Why Ei?

[fishclubgirl]

So now I'm using all my measuring spoons that I use for pancakes and cough syrup?? and my plants can eat?? Hmmmmm, what about me??

[425nm]

I don't do EI on my 75 because I'm not comfortable with the thought of using twice the amount of water I'm currently using. Feels wasteful to me, and my roommates would certainly not be impressed. On smaller tanks I'd probably use EI.

[Jaykit]

Would it not be possible to do the opposite to find your balance point? Such as add KNO3 until you have excess left over at the end of the week, then repeat with the other dosings other other weeks, until you found your balance point. Then you could increase as you wanted on those incremental values for each?

Edited June 23, 2012 by Jaykit

[jcgd]

No, because the plants don't grow without the full line of nutrients. It's like making pancakes... If you need two eggs for the recipie, bu only have one egg, you can only make a half batch regardless of how much milk, flour, etc., you have.

The only thing you want to limit plant growth is light. Fertilizer and most importantly, and I can't stress this enough, co2 need to be in excess. There is a ceiling for light, where if you supply more you are not able to inject enough co2 because you will gas your fish, or simply can't dissolve that much co2 into he water. EI is designed to supply enough nutrient up to a realistic ceiling for co2 and thus light.

Too much light is easy these days. You can see it it many people's tanks where plants are stunted or not ideal specimens, because they insist on no co2 or ferts, but have too much light. One t5ho over a 20 or 30 gallon tank usually warrants co2 injection. One t5ho bulb over a 75 gallon, with good reflectors, co2 and ferts should be enough light to grow all but the absolutely most light demanding plants.

I personally do 50% water changes once a week regardless. At minimum I aim for 30% once a week. So switching for me wasn't too bad. You always do modified EI for lower light/ low tech setups. I'll find the regime and post it up.

Edited June 23, 2012 by jcgd

[jcgd]

My reply to a fellow who asked me about dosing EI to a 25 gallon. He is planning on using a two bulb T5HO fixture and I though I should share my reply with everyone:

Two t5ho bulbs may be way too much light for that tank. Look at the fixture from the bottom so you can see the bulb and the reflector. Can you see clear reflections of the bulb in the reflector, like a mirror, or multiple mirrors? If so, the the reflector is likely decent or even good and you will have a lot of light. It may be best to run only one bulb or alternate one for 4 hours and the other for 4 hours to get more even spread. You could also raise the light up so it's not so bright. I'm quite good at planted tanks and I wouldn't use two bulbs over that tank without raising the fixture quite high as it's simply too hard to keep algae at bay. Most people disregard this advice, but they usually pay for that mistake. If the reflectors are bad, however, you may be okay. Even with the single light you will want good, high co2 levels so you don't limit the plants with all that growth the lights will cause.

EI dosing is very easy, and the easiest to get right. It's much harder to dose 'lean' and get things right unless you have much experience. By the time you notice a deficiency it's gotten bad.

20~40gal

50% H20 change-weekly

1/4 Tsp-KN03 3x a week

1/16 Tsp-KH2P04 3x aweek

1/2 Tsp-GH booster once a week

5ml or 1/16Tsp-Trace 3x a week

Optional

1-2ml-Fe/Iron 3x a week

Simply dose the trace and iron one day and the other three the next. If your water is hard like mine you can probably skip the GH booster. Just measuring spoons and dose the salts dry into the tank, or mix them in water. It can be tough to measure out 1/16 of a spoon so you can put say a full tsp into 160ml of water and dose 10ml per day. You can mix everything but the trace, although I've heard you can mix them all.

Make sure you do your 50% or more water change each week so nothing builds up. You dose more than your plants need so you never limit one nutrient. You always want to limit plant growth with light. It's a mistake when people thing their bad growth is due to light, especially with t5ho. You only need AT MOST two bulbs for up to around 24" of height. The only reason you'd want 3rd or 4th bulbs is when the tank is very wide front to back and the single or double bulbs leave the front and back of the tank dim.

The issue 9.9 times out of ten is low/ no co2. Next it's lack of ferts, usually when they have a dirt substrate and think dosing is redundant. Usually it is but sometimes you can lack in a certain fert. Lastly you may have too little light, but more often than not people have too much light for the amount of ferts and namely co2 they have. This causes the plants to try to grow, but they don't have the nutrients and food to do so.

Think of a bodybuilder who lifts heavy and is growing big and strong fast. If they eat lots of protein and food (ferts) and get lots of rest (co2) they grow fast from lifting weights (light). If you take away the good food they will be okay for a while, while the body pulls from fat stores, etc. It may take a few weeks to see issues. If food is good, but sleep is not, they will get fatigued quickly, they will stunt, get sick, etc., quickly as the body can't recover, yet is still being pushed by lifting weights.

This is why co2 is so important and the hardest variable to get right. Light is easy. Generally a single bulb will grow most anything. Two will for sure if you have even a deep tank. Ferts are easy as you can EI dose and forget about it. