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IFC Aquarium Fertilizer Calculator
- Thread starter Hanuman
- Start date
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- calculator clone diy fertilizer ppm
Yes I definitely do! In fact you just caught me prepping my next batch on the calculator. I am doing some minor changes to my K ppm dosing.
If you want to front load then it's like when remineralizing. You are dosing the WC volume not the tank volume. Therefore in the TankAndDosing sheet I input the WC volume in place of the Tank volume. Like so:
100L is my WC volume. My tank volume is 150L or thereabout. Then go about and use the TargetCalculator to target your desired ppm for each element.
Did I answer the question?
JacksonL
Member
- Joined
- 27 May 2015
- Messages
- 120
certainly did, thanks mate
Aleman
Member
Quick Tip: set up separate tanks for different water change volumes ... Sometimes I do the 50% water change, sometimes (like now) it's 75% and very occasionally it's 66% ... Of course if you are dosing 20 different tanks already, that could be a problem 😀
Why is that then, rather than for the whole tank?
I'm struggling to set up for multiple tanks. Following the above, tat wet front loading, I should only fertilise for the replacement water, I'm trying to set up Macro for 130 Litres of water, and Micro for 270 Litres of water. When I click on multiple tanks and enter the information, as well as the ratios on the target calculator sheet, it doesn't seem to calculate the quantity of dry salts that I need to add.
If you front load by using the full tank volume and do 50% WC or even 60% or in fact any % below 100% what do you think will happen ? 😉 Accumulation baby!!
By dosing the WC volume you basically guarantee that you are maintaining equivalent amount of ppm in the tank from one week to the other. In other words you bypass the accumulation phase. This is what happens when you dose daily using the tank volume as a reference. Then do an X% WC then start dosing again... accumulation happens week after week. A lot of people are still clueless about this.
Not sure I understand the problem. Can you post some screenshots ?
GreggZ
Member
This is true.
And most don't understand how the water change percentage affects accumulation.
There is simple formula to calculate the theoretical maximum accumulation of fertilizers. It's the weekly ppm divided by the water change percentage.
So let's take NO3. If someone is dosing 20 ppm weekly, this is how water change percentage affects accumulation.
20 ppm weekly at 25% water change is 20 ppm/0.25 = is 80 ppm max NO3 accumulation.
20 ppm weekly at 50% water change is 20 ppm/0.50 = is 40 ppm max NO3 accumulation.
20 ppm weekly at 75% water change is 20 ppm/0.75 = is 26.66 ppm max NO3 accumulation.
Our focus should not be on the amount dosed, but on the eventual accumulation. If we dose based on the water we remove/replace with a water change, then we remove the water change percentage from the equation.
So if we want our max accumulation to be 25 ppm, then we dose all new incoming water to 25 ppm, regardless of the water change percentage. Remove 50 gallons, dose 50 gallons to 25 ppm.
I hope that make sense. Understanding this could help a lot of people understand dosing better.
Ive just upgraded to the latest version and it seems to be working now. Thanks
So are you saying that the rate of accumulation is different if we dose the same amount daily when compared to dosing everything in one go front loaded?
It's not whether you front load or dose daily that induces accumulation. It's the fact that you add an X amount of ferts to a volume but then only remove X-x% of that amount from the same volume with a WC. In contrast, when you use the WC volume as a reference to dose you are merely replacing what you removed or there about when you do a WC. It's the same principle as when you remineralize.
If you were using single digit numbers as tank names then I am not surprised it was not working. There was a bug in the Multiple Tank Database (Optional) dropdown list formula which was fixed in v1.2b1.
This all makes sense. However, it talks me back to my original point and a question I guess more broadly about the use of EI: if we are happy enough to have accumulation when we dose on a daily basis, why do we try to eliminate it when front loading by only dosing for the replacement water? Perhaps this is the wrong thread for this discussion.
You can technically front load on any regime, it's not EI specific. The prime objective of front loading is not to eliminate accumulation. It is to provide the tank with a stable TDS. When you front load you are basically putting back what you took out. This means that your TDS remains the same before and after a WC. It will slightly drop during the week due to plant and bacteria uptake but if you have fish they will also add some, so all in all, your TDS shouldn't move too much. The theory is that plants will not see any difference from before a WC and after a WC in terms of nutrients level since you are maintaining the same levels. That's the whole idea behind front loading. Stability. Not accumulation. Not EI related. Some also split the front loading in 2x which provides even greater stability.
Hopefully that answers it. Well at least that's my take of it.
Last edited:
JacksonL
Member
- Joined
- 27 May 2015
- Messages
- 120
this is the way of thinking that gave me a eureka moment when playing around with your accumulation spreadsheet.
Front loading takes away the water change variable and you just ‘dose’ your projected accumulation.
GreggZ
Member
Exactly. The funny thing is that the way most report dosing has little to do with the eventual levels in the water column. Like I said, that should really be the focus. And in general plants hate change and like stability. This is true regardless of the actual nutrient levels. Wild swings are rough on many plants.
GoldnWlf
Seedling
Hi. I believe I found a bug in the v.1.2b2 calculator. In the CoreSettings tab-Water Report section, the cell to enter your CH value is password protected. The other cells in the Water Report section are able to have numbers entered and seem to be fine. As far as I can tell, the only problem is the CH value cell. I am using Excel 365 on Windows.
Excellent. Thank you for spotting this. This needs immediate attention and I will correct it ASAP and release a new version today. Good opportunity to integrate other less critical bugs I have already corrected. I was waiting for something bigger to show!! 🙏