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Hi, EI is associated with CO2 injected tanks and it is the CO2 that is responsible for the accelerated growth rate. Plants are constructed primarily of carbon and they use the nutrients we dose to ensure healthy cells during that growth. It is more accurate to say, therefore, that injecting...

These are not pre-mixed solutions. They are just the typical Bromothymol Blue pH test reagent. You will need to mix them with distilled water adjusted to 4 dKH via a carbonate-only source. Cheers,

Hi, Yes, the ADA Amazonia scheme is also very successful because the clay pellets are soaked in a nutrient rich solution and are baked onto the clay. When flooded the high concentration of nutrients dissolve and leech into the water column. Aquatic plants feed equally as well from the...

Hi, Well it really would be very difficult to cater to light duration because the plants uptake nutrients all day, regardless of whether the light is on or not. A lot of things happen in the dark. The nutrient uptake is higher in the light, of course. In any case this avenue of thinking is...

Another satisfied customer. :happy: Another mind freed from the tyranny of The Matrix.:angelic: Cheers,

Hi, Glad you find the information useful. To answer your question it's necessary to understand the way light works. Imagine driving your car on the Motorway. You can drive in the slow lane or in the passing lane. In this analogy the light acts as the accelerator pedal. The farther you...

Thanks for the kind words mate. Much appreciated and thrilled to be of some help. If you are using an enriched soil such as new Amazonia then you can easily get away with not dosing for a while, however, as mentioned above, adding nutrients from day 1 does no harm. Aquatic plants feed from both...

Yes, this is wrong. Amazonia is extremely high in nutrient content. It is also clay which has a high CEC. Cheers,

Hello, There are a couple good reasons for reducing the dosage, but this does not have to be at too much cost to simplicity. Some people want to minimize the TDS of their water, this especially of those who keep soft water fish, and especially those interested in breeding soft water...

Did you actually read the first post of this thread? it describes how to keep track of CO2 and how much is needed. Please do more reading and less spamming. Cheers,

It won't make any difference, however everything is based on USG. Cheers,

Yes adding a second nutrifin unit will be the way to go. However, if you are just waiting for funds to get a gas cylinder, it might be better to simply reduce your lighting, which also reduces your demand for CO2. You can also add carbonated mineral water at lights on if you have cheap access to...

Petr, CO2 is not easy, and the most difficult form of CO2 addition is the fermentation method. It's a very irregular delivery mechanism. I'm not sure where you live, but if you are in the UK it is not very difficult to find gas cylinders. Nothing that you have been told is correct. Adding...

For the 1 millionth time, the only way to get more CO2 in a tank is to add more CO2. You cannot add CO2 by changing the KH. It's impossible Unless there are tiny CO2 cylinders hidden in the gravel, no gravel can increase CO2 and it's a waste of time to even consider it. In low tech tanks...

If I were you I would completely forget about calculating PPM. All you have to do as instructed in the tutorial is the multiply the 20USG dosing by the ratio of your tank size to 20G. If you have a 400G tank then the ratio is 400/20 = 20. That's because a 400 gallon tank is exactly 20 times...

Hello, I agree that EI is much simpler than people give it credit for, however, I'm not really sure where we're going with this. The starter pack provided to you by our kind sponsors, are designed within the context such that product weights are based on the per unit cost of the various salts...

Chaotic movement causes dead spots. Cheers,

That takes care of flow rate, but make sure that distribution is also good. It sounds like there might be conflicting flow patterns. All pumps should face the same general direction. Have a read of the thread Right distribution with spray bars on front?? | UK Aquatic Plant Society Cheers,

I worry more about getting CO2 to the bottom. CO2 grows plants, not photons. Cheers,

Yeah, that sounds like Klingon weaponology to me...... Cheers,

It's figuring out what level is sub-lethal that's the problem mate....very difficult proposition for Klingons who worship at the Temple of Megawatts.... Cheers,

Intensity is always more important than duration. Reduce intensity to sub-lethal levels and it won't matter too much what the duration is. Cheers,

Hi, Yes it seems reasonable as long as the plants do not suffer deficiency. I never correlate "danger" with "overdosing". I overdose all the time and never have a problem. People who don't dose enough are always having problems such as algae or poor growth performance, and I'm pretty sure that...

