[HEINEKEN357]

Sorry for all the question in advance Tank is 55g been up and running as a planted tank for 1 month now I just checked my no3 with a tester and its at 0. Now with dosing dry fert ever other day I dose 11grams of N03, K2S04 9.30grams, KH2P04 pinch If the last day I dosed was 2 days ago and I checked today should I have more then 0 N03? I been using chucks planted tank calculator are the dosing wrong how much more should I be dosing? Right now I have Spot algae on back of tank and Green Spot algae on some of the first plants I added to the tank but the new stems coming off them don't have any algae. So with all the plants and fish how much more N03 should I be dosing? Also I have Flourish Potassium and nitrogen and iron should I be dosing them too?
Co2 is 5-6bps green-yellow drop checker
216w t5ho I kicked down the lights to 7hours and only 108watt till I get the ferts right
fish load is
11 SAE
2 Neon tetra
5 Black tetra
11 Cardinal Tetra
2 Otto's
4 cherry shrimp
Would this be considered heavily planted?

 

[EdTheEdge]

FWIW I have tried to dial in the exact recommended amounts that I have gotten from various places on the internet. That did not work too well for me and I came to realize that at best they are ballpark figures. Since then experience has taught me to tweak those values to my specific environment. Now I can eyeball what my plants need and adjust accordingly. I do not dry dose though. I mix solutions and add them via dropper bottles. I can easily tweak in very small amounts if need be. HTH.

 

[Jeff5614]

I think your test kit is way off. Have you calibrated it? 11 grams of KNO3 would give you 32 ppm of NO3 in a 55 gallon tank and your tank wouldn't use that much in a week, much less 3 times a week. I think you're over complicating things. EI is dry dosing and it's as simple as can be. Read the Dosing Regime's sticky at the top of the forum and you'll see how simple and consider giving it a try. I use it and it works for me and a lot of other people.

 

[HEINEKEN357]

Thanks jeff I thought I had to dose 20ppm every time I dosed lol. Anyway how do you calibrate the n03 test kit?

I think your test kit is way off. Have you calibrated it? 11 grams of KNO3 would give you 32 ppm of NO3 in a 55 gallon tank and your tank wouldn't use that much in a week, much less 3 times a week. I think you're over complicating things. EI is dry dosing and it's as simple as can be. Read the Dosing Regime's sticky at the top of the forum and you'll see how simple and consider giving it a try. I use it and it works for me and a lot of other people.

 

[Jeff5614]

Thanks jeff I thought I had to dose 20ppm every time I dosed lol. Anyway how do you calibrate the n03 test kit?

Most people who use EI don't do much testing, but here are some good directions for calibrating your kits.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/f...83545-calibrating-test-kits-non-chemists.html