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Not A Clue About EI Or Dry Ferts !

Hi,

Personally I use RO water and mix up a months worth at a time. But I'm sure you could use tap water if you had to, I doubt you'd need to dechlorinate it though with such a relatively small quantity.

As I said before its as easy as making a cup of coffee. I'm sure if shown how your misses is easily capable of doing it when required. But I don't think there's anything stopping you making large batches except the ability to react with the plants/tanks requirements.

I'll be totally honest here and say that if I were to leave my planted tank alone for 4 months, fed but unattended, then I'd expect to come home to an overgrown mess.

I think if your looking for a low maintenance planted tank that you can leave alone for several months at a time then low tech is the way to go and definitely not EI.

Regards, Chris.
 
thanks for the quick reply chris,

I've got a while until I go again but will happen soon. So in the time before I go I'll get her up to speed with dosing and pruning, dont you worry. (I hope)

I've checked my water in the area and it contains chlorine but not chloramine so i think I should get away with it as long as I leave it long enough before adding to the tank. But again I'll show her how to mix up a batch on a monthly basis so she knows for when I go.
 
Ok thanks for the help. I dont really want to plant anymore . Ive got injected C02 but it hasnt been on for 2 months now due to I dont want to turn it on without a Drop Checker, in which i dont have. Also if I dont want to plant anymore am I unable to use EI? Thanks!
 
Hi Swan900
If you don't want to plant anymore that's fine. The only thing is you will need a lot less ferts, especially as you are not running the CO2, so you certainly won't need EI levels of ferts.
So you use the same powders, just less of them.
If you're going to get your CO2 up and running anytime soon I would start with the dosage recommended on the first page. No dramas.
If you do not plan to have CO2 at all, you can reduce the amount of ferts gradually until you see a negative response from your plants, leaving about 3 weeks between each change. Without the CO2 your plants will still grow, but about 10x slower.
The only problem you may encounter is that you may have too much light for a no CO2 tank.
You have just under 2 wpg. (63 litres = 16.6 US gallons and you have 30w of lighting).
Without the CO2 the plants will try to grow fast (because of the amount of light), but the plant itself will not be able to take up the nutrients quick enough without the CO2, therefore the plants cell structure will break down, the plants will suffer, and you will get algae for sure, caused by the ammonia leaching from the failing leaves. If you are not going to reinstate your CO2, then I would recommend lowering the lighting. You will therefore have slower growth rates so you will need a lot less ferts.
That would then be considered a low tech tank. So no water changes. You'd need to dive over to the low tech section of the forum for more info.
The other alternative is to use liquid carbon, but apart from being a lot more expensive than the CO2 gas, there are known issues with this stuff.
 
Ahh brilliant mate thanks for the help! I was really scared you was going to say its a waste of time doing EI if your not going to plant more. I will get a couple more plants and I will get my C02 up and running but use the fish and plants as my indicators. I may in the meanwhile snap up some easy carbo. Will that rid of the BGA in the same way as Flourish Excell? Im really excited about delving into EI and to see the implications (hopefully posative) it has on my plants. Thanks again!
 
Treated tapwater should be fine. Not sure about how long it lasts. James Planted Tank (can't link to it form stupid work computer but google it and it'll come straight up) has some info in this i believe.
As far as your algae goes EI should help boot the BGA - raised nitrates are known to be toxic to BGA. HA is commonly due to poor CO2 distribution so that's where you need to look.
...and don't worry about nitrates being harmful to fish. They arent. Full stop. End of story!
Hope this helps!
Matt
 
Hi Swan900
Glad we could help 😀
Swan900 said:
I may in the meanwhile snap up some easy carbo. Will that rid of the BGA in the same way as Flourish Excell?
Click to expand...
The Easycarbo will not get rid of your BGA but upping your nitrates will, and you'll be doing that when you start dosing anyway 😀 .
The Easycarbo will help in your battle with the hair algae though :thumbup:. It will also be your source of Carbon until you get your CO2 gas going.
Swan900 said:
Im really excited about delving into EI and to see the implications (hopefully posative) it has on my plants.
Click to expand...
It will only be positive :thumbup:

Finally, there are many round here that use CO2 without a drop checker to keep as much equipment out of the tank as possible. My advice would be to start with a low bubble count but leave it running for 2-3 hours before making any upward adjustments and keep a close eye on your fish. If your fish become stressed and gasping for air at the surface you've overcooked it and need to turn it down a notch or two. You can't OD the plants on CO2 as they love the stuff so your fish are your best indicator. As you will be leaving 2-3 hours between adjustments you will only be able make 2, possibly 3 adjustments a day during your lighting period. Don't make the mistake of upping your CO2 and then going out for the day, that could end in tears and you could lose all your fish. It sometimes takes 2 or 3 days to get your CO2 up to acceptable levels if you are not using a drop checker, but it can be done.
Just for your info, when I started EI, I saw dramatic improvements in about 2 weeks 😀
Good luck and keep us posted.
 
