[EdTheEdge]

A couple of weeks ago I went on vacation. Usually I have my better half continue my usual dosing regiment which is everyday. But this time I figured that I would just "overdose" before I left. I dosed enough for at least 5 days. I was gone for 6 days. I know that is a lot..... but I tried it just this once. Well, when I got back my plants looked particularly happy and algae had abated significantly. I was expecting just the opposite - more algae and very unhappy plants. I was not sure what to expect from my fish. But everything in my tank looked as happy and healthy as ever and IMO even more so! It got me to thinking that instead of trying to dose exact amounts daily it might be better to "overdose" once a week and let the plants decide how much and what it is that they need.

Just a thought mind you.... any opinions? BTW I have since went back to my regular dosing regimine.

 

[Hoppy]

The EI dosing method relies on keeping the nutrient levels above what the plants need, but not so high that harmful levels build up before a big water change can be done. You tried dosing even higher than the EI recommendations, I assume, but because you were still below harmful levels it worked fine. The only problem I see with this is that if you are running very high light intensity, with good CO2, and lots of fast growing plants, 5 days worth of fertilizers, which would be a lot of fertilizers, might increase the level of one of them in the tank above the level where harm results. Apparently that wasn't the case when you tried it.

 

[EdTheEdge]

The EI dosing method relies on keeping the nutrient levels above what the plants need, but not so high that harmful levels build up before a big water change can be done. You tried dosing even higher than the EI recommendations, I assume, but because you were still below harmful levels it worked fine. The only problem I see with this is that if you are running very high light intensity, with good CO2, and lots of fast growing plants, 5 days worth of fertilizers, which would be a lot of fertilizers, might increase the level of one of them in the tank above the level where harm results. Apparently that wasn't the case when you tried it.

Hoppy - I was hoping you'd chime in on this as I value you opinions on this forum. I think you might be right. I do deep water changes every week, at least 50% sometimes more. But I might have been lucky this time, and although not so sure about that, and erring on the side of caution went back to my normal dosing scheme. But my thinking is that essentially "resetting" once a week when doing a large water change might not allowing the ferts to accumulate to risky levels after all I dosed the same amount, just 5 days worth at once. I don't test my water so I can not be sure what levels were when I returned from vacation. I was just surprised that the tank looked SO good upon my return. Of course I did do a larger than normal WC before I left and another upon my return. I was just thinking that plants themselves might have reset the environment during my absence. It could also be that I have not been adding enough of some nutrients and the "overdose" temporarily corrected that. At this point I am just not sure why this happened. That's why I was hoping for some expert opinions.