It is starting to make more sense.
However, where I am getting stuck on now is where I find out how much of each Fertilizer I need to add to make my dosing solution (ideally in grams for a 500ml bottle), while taking into account the information regarding how KNO3 for example also provides some K. I am not even sure where a general baseline of PPM to be looking at?
5-30ppm is a huge range. There has to be some "generalized idea" of where to start, or where in that range has been found sufficient. Also, Do I need to know both my GH and KH? And what is the GH booster?
Am I wrong to be thinking that I will be able to combine all of the Fertilizers (minus the Micros) in one bottle and then pull a few ml's out everyday? Or is there a better alternative that I am not seeing?
5-30 ppm is a large range but it's also where we tend to see optimal plant growth. Some tanks might have 3x as much light, thus they will remove 30 ppm over time slower than 5 ppm which be gone in 24-36 hours in another tank, or fish loads might add some of the Nitrogen demand.
The point of EI is simply add more than the demand from plants even at high light and stem plant type growth. Then good sized water changes.
You can fiddle all day long, but this rarely saves anyone any labor or time. Water. dose dry ferts(unless it's a nano tank or something). You need not fret over a few ppm of NO3.
No method should require such precision.
Take what you might think you'd need for say 2 week,s dissolve that in a bottle, one for the micros, one for the traces.
Dose that.
You can complicate it, but it's actually VERY EASY once you do it for a week or two, after which, it's rather BORING/OLD HAT.
The how: add dry ferts based on tank volume, some common sense for plant load/type, do good sized water change soften.
The why: makes ferts independent for plant growth. Keeps tank nice and clean and less algae.
I think folks just worry a lot is all, they want reassurances they are not making a mistake. Chem and math are not many folk's strong suits and some view these are poisons and the great unknown. So they go on and on trying to get details, but lose sight often times of the basics.
I was no different years ago. I'm the same as most newbie folks posting here, we all were at some point.
I believed I did not need it(CO2 particularly) and tried to do it without. But the reasons and rational put forth, well, I got too curious.
So "the how" was easy.
"The why" was a bit more painful for myself.
That was the biggest mental block I had.
I think seeing other folks adding it helped.
You basically only have to dose 3-4 things and teaspoons work fine.
I do not fret over 3/4" th teaspoon of baking soda when making cookies.
Nor should I here.
Just a simple recipe.
I do not need a ppm at all in fact. Farmers rarely think this way with ppm's etc, they look at their plants. They look at pounds per acre.
Aquarist: teaspoons per gallons.
Less light, less plant biomass etc, slower growers, cut EI by 1/2 or down to 1/3 etc.
Observe and see. Should be fairly simple.
Your goal was to grow nice aquarium plants, gardening etc, not learn chemistry. You will pick that up later as you learn more, but.........I think successful and top scapers tend to be less obsessed with the fert routines and more obsessed with good general care(water changes, cleaning, routine care, trim/pruning, hardscapes etc).
I really do not worry much about the ferts.
I rarely discuss them in presentations and talks these days also.
More light and CO2.
You add ferts, you do water changes.
Pretty simple and straight forward.