I will definately keep every one posted and I can't thank you enough Chris for the help and the other UKAPS members. Well my ferts get here monday and can't wait to get them to use! I'll post the pics of the plants I get tomorrow. Thanks again mate! Swan
 
Hi Swan900
Swan900 said:
I will definately keep every one posted and I can't thank you enough Chris for the help and the other UKAPS members.
Click to expand...
That's what makes UKAPS a cool place to be 😀 .
I only have a meagre 14 months experience with this EI stuff, but what I do know is my plants haven't had a single deficiency in this time and I haven't got any algae issues to speak of (except a bit on some rocks which my shrimp like to munch).
There are many others around here with loads more experience than me willing to share their knowledge.
One that springs immediately to mind is Clive (aka ceg4048), who posted earlier in this thread. What he done for you, he done for me 14 months ago (calculations etc.) and he has done for many others too. I'm sure he must be fed up with doing that by now. He could sit back and relax and enjoy his tank and not bother because he's nailed this planted tank business. If you've read the EI tutorial you will have seen his tank, 'Full Metal Jacket' at the bottom of the post to see what I mean. Yet he still pops up (usually daily) and offers help and advice to inexperienced and experienced people alike.
A testament to someone with a passion for the planted tank. He doesn't need to bother, but I for one, am glad he does :thumbup:
 
bigmatt said:
...and don't worry about nitrates being harmful to fish. They arent. Full stop. End of story!
Hope this helps!
Matt
Click to expand...

Hi,

Sorry bigmatt I don't agree with this as a sweeping statement. Some fish species are known not to be tolerant of high nitrates, Rams, Discus and Angels spring straight to mind but I'm sure there are others.

However at least the nitrates that we dose don't come from the nitrogen cycle within the tank so the ammonia/nitrite stages are excluded which makes it better and the upper levels that can be tolerated are generally a lot higher than most common advice but are still surely species dependent.

Regards, Chris.
 
The sensitivity of these and other species is not to the nitrate itself but in part due to the ammonia, which is highly toxic (approximately 6000X more toxic than NO3) and to the nitrate formation because in the Nitrogen Cycle the ammonia has to be oxidized, which robs the water column of Oxygen. Even at the intermediate stage, NH3->NO2, this causes problems because NO2 is only slightly less toxic than NH3. So the fish suffer immediate NH3/NO2 toxicity and also suffer hypoxia simultaneously. This is what kills fish. High organic nitrate is only the smoking gun. Ammonia due to organic waste is the bullet.

The inorganic NO3 that you add, as mentioned by Chris does not rob the tank of Oxygen because the Nitrogen and Oxygen are already combined. That's why the species that we keep fish can tolerate very high doses of inorganic NO3. If we were keeping Salmon or trout then that would be a different story because they have shown a much higher sensitivity. I've kept Rams, Discus and Angels with high NO3 levels without any issues - but the tanks are kept scrupulously clean to remove the organic waste, which is the source of the trouble.

That's why people really need to re-think their water change policies. Do more water changes and your fish will live a lot longer. This, really, is totally independent of your dosing philosophy. CO2 enriched high light tanks produce more than their fair share of organic waste. That's why more attention has to be paid to their cleanliness.

Cheers,
 
On the subject of mixing my NPK and Trace batches up, is it ok to use mineral water like Evian or just use tap? Thanks!
 
Good grief, do you know how much Evian costs at Tesco? Nearly 40p per litre. If I buy Evian it's definitely going down my gullet. No way I'd use it for fert mix. You're already paying for tap water so may as well use that.

Cheers,
 
No I have a surplus of it. 'Off The Lorry' stuff if you catch my drift. Is it safe to use with fert mix? Thanks!
 
Swanny
Brilliant, you extracting the urine :lol:
Evian its million of years old :crazy: Only jesting of course, yep you can use it.
You sure its not from Peckham Springs.......... Del boy will have something to say about that :lol:
Regards
hoggie
 
Hahaha, Peckham Springs 🙂 It is basicly a modern day version of that all the bottle water cons.

With my algae situation you say to overdose Flourish Excell. What do you mean by overdose? Twice the reccomended amount? Thanks!
 
Hi,

Yeah that should do it and more importantly lots and lots of large water changes, 50% or more every other day at least. Be careful not to give your fish thermal shock though, try to replicate the tank temp as near as you can with the replacement water.

Regards, Chris.
 
Thanks for the reply Chris. But an overdose of Flourish Excel twice my tanks reccomended dosage? Also when I do my daily dosing of ferts is it best to do it once the lights are turned on or does it matter when you add them? Thanks again for the help!
 
Hi Swan900
I have double dosed with Easycarbo before and not had any problems, just make sure you don't have any shrimp as they can't tolerate it as much as the fish. Also, there are a few plants that don't like it too, but not many.
With regards to when to dose. It doesn't seem to matter. Some do it at lights on, some do it when they feed their fish after lights on, I do it before I go to work (no lights on) and everyone, who has sorted their CO2 and distribution, seems to have healthy lush plant growth. So it doesn't really matter when you dose, you just have to get into a routine that suits you.
If you're in the habit of feeding your fish daily, why not do it then. Might be easier to remember 😀 .
 
Thanks Chris. But will EasyCarbo erradicate my algae like Flourish Excel will? Thanks again! Swan
 
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