Hello, The real question is: "Why do you care what the uptake rate is?" The dosing scheme is designed to eliminate the possibility of nutrient deficiency, therefore, If there are no signs of nutrient deficiency then the uptake rate is fine. In any case, testing could never answer that question...

Hello, Did you read the original post in this thread? It specifically states that there is no relationship between the KH of your tank water and the behavior of the CO2 dissolved in the water. If you are using a dropchecker with the correct 4dKH water then you never need to worry about the...

I agree with Darrel that it's very complicated, and that's why people should avoid trying to control the pH. The pH should only be monitored in order to ascertain the behavior of components in the water column. Having said that, there is no way the pH will go up during the photoperiod. Sorry...

You do not need to add ammonia to your tank. It's pointless, especially in a planted tank, and especially if you are using Amazonia or soil/compost sediments, which leach large amounts of ammonia into the water column. You should concentrate more on doing frequent and large water changes and...

Hi, No, the noise is not really noticeable unless the injection rate is very high, especially if filter(s) are running. Cheers,

Hi mate, When you have a plant health issue, reducing the light intensity is always a good policy. Sometimes, reducing the photoperiod length is also helpful, but intensity is far more important. As I mentioned, you can do a blackout or even a "soft" blackout, as I call it, where you just...

Hi Dan, You can do a blackout and remove the affected leaves immediately, but the reason James mentions that cause is that usually, people setting up tanks use too much light and there are insufficient levels of bacteria in the filter and sediment, so this combination tends to trigger diatom...

Yes, you are wrong. Here is the something else: Overdosing does not result in algae. The photos in the original post are of a tank that was fed 3X-5X EI dosing and as you can see from the photos, the tank was algae free, so I can attest to this statement as fact. However, if you are near the...

Hi, Yes, you head is correct. The only problem might be that adding so much powder to 500ml may result in an inability to dissolve all the powder in that volume of water. Cheers,

Use whatever kit is cheapest and least complicated mate. Cheers,

Tom's absolutely right, of course, but inexperienced folks look at the charts and freak out, so it's a much more palatable proposition to just look at colors. It's hard enough convincing people that they shouldn't worry about the ph changes. Standard test kit warnings apply!:p Hi, Yes, the...

Yeah, and what size bubbles? And how much PAR? And how much plant mass? And what type of plants? And at what temperature? And how much surface agitation? And how efficient is the distribution technique? And is the tank covered or open? And is liquid carbon being supplemented? And how much growth...

OK, yep, you're right. I didn't go far enough back to see the beginning post. Sorry, I just saw fur flying so I zoomed in too close.:stop: I would have thought most probably that it will be the DIN 477. This standard exactly matches the British Standard BS341 No. 8 which is shown on that...

Hi, Just so we don't get into a cat fight, lets just say that it might have been kinder if bene had provided a link to get you started such as DIN 477 Standard Cylinder Valves. If you check page 1 of the pdf file it will show you item 6 for CO2 cylinders and will give you the measurements...

Only if you don't add enough of the salts. Cheers,

Hi Steve, Yes, it is useful. There is no way you can use Potassium Sulfate to make Epsom Salt out of that though. The H2SO4 you list in that equation is Sulfuric Acid, which will burn a hole in your foot and then through your floor if you spill it on your shoes (See Alien, starring...

Yeah, it's always worth having a look. The usefulness of each report differs because of reporting styles I was looking at a Dee Valley report for someone and it looks like that area has lowish-to-midling TDS, which kind of implies softer and low nutrient content water. There's a wide range in...

Hi Steve, The question of essential v non-essential is always fraught with danger because it really depends on the initial condition of your water. If I'm living in an agricultural zone and if I'm using the municipal water supply then the odds are good that the water is laden with...

Hi Alex, BBA has really nothing to do with nutrients. As mentioned by Richard, it's strictly a CO2 issue so it would be better to review the information in the algae section. EI ensures that your plants don't suffer problems related to lack of nutrients, but it's easy to get problems...

Good stuff mate. Yeah, there are actually people out there that think they do need to measure to the nearest grain, and they use electronic scales accurate to 3 decimal places. Some people even buy special 1/2, 1/4 and 1/8 teaspoon sets just for this purpose, and I just shake my head, muttering...

