Dosing Calcium and Magnesium

1337 Views 4 Replies 4 Participants Last post by barfly, Sep 4, 2007

barfly

Discussion Starter · Sep 1, 2007

Hey guys.

I'm dosing EI now and i have a question. i realised that in the entire scheme of EI, that Mg and Ca are not being dosed. by EI, i mean:

potassium nitrate
potassium sulphate
potassium phosphate
Trace, in the form of Seachem fluorish's trace

should i dose Mg and Ca in the form of magnesium sulphate and calcium chloride?

i do get some green spot algae and some BBA...... and actually, some hair algae too.

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mistergreen

· #2 · Sep 1, 2007

the EI method assumes Mg & Ca is in your water already(GH).

symptom of low Ca is deformed leaves and symptom of low Mg is yellow spots like low iron.

I personally dose a little extra Ca & Mg.

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susantroy1

· #3 · Sep 1, 2007

Tom barr, who founded the EI dosing method recommends that you put in a GH booster at your regular H20 change. Might want to check out his sight concerning this subject.

Troy

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plantbrain

· #4 · Sep 4, 2007

I'm not sure why folk's sometimes say this, it's certainly not me suggesting it.
It's clearly written in my articles going back to 1997:

http://www.barrreport.com/estimative-index/2386-old-version-1996-1997-list-levels-parameters.html

And for EI:

http://www.barrreport.com/estimative-index/62-estimative-index-dosing-no-need-test-kits.html

You might not require added dosing for Mg or Ca, if the taqp already has some in it.

Generally, if the GH is about 3-4 degrees or so, you often do not need it.
Some add a little extra MgSO4(Epsom salt), Tropica master grow already has a little Mg added etc.

A few rare tap waters have high Mg and low Ca. These are pretty rare however.

If you do not want to be bothered with testing for GH and the Mg/Ca, then adding some GH booster is an easier solution for many.

Still, I like to know and like to reduce the dosing and chemicals needed if I can without much trade offs, so a little testing here can save you one more thing to dose.

SeaChem Eq and GH booster are fairly equivalent but the GH booster is 10x cheaper and more plant tank specific.

Regards,
Tom Barr

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barfly

Discussion Starter · #5 · Sep 4, 2007

Thanks tom, i kinda was hoping that you'd share your expertise.

Another question i had in mind, in the EI dosing method, which nutrient would run out on me first?

I think it is kinda hard to tell since diff plants take in in diff proportions although roughly similar? but i think the portions are not totally in line with the plants uptake since there is a need to reset with a wc. and i was thinking maybe there might be one or two that are more likely to run out first?

and these would be the nutrients that i have to watch for because it's the lack that i should be watching out for right? because the lack of something is what causes the algal blooms as you've been saying all the time?

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