminor , Just weigh out the five dry salts as specified above, put it in a jar with some tanks water, shake it up and dump it into the tank right after the WC - takes me 30 seconds - a tiny fraction of the time it takes me to do the WC. Again, this is not supposed to be tedious.

Cheers,
Michael


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## Kelvin12 (3 Dec 2021)

Interesting write up MichaelJ.   I just wanted to follow this post but couldn't work out how to watch without commenting.


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## Gorillastomp (3 Dec 2021)

Kelvin12 said:


> I just wanted to follow this post but couldn't work out how to watch without commenting.


Look at top right of the first post, should have a "watch" button


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## Kelvin12 (3 Dec 2021)

Thanks mate, done.


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