Hi Barry, I guess I'm at a loss trying to determine the need for all the recalculations. I'm particularly perplexed as to why you are performing calculations to the nearest 1/100th of a teaspoon. I like mathematics too but I also enjoy simplicity. The APF dosing instructions are to...

Hi, Check the thread What to put under inert substrate? Cheers,

Hi Mike, Again try not ot over-think this. Eutrophic dosing schemes means that there are sufficient nutrient levels in the water column. This cannot be affected significantly by the CEC of substrate. If you stick to the dosing regime the nutrient concentration "pull down" will be...

Hi mate, Yes, excellent summary. ;) There are several words I don't like to use because of their connotation. The word "excess" has a negative connotation and implies that something is out of control. It would be better to use the word "abundance", or preferably "unlimited". I think we sometimes...

Errr...guys, try not to lose your grip on this, OK? When we talk about EI and unlimited dosing it is within the context of starvation or deficiency. Unlimited nutrition means that for a given set of variables whose values are fixed, such as CO2, light, temperature, flow and so forth, the growth...

Hi Mike, Dosing once a week is not really a good idea but there is no law against it. The higher the nutrient concentration the higher the uptake rate so what happens is that when you dose a really high level the plants absorb the nutrients and grow quickly. Their mass increases...

Well, as I mentioned, it depends on what chelator is being used in the Iron only product. If that product also uses EDTA then it would not make sense, because EDTA is the problem. Further investigation reveals that according to the website http://www.aquariumplantfood.co.uk/fert ... 2-50g.html...

Hi, Cloudiness after dosing traces is typically associated with the breakdown of the the chelation in the trace mix. When this happens the PO4 in the water combines with the Iron or other metals from the trace mix. This combination results in a powder that is insoluble and because of that...

Hi mate, You can think of algae as either being parasitic or predatory. Either way produces the right mindset so that you interpret the events occurring in the tank in terms of plant health instead of thinking in terms of eradication. Parasites or predators are always smart enough to...

Hi Ady, Yes, absolutely. Certain plants will monopolize because they are more talented in their ability to gather CO2 and nutrients faster than others as well as having the ability to assimilate the nutrients and convert the nutrient energy into mass more quickly than other plants. This is...

London tap water has plenty of good stuff in it like Magnesium, Manganese, Chloride, Sulphate and Phosphate. It's in the middle in terms of NPK compared to municipal water supplies in agricultural zones. Strangely enough, from what I can see of the water report, unless I'm looking at the wrong...

Yes, it's fine. Just compare the list of ingredients to the list shown in the article and you'll see that they match up. Cheers,

Hi, Thanks. No worries at all. The densities of each powder are different, so I generally use the rule of thumb which is 6 grams per teaspoon. :wave: Cheers,

Yes mate this is fine. Overdo as much you like. We don't have a limits on overdo and that's what we've been trying to get across for the past 20 pages or so. Only when it becomes economically impractical, or if the rise in TDS becomes an issue, do you want to start backing off. When plants start...

Jaap, The best way to think about it is that, generally poor plant health triggers algal blooms. In that way, most times it helps you to focus on the solution, such as improving flow, nutrition and so forth. Algae can grow under these conditions just as well as they can grow under...

Hi Ady, Just have a gander at JamesC AIO page James' Planted Tank - All In One Solution. There you'll see some comparative concentration numbers for TPN+ as well as his DIY versions. You can see theat these are about a third the strength of the typical EI mix for most of the nutrients, however...

The thing to do is to fix, in your mind, the patterns and indications of CO2 failure. Any structural issues with plants is almost always due to a CO2 shortfall. This includes deformation, translucency, deterioration, holes, browning, melting, warts, rotting, curling, and often, cessation of...

Hi, Because every other possible fert is nowhere near as important as NPK. There are lots of other elements that are completely ignored by EI dosing schema. We do not address Sulfur, for example, or Cloride, or Nickel. At the end of the day this particular dosing scheme was developed in...

In powdered form. Just add water=> Koolaid Urban Slang - Drinking the Kool-aid Cheers,

Hi Jack, Well the thing is that during the gas off time the CO2 production by plants and fish is not really comparable to the amounts that we add by gas injection. The higher partial pressure of CO2 in the water simply causes the gas to dissipate into atmosphere. This is always...

