drjack
Member
Hi, I am new to EI dosing, started about 3 weeks ago. I had algae problems I thought would be corrected by EI. First here are the details of my tank:
Tank: Juwel Vision 180 with 125 litres/33 US gallons water.
Lighting: Medium - 2x35W iQuatics T5 tubes 8 hours/day = 0.6 watts/litre or 2.2 watts/US gal
Substrate: Caribsea Eco-Complete
Filtration: Juwel supplied Bioflow 3 internal plus Eheim Ecco pro 200 external both 600lph
CO2: D-D Pressurised CO2, Bubbles/Min = 120, Drop Checkers both light green using 4dKh bromoblue.
Plants ~125
Fish 27: 1xCory , 2xOtocinclus , 2xChain loaches , 6xRasboras , 10xCardinals , 3xWidows , 3xShrimp
Using the info on this site I calculated my EI dosing as follows for my 33 gal tank:
KNO3 KH2PO4 MgSO4 Trace
Monthly 20gal (tsp) 2.4 0.8 6 0.4
Monthly 33 gal (tsp) 3.6 1.2 10 0.8
My problems are these:
Before I started EI dosing I had red beard algae covering moss on two pieces of wood, what looked like BBA on echinodorous leaves and some fuzz algae on stem plants.
After 3 weeks of EI dosing,and installing a small tunze pump to improve circulation I still have red beard algae covering the moss on the wood and I still get some fuzz algae on the leaves of my Ludwigia repens Rubin. I am also getting what looks like green beard algae on some of the slower growing leaves.
I was hoping that EI would ensure the plants had what they needed so avoiding most aglae types. My questions are:
1. Do my calculations look right for EI, or have I made a boo-boo somewhere and the plants are still not getting enough?
2. Should I discard the moss which is now heavily coated in red beard algae and start again or will it disappear if I can fix whatever is wrong in the tank?
3. From what I have read BBA (red and black) seems to be caused by a lack of CO2. But I think my CO2 is okay at 120 bpm. I have 2 drop checkers at each end of the tank filled with bromoblue and they are both light green. So should this be okay?
4. My small Tunze pump (nanostream 6015) is very strong, too strong, it really blasts the plants near it. Does anyone know of something more gentle that would give me circulation without Hurricane Irene ?
All help and views greatly appreciated.
Kind Regards, David
Tank: Juwel Vision 180 with 125 litres/33 US gallons water.
Lighting: Medium - 2x35W iQuatics T5 tubes 8 hours/day = 0.6 watts/litre or 2.2 watts/US gal
Substrate: Caribsea Eco-Complete
Filtration: Juwel supplied Bioflow 3 internal plus Eheim Ecco pro 200 external both 600lph
CO2: D-D Pressurised CO2, Bubbles/Min = 120, Drop Checkers both light green using 4dKh bromoblue.
Plants ~125
Fish 27: 1xCory , 2xOtocinclus , 2xChain loaches , 6xRasboras , 10xCardinals , 3xWidows , 3xShrimp
Using the info on this site I calculated my EI dosing as follows for my 33 gal tank:
KNO3 KH2PO4 MgSO4 Trace
Monthly 20gal (tsp) 2.4 0.8 6 0.4
Monthly 33 gal (tsp) 3.6 1.2 10 0.8
My problems are these:
Before I started EI dosing I had red beard algae covering moss on two pieces of wood, what looked like BBA on echinodorous leaves and some fuzz algae on stem plants.
After 3 weeks of EI dosing,and installing a small tunze pump to improve circulation I still have red beard algae covering the moss on the wood and I still get some fuzz algae on the leaves of my Ludwigia repens Rubin. I am also getting what looks like green beard algae on some of the slower growing leaves.
I was hoping that EI would ensure the plants had what they needed so avoiding most aglae types. My questions are:
1. Do my calculations look right for EI, or have I made a boo-boo somewhere and the plants are still not getting enough?
2. Should I discard the moss which is now heavily coated in red beard algae and start again or will it disappear if I can fix whatever is wrong in the tank?
3. From what I have read BBA (red and black) seems to be caused by a lack of CO2. But I think my CO2 is okay at 120 bpm. I have 2 drop checkers at each end of the tank filled with bromoblue and they are both light green. So should this be okay?
4. My small Tunze pump (nanostream 6015) is very strong, too strong, it really blasts the plants near it. Does anyone know of something more gentle that would give me circulation without Hurricane Irene ?
All help and views greatly appreciated.
Kind Regards, David