_Dosing Regime's_

[Craigthor]

Need a little advice about dry dosing my tank. Currently medium heavy planted/ soon to be heavily planted. CO2 drop checker with 4 dkh solution stays light green about 4 bps 24/7 as my water is like liquid rock as it comes from a limestone aquafier. My tank is a 75g with about 22-24g of water in my sump. I also have an auto water changer that drips about 1/4-1/2gph into my tank.What would be a good starting point for dosing. I have the ferts from Rex and was considering the PPS system as it doesn't require large water changes. Looking for advise and opinions on dosing.

Craig

[Wö£fëñxXx]

Dosing is the easy part, it really depends on how
much light you have and what you're over all goal
is.
PPS works for some I suppose and that is a personal
preference, the plants do not care how much nutrients
are in the water, as long as it is enough, the light is the
driving force and will determine growth rate as long as
the plants have food.

The goal either way you dose is to feed the plants.

No light=no growth
low light=slow growth
medium light=medium to fast growth
high light=fast growth
All this of course depending on the type of plants
installed.

The first post in this thread is a recommendation
on dosing for a highlight tank around 3wpg.

If you want to use less light just use less nutrients
hence the +/- before ea. nutrient amount.

PPS is the same thing with just a little more leg work
by mixing everything and then some and counting drops.

You can do the exact same thing dry dosing and it is easier.
I am all for the ease of maintaining a tank, I would rather
enjoy the tank/prune or play with the wife and kids/grandkids
than fiddle fart with counting ferts, which in reality is goofy.


Simply put the plants do not care so long as they have
food when the light is forced on them.
Whether you are dosing PPS=dose less more often or dry=scoop and toss
it is too simple, some PPS folk claim EI is excess and
cause problems, most of that is just user error.

You do not have to change 50% water every week
but it certainly does not hurt a thingy.

I have read of other folks dosing misery on both sides.
I have never tried PPS or felt the need, I have been
using this stickys dosing recommendation for years
any problem I ever had was my own stupidity or just
to busy to spend time with tanks which in turn taught
me to burn less light when I can't tend to my tanks,
problems solved.

[Craigthor]

Thanks, I run 240 watts of CF 2 8000k and 2 10000k 12 hours daily has a crappy reflector similar to the Coralife. Just got a Hagen GLO 2x 54 watt 6700k T5HO that I will be using as my daily burst for 4 hrs until I can find another GLO fixture or 2.

Craig

[Wö£fëñxXx]

12 hours is really way to long for a highlight tank,
for an easier to maintain tank, use you're highlight
for 6 hours, then 1~2wpg for the other 6hours
or less.

This is only a recommendation of course

[ikuzo]

help me with my EI dosing
i added to 1 liter of water :
150 grams KNO3
50 grams KH2PO4
50 grams K2SO4

i add this solution :
2 ml 3 times a week to a 10 gallon tank
4 ml 3 times a week to a 16 gallon tank

micros :
1 ml twice a week to the 10 gal
2 ml twice a week to the 16 gal

anoter solution of 100 grams of K2SO4 in 1 liter water:
8 ml to the 10 gallon at weekly water change
13 ml to 16 gallon weekly

i got bad results with algae, where did i do wrong? i don't have test kits and now i'm dosing half of the macros just twice a week and i got better results.

is my daily feeding habbit and considerable bio load caused these bad results?

[Wö£fëñxXx]

Thats not EI, that would be closer to PPS.

Just looking at all of those numbers the plants
may be hungry which brings me to ask the
question:

Light and C02 are equally important, where do
these fit into this equation?

[ikuzo]

ah i'm sorry, my 10 gallon (well planted) got 42 watts (6 hours) and 2 bottles of DIY CO2.

the 16 gallon iwagumi with hairgrass and dense of valls nana got 36 watts and 2 bps of pressurized CO2 system.

but i think i gave it a little too much, what do you mean by hungry plants?

[Wö£fëñxXx]

I don't believe you are dosing enough.

2ml-10g and 4ml-16g mAcro is not much.

1ml Trace is certainly sparingly with the light you have.

That is what I mean by hungry plants.

If you force a lot of light on the plants and do not
feed them enough nutrients to grow you cause algae.

It is better to give them a little extra than not enough
nutrient.

Is C02 good?

How are you diffusing the gas?

[ikuzo]

wow i thought i have enough...

CO2 in the 16 gallon is good, 2 bps with inline reactor. the 10 gallon is a bit short, 1 bps with vortex reactor.

Wö£fëñxXx, i will increase this macro dosing and see later. thanks for your advice.

[Wö£fëñxXx]

You also need to increase the mIcro dosing,
one without the other can still be a problem.

Keep us up to date on how it goes.

[Church]

Would anyone be opposed to editing the original post and adding the gram equivalents right after the teaspoon measurements? I just refuse to go out and buy a fractional teaspoon set if I've already got a perfectly good and accurate milligram scale, and surely I'm not the only one out there in the world who feels this way?

[bigstick120]

They are about 2-3 bucks at stores

[Church]

Poop. I just don't want to buy things I don't need if I can avoid it.

[bigstick120]

Sounds like you need them to me!

[armyoffoo]

tsp to gram conversion charts

http://foodgeeks.com/resources/conversioncharts.phtml