Hello, Put the dropchecker wherever it is most convenient to look at it. As I've mentioned many times before, the DC is a guide, and so wherever you put it, it will read the CO2 concentration level at that location, however the concentration of CO2 is different at every single point in...

Hi Jack, Yes mate, it's as simple as that. Many aquatic plants have the ability to collect and store CO2 so that later in the photoperiod they have built up enough reserves to carry on even with a drop in available CO2. In the morning though the coffers are empty and it's difficult for them...

Well, there is no published life for Bromo Blue, and as long as the color changes continue then it's OK. We just recommend to replace it every few weeks or so just from a cleanliness perspective. Cheers,

Hola Tsigania, Most people don't like to do water changes (I hate water changing because it's boring). So that's why we normally only talk about doing it once weekly. But there is no problem doing 2 or 3 times per week, and I believe this is mucho mejor for the tank than...

Thanks Mark, On the far left is the hooligan stem Pogostemon Stellata and adjacent, to the right, is the red Alternanthera reineckii 'Purple' (lilacina). Then continuing to the right are two large groves of Limnophilia aromatica separated by an sword of unknown origin (I...

Hi Mark, Low level is zero such as found in RO water. Mg is a micronutrient, which means you only need micro amounts. That means 10ppm is plenty and if you have that much in the tap then you won't need to spend any more money. It's always worthwhile though to experiment a bit by adding...

Hi, Yes, that is correct. It would be a complete waste of time/money to buy digi scales just for this purpose, however, if you like to measure accurately to the nearest 1/100th gram, and if it makes you feel good, then by all means do so. Check this thread for one of my favorite Mark Evans...

Hi, Looking at James recipe for a 500ml bottle, you could just double the amounts for a 1000ml bottle so that would give you roughly: 20g (4 tsp) KNO3 4.6g (1 tsp) KH2PO4 16.0g (3 tsp) MgSO4 1g E300 Ascorbic Acid 0.4g E202 Potassium Sorbate 12g (2 tsp) Chelated Trace 1000ml Distilled...

As gmartins says, and as explained on JamesC website (as well as on the APF All-in-one mix page) adding iron products at the same time as phosphate products runs the risk of having the two combine to form precipitates and therefore you risk losing some of both. Only if the water you are adding...

Yep, you can add back trace later that day or the next day. When you're doing multiple water changes it really messes up the schedule so it' might be easier to use an all-in-one powder mix or to simply add NPK immediately afterwards and then traces a little bit later in the day/night. For dry...

Well, ...yes, you will. So just add more nutrients after the water change. No big deal. How much more you add will depend on how much water you removed. You don't need to perform any outrageous calculations. So for example, if you only did half as much a water change as specified in the...

Hi, You can do as many water changes as your heart desires. The idea is to clean the tank and to consistently have clean water. How you accomplish this is up to you. Cheers,

Re: Re: EI DOSING USING DRY SALTS There is no need to do anything differently otherwise the method would have a thousand exceptions for all the possible variations on theme. Start on day 1 and follow the plan. This keeps life simple. Again, stop complicating your life. Yes there is less biomass...

Hi Rob, No, if it's not distilled/de-ionized then it's not a good idea to use it in the dropchecker. You can make your own if you have access to an RO unit. Cheers,

Hi Rob, Yes, over the years, we've collected enough data to see that typically, a pH drop of about 1 unit from the starting water pH value correlates well to a workable CO2 concentration level. That means that before you start adding CO2 (blue dropchecker), if you measure the pH of...

Hi, This is not true at all. There is absolutely no correlation between the manufacturer's listed Kelvin rating and the performance of the bulb. In fact, the Kelvin rating of bulbs are not even close to being accurate. Plants use any visible light in the spectrum without regard to colour...

Hi Rob, I guess it's not really clear to me what the nature of your reservations are about adding CO2 to soft water. I've kept cardinals and rummy nose tetras in soft water pH 3 or so with added CO2. My dwarf chiclids bred in the community tank under these conditions. I also think...

You know, one of the things I find laughable is when people refer to an CO2 enriched tank as "high tech". Nothing could be further from the truth. The way in which we measure CO2 and the way in which we inject it is so Stone Age that it could only have been conceived by Fred Flintstone. Once the...

