• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

What am I doing wrong?

Hi had the same issue with the black edging around my plants thought it was bba my tank is 23l with good circulation I run my co2 at 1bps and ei dosed at 5ml macro 5ml micro alternate 5 days a week with 2 rest days and 50 percent water changes on Sunday when the plants established I got the black edging and searched on line all I had to do was increase my micro to 7.5 ml and within 2 week it was gone and my plants started pearlin like mad I did prune all the worst leaves away so the new growh was getting the energy rather than the old growth hope this help had my chirios led on 5 of 7 the whole time and my co2 defuser at my intake Lilly to help spreading the bubble around more efficiently
 
Jayefc1 said:
Hi had the same issue with the black edging around my plants thought it was bba my tank is 23l with good circulation I run my co2 at 1bps and ei dosed at 5ml macro 5ml micro alternate 5 days a week with 2 rest days and 50 percent water changes on Sunday when the plants established I got the black edging and searched on line all I had to do was increase my micro to 7.5 ml and within 2 week it was gone and my plants started pearlin like mad I did prune all the worst leaves away so the new growh was getting the energy rather than the old growth hope this help had my chirios led on 5 of 7 the whole time and my co2 defuser at my intake Lilly to help spreading the bubble around more efficiently
Click to expand...

It does mate, a lot. Thank you. Would be cool to see some pics of that bad boy!

Will try some of these comments and keep you guys posted, you using the same chihiros as I am with the black finish, 14w? When you say you increased micro - was that dosing EI daily, or still alt? Was thinking of making some EI mix with everything in there to make it easier? Seems that George Farmers recommended EA bottle would cost a bomb over 3 tanks dosing daily, bottle a week pretty much!

That’s heavy dosing too dude what plants are you running - will you reduce once they recover?

Also thought the same to run in into the intake so it mixes in the filter actually!

Cheers


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Yeah I made a mix up and dose alternate days 3 days macro 2 days micro just increased the dose on micro days and the light a series still have some black edging on the anubus but it grows so slow so didnt wanna cut them off '15225128152452075425966.jpg got all my salts aquarium plant food UK and followed there mix enough salts for about 3 years for 25 quid
 
Last edited:
Just a thought have u read ceg 4048 EI dosing and dry salts sticky it is pretty interesting stuff on here had to read it like 10 times to proper understand it well some of it lol
 
Jayefc1 said:
Just a thought have u read ceg 4048 EI dosing and dry salts sticky it is pretty interesting stuff on here had to read it like 10 times to proper understand it well some of it lol
Click to expand...
There isn't a lot to understand with EI salt dosing. The only thing that needs to be understood is if you add the suggested amounts there is more fertiliser in your tank than you will ever need. Understanding done

Sent from my STH100-2 using Tapatalk
 
Ha fair point.

Awesome looking tank well done! Was looking at the same idea yeah. What else does the complete feet have do you know- and can that be easily added to the salts as well?
 
Don't want to be the one who p1sses all over George's parade here, I follow his work and see he and many others are getting great results using those ferts, what the secret ingredient is or if there is one i don't know. What I do know is the same results can be achieved just using the raw chemicals. Comes down to whether you can be bothered mixing your own. On small tanks it can be cost effective.

When the salts are added at the correct amounts there's no need for anything else. You could use up your existing trop spec as traces and boost with salt if you want and get some traces later. I think rotala butterfly tells you what's in the trop spec so it would just be a case of working out what it's short of.

Sadly Ae ferts have found themselves in the realm of poacher come game keeper unless they tell you a good reason why their ferts are any different.
 
There just like modern day life the easier it is the more it costs it's that simple and we do have to remember George is prob sponsored by the the company a on his u tube channel and mixing ur own is a lil scary for us novices but at least u are in control and know exactly what it putting in to ur tank
 
These guys probably the best to buy from chaps do you think?

Agree 100% we can all appreciate George’s position and I’m sure the Fertilisers are top notch no doubt, saw a video he did explaining them and it’s been made right, but as you said sponsorship and loyalty play a part but that’s also commendable if the gear is something you’re proud of.

My plans to fix the tank moving forward:

1. But and mix my own EI salts and create some ferts - possibly all in one as George seems to have great success dosing with this method?
2. Keep the lighting down to 4 notches out of 7 to allow plants to recover.
3. Change all the drop checkers, do another 50% change and buy a new co2 cannister to make sure. If checkers don’t change then I will do what Foxfish said and test for Ph.
4. Use my new NEO diffusers recommended by George and see if they obtain better diffusion.
5. Hopefully see a huge difference in the tank!

Thanks everyone will keep this updated


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
That's who I got mine from bye the starter pack had bottles and every thing in even a card with quantities telling u how to mix and was delivered within 3 days only made 1 mix and i got mine in October
 
Something Fishy said:
These guys probably the best to buy from chaps do you think?

Agree 100% we can all appreciate George’s position and I’m sure the Fertilisers are top notch no doubt, saw a video he did explaining them and it’s been made right, but as you said sponsorship and loyalty play a part but that’s also commendable if the gear is something you’re proud of.

My plans to fix the tank moving forward:

1. But and mix my own EI salts and create some ferts - possibly all in one as George seems to have great success dosing with this method?
2. Keep the lighting down to 4 notches out of 7 to allow plants to recover.
3. Change all the drop checkers, do another 50% change and buy a new co2 cannister to make sure. If checkers don’t change then I will do what Foxfish said and test for Ph.
4. Use my new NEO diffusers recommended by George and see if they obtain better diffusion.
5. Hopefully see a huge difference in the tank!

