EI dosing connundrum

813 Views 5 Replies 4 Participants Last post by elusive77, Nov 4, 2016

elusive77

Discussion Starter · Nov 4, 2016

So I have been trying to follow the EI low light weekly dosing regimen for the past couple of months. I also test my water regularly and have noticed that my nitrate levels are almost always around 20 ppm, even after my 40% water change each week. I've never seen them higher than 40ppm, but never lower than 20ppm either. I'm guessing this is mostly due to having a high bioload with my fish. So I'm trying to decide whether I should stop dosing KNO3. I obviously have enough nitrogen for the plants. But if I do that, I will also lose my biggest source of Potassium, right? Is there something else I can use to get the Potassium? I have some Seachem Equilibrium, which has a pretty high Potassium content, but it also has a lot of Ca and Mg. Since my water is already pretty hard (~400 tds) with high kh/gh, I'm hesitant to use that as potassium source. Is there something that would work better? Or is my thinking just way off on this whole thing?

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Jeff5614

· #2 · Nov 4, 2016

Seachem makes a couple of potassium supplements, Flourish Potassium and Aquavitro Carbonate. The Aquavitro product seems to be Seachem's answer to ADA Brighty K in that it adds potassium and increases KH to offset the buffering capacity of some substrates like AS. The least expensive option would be to pick up some potassium sulfate from somewhere like GLA or NilocG, a forum member who sells ferts in the for sale forum.

If you indeed have 20ppm of NO3 there's no need to add more NO3. Just be sure your test kit is accurate.

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mistergreen

· #3 · Nov 4, 2016

You can alter any fertilizing regime amount to fit your needs.

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lksdrinker

· #4 · Nov 4, 2016

elusive77 said:
I obviously have enough nitrogen for the plants.

What makes this so obvious and why would you assume its from your high bioload and not from dosing? Is there a particular nitrate reading you're aiming for?

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elusive77

Discussion Starter · #5 · Nov 4, 2016

To me it seemed obvious because the EI low light dosing is only 10ppm nitrogen weekly. So if I have 20ppm that should be more than enough. I don't have a ppm goal per se, but I do want to keep my fish healthy. And I thought 20ppm or under of nitrate was the general recommendation for fish health. So adding more nitrate every week and having it spike up to 40ppm didn't seem like the best idea. Especially if my plants don't need anymore.

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elusive77

Discussion Starter · #6 · Nov 4, 2016

Jeff5614 said:
Seachem makes a couple of potassium supplements, Flourish Potassium and Aquavitro Carbonate. The Aquavitro product seems to be Seachem's answer to ADA Brighty K in that it adds potassium and increases KH to offset the buffering capacity of some substrates like AS. The least expensive option would be to pick up some potassium sulfate from somewhere like GLA or NilocG, a forum member who sells ferts in the for sale forum.

If you indeed have 20ppm of NO3 there's no need to add more NO3. Just be sure your test kit is accurate.

Thanks Jeff. For some reason I remembered reading somewhere that using Potassium Sulfate caused problems, so I was assuming that wasn't an option. But after your suggestion I looked around some more and can't find whatever I read. But I do see other people that use it. So I will probably go that route since I prefer the dry ferts. Thanks for the help.

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