Well, whatever bubble rate you had before the water change should be the same rate more or less what you set it to after the water change. The KH of the tank water does not matter. For example, a bubble rate of 3 bps puts exactly the same amount of CO2 in the water whether the tank water was 6KH...

Errr..as stated in the article the dropchecker should be filled with distilled/RO water adjusted to 4 dKH. If you use tank water or tap water then you will have trouble. Yeah, you're way off the beaten track if you're having this much difficulty. I think you need to review the article, maybe a...

Correct! :thumbup: Actually, TDS will change constantly depending on waste production, nutrient addition and so forth. GH will change based on calcium and magnesium uptake/production. These shouldn't be wild swings though, otherwise, as Ed notes, this indicates some dynamic occurring. KH...

Well, that too would be completely over the top. The drop checker is a guide, which illuminates the path. It's an excellent reference, but it cannot tell you much more that what you can already determine by simple observation of plant health. If your carpet plants are turning brow or are not...

As long as you restrict the dropchecker's sample water to 4 dkH as suggested in the article the content of the tank water is completely irrelevant. Now, you should not be using any buffers at all as these are pointless. Neither fauna nor fauna care about the pH of the tank water so using buffers...

Yes, I agree with your rationale on placement. Most place the checker at the top simply to avoid having to bend down too much to read it. I also agree that not enough attention has been given to flow rate, although this idea seems to be catching on recently. If you're growing carpet plants then...

Could be. Need to see what we're dealing with and get specifics though. Same drill as per Standard Operating Procedures (SOP). Which thread has this tank and it's issues ( I lose track)? Let's head over there and troubleshoot. :wink: Cheers,

Gareth, poor CO2/flow/distribution might explain this. Cheers,

Hi, No there is no need to dose more. The listed dosages are actually based on Epsom salts so it's already taken into account. If you adjust further for the molecular weight of the 7 H2O you'll wind up dosing the entire kilo in one shot. :lol: Cheers,

Hi bazz, No difference whatsoever mate. In fact I think Epsom Salts is actually the heptahydrated form MgSO4·7H2O. Cheers,

Thanks Chris. Glad you find the data useful. You're right, there is certainly a lot of info there so one has to re-read a few times before things start to make total sense. The info is a distillation of years of work, done mostly by plantbrain. Sadly, the tank was dismantled a few months ago...

Yes, that's right. The reason I did that was because it seemed that you were intending to dose only 15ml instead of the 40ml which I calculated. For 500ml and the 23 gram powder you would have needed to dose 500ml/12doses = 40 ml per dose. if you were only dosing 15 ml of this 500ml solution...

Hi Sam, Typically the Iron (Fe) in the traces and the PO4 can combine to form insoluble precipitates effectively removing each them from the solution. Cheers,

Yes, they can be dosed on the same day. It's not really the end of the world because when they are in the tank the concentrations are much lower than in the bottle. Scaled from the reference tank a 240L tank (60gal) needs 3X the reference dosage so thats 3/16 teaspoons multiplied by 8X per...

Yes, Iron should always be used as a proxy for the other elements simply because trace mixes are predominantly Fe. Only a few mixes actually include Mg but this can easily be dosed via Epsom Salts, or if it is determined that the tap has sufficient Mg then one need not worry. As discussed...

Yes, nitrate has even been implicated in problems such as world hunger and even the Argentine economic collapse of 1999 as well so it doesn't surprise me that HITH is on the list. Meanwhile, as a point of reference, I have kept lots of rams and have never experienced HITH. My rams have bred...

Hi Simon, Yes, I know exactly what you mean. As far as can tell API Leaf Zone is just a trace element mix with Potassium (K). It's not that this product is necessarily inferior, it's just a problem of marketing. It cannot supply Nitrogen (N) or Potassium (P) which are thousands...

Yes, normally if you are dosing the prescribed KNO3 and KH2PO4 quantities then you automatically are dosing the proper amounts of K. Some prefer not to dose as much KNO3 though, feeling that their fish and food waste generates sufficient NO3. Depending on how much is dosed K2SO4 may be used to...

Well the basic information of that article is valid but I have not seen any evidence indicating toxicity at 40 ppm. But this is the nature of science and we have a better understanding today than we did 3 years ago. Three years hence I would hope we'd have an even better understanding than we do...