Thanks everyone will keep this updated


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
It's just a process of elimination mate. There are 4 things you can do here to eliminate possible issues.

First and foremost is run a tight ship. Dirty gravel, filter medium and water create organic fuel for algae to feed off so that should be first on list.

Secondly ferts, the principle of EI is to add all that's necessary in quantities that you tank is highly unlikely to need so you can then rule that out.

Third starts getting complicated is dosing co2, using a combination of the PH pen and drop checker to work out if there is the correct amount in the tank when the lights come on which is just trial and error then adjust.

Lastly are all these ferts and co2 getting round to all these plants. Check the flow, are there dead spots in the tank. Trim plants or adjust outlets to make sure.

Once you have 2 to 4 locked down keep on top of 1

Dosing salt isn't that much of a hassle, if you can make a cup of coffee you can do EI dosing.

Sent from my STH100-2 using Tapatalk
 
Sounds good thanks 🙂

6 hours ok for lighting on that setting as well? Try it on that and adjust accordingly I suppose.

Do people change things up as the seasons differ with lighting?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Lighting is now reduced and on 6 hours a day, as the mc carpet is still newish anyway so shouldn’t hurt?

Browning on the edges of leaves is too much light right?

Started dosing EI now too 5ml a day see how that goes...

Brand new CO2 extinguisher added on, 1.5bps and constant stream of fine bubbles going into filter intake and around the tank. None of the drop checkers started to change even slightly.

Ph is at 7.4 after two hours of running the co2, was around 8 before? Tap water is 8.2

Cheers chaps


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Something Fishy said:
Lighting is now reduced and on 6 hours a day, as the mc carpet is still newish anyway so shouldn’t hurt?

Browning on the edges of leaves is too much light right?

Started dosing EI now too 5ml a day see how that goes...

Brand new CO2 extinguisher added on, 1.5bps and constant stream of fine bubbles going into filter intake and around the tank. None of the drop checkers started to change even slightly.

Ph is at 7.4 after two hours of running the co2, was around 8 before? Tap water is 8.2

Cheers chaps


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Getting there mate. Browning of leaves is sort of too much light or more specific, too much light for the nutrients you're providing. Turning lights down reduces the amount of ferts needed but as mentioned earlier I would chop these leaves off, I don't think they'll repair.

Not sure what you mean by dosing 5ml of EI? If dosing 5ml is EI levels then you're good. EI is the level of ferts, there's no variations. You're either dosing EI or you aren't.

The word on the street is you should aim for 1ph drop by lights on which should give you about 30ppm of co2 dissolved. Measuring co2 is a simple affair but not very accurate so you have to correlate the two ways we measure. I would say if the DC isn't green and not quite a one unit drop as in 8 to 7 I would add an extra half hour earlier start if you're on a timer or give the needle valve another slight tweak up.

Bare in mind the PH pen will generally measure slightly high as you are sample at the top of the water column where co2 is at its highest on its bid to escape into the atmosphere. The DC will also show what was going on a hour or two ago as there is a delay in the chemical changing colour but the DC is or should be lower in the column so gives a better idea of what's going on down there.

No need to obsess though with the decimal points of ph.

Sent from my STH100-2 using Tapatalk
 
Hey bud thanks for the response!

Yes sorry by EI I meant the EI solution mixes so macros and micros alternating each day 5ml as my tanks 22l.

Yeah I gathered the browning could be ferts too as I’ve been keep water changed super often so it’s probably quite sparse in there for the lighting so turning it down could be a good move anyway til things pick up!

Gas comes on about half 4 now and lights about half hour later. Never ever had a problem before with the DCs but this time I’m just seeing no change which is bizzare. Maybe it’s as simple as the solutions being wrong I was sent from HK, and the other one is just not working either.

How fast does ph drop after lights out? I could test again during night. You’re right about top of the tank but thought it was a best case scenario as it’s still not showing signs of co2.

I have the aqua one 700 cannister on this so for a 22l tank the flow should be fine!

Chopping leaves where possible but on the Crypto and the Anubias there will be none left soon as they keep browning as I’m cutting them haha. The MC is recovering in places but also starting to turn brown on leaf edges!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Something Fishy said:
Hey bud thanks for the response!

Yes sorry by EI I meant the EI solution mixes so macros and micros alternating each day 5ml as my tanks 22l.

Yeah I gathered the browning could be ferts too as I’ve been keep water changed super often so it’s probably quite sparse in there for the lighting so turning it down could be a good move anyway til things pick up!

Gas comes on about half 4 now and lights about half hour later. Never ever had a problem before with the DCs but this time I’m just seeing no change which is bizzare. Maybe it’s as simple as the solutions being wrong I was sent from HK, and the other one is just not working either.

How fast does ph drop after lights out? I could test again during night. You’re right about top of the tank but thought it was a best case scenario as it’s still not showing signs of co2.

I have the aqua one 700 cannister on this so for a 22l tank the flow should be fine!

Chopping leaves where possible but on the Crypto and the Anubias there will be none left soon as they keep browning as I’m cutting them haha. The MC is recovering in places but also starting to turn brown on leaf edges!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Are you saying lights come on half an hour after the co2 switches on or have I picked that up wrong. Co2 should come on 2 or 3 hours before the lights mate.

Sent from my STH100-2 using Tapatalk
 
Ah ok - maybe I’ll switch that on a bit earlier then and have it coming in a bit sooner! Only a small tank you see so it used to get pretty green DC in hour or so which surprised me.

Like I said makes sense, but I’ve ran co2 on this for so long and never seen the DCs like this. Really confusing me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top