What am I doing wrong? EI Dosing

[Beswick]

Ok Ive been EI dosing dry ferts for about 2 months now in my 60F and Im just not getting the results I want. I keep getting huge breakouts of hair algae that just consumes everything. Three weeks ago I took everything out and removed all the algae, everything was spotless. It came back a week later full force. I also have to scrub what looks like green dust algae off the hardscape every week. What's going on? I have ample CO2, I overdose the tank because there's no livestock. Lighting is provided by a Finnex Ray II Dual 7000K 10 inches above the water level for 6 hours a day.
My EI regime is as follows:
Wednesday: 1/8tsp KNO3, 1/16tsp KH2PO4
Thursday: 1/16tsp CSM+B
Friday: 1/8tsp KNO3, 1/16tsp KH2PO4
Saturday:1/16tsp CSM+B
Sunday:1/8tsp KNO3, 1/16tsp KH2PO4
Monday:1/16tsp CSM+B
Tuesday: Rest

[snausage]

Lower the light and increase the photoperiod to 9 hours.

IMO, I'd cut down on the dosing as well since your plants aren't aren't very demanding in terms of nutrients.

[Diana]

How are you distributing the CO2?

[Hoppy]

How do you know you have ample CO2? If you have no fish or shrimp you could always increase the CO2 bubble rate and the plants would benefit from that. If the plants are growing as fast as the light pushes them to, the algae will not start growing. Right now you need to get the algae cleaned out of the tank, which might mean starting over.

[plantbrain]

That moss is looking pretty sorry, this is a CO2 issue more likely than anything else, you likely only need 1/2 the dosing you have also for this tank. Moss is really not a demanding weed, but it will thrive with good CO2.

[Beswick]

Co2 is distributed through in-line atomizer. I assume Co2 is sufficient because the drop checker I have is bright yellow.
I will try lowering the dosing and increasing the Co2.

[JeffHerr]

I thought I read somewhere it takes a while for plants to start up when the lights first come on. They recommended a minimum of an 8-hour photo period.

[Hoppy]

Do you use tank water in your drop checker? Or, 4 dKH water? If it is tank water, it doesn't indicate how much CO2 you have. If it is 4 dKH water, made from distilled water containing only bicarbonates, you can assume that you probably do have enough CO2. But, with no fish, there is no reason not to increase the CO2.

[Cardoc]

Are you doing A 50% water change once a week? If you are not doing water changes and you are dosing EI Method you are not removing any of the left over ferts the plant did not use, so when you dose the next week you are giving more and more ferts. EI only works if you change 50% of your water once a week, I know you don't have fish but you still need water changes.

[flipanda]

ive got the same tank with the same light with all the same problems. except I also have some bba as well. I've got a drop checker with 4dkh so I know my co2 is ok. I used to have my photo period at 8 hours but was getting algae so I lowered it to 6 and it seems like it got worse.

so what I take from this thread is to increase my lighting and halve my certs? I've got hc and blyxa in this tank.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

[flipanda]

Originally Posted by Beswick

Ok Ive been EI dosing dry ferts for about 2 months now in my 60F and Im just not getting the results I want. I keep getting huge breakouts of hair algae that just consumes everything. Three weeks ago I took everything out and removed all the algae, everything was spotless. It came back a week later full force. I also have to scrub what looks like green dust algae off the hardscape every week. What's going on? I have ample CO2, I overdose the tank because there's no livestock. Lighting is provided by a Finnex Ray II Dual 7000K 10 inches above the water level for 6 hours a day.
My EI regime is as follows:
Wednesday: 1/8tsp KNO3, 1/16tsp KH2PO4
Thursday: 1/16tsp CSM+B
Friday: 1/8tsp KNO3, 1/16tsp KH2PO4
Saturday:1/16tsp CSM+B
Sunday:1/8tsp KNO3, 1/16tsp KH2PO4
Monday:1/16tsp CSM+B
Tuesday: Rest

after i posted i took a look at the dosing calculator and saw that my dosing was way off. i was following a mixture that was off another site and when plugging those into the calculator just put everything over. but looking at yours, the kno3 dose is a bit high for our tank. take a look at the calculator and you'll see what i mean. ive got mine closer to this (got the ferts from gla's website so im working with what i have)

x3 weekly
5/64 tsp kno3
1/64 kh2po4
5/64 k2so4
x3 weekly
1/16 traces
then one day of rest and a 50% water change.

going to try this and up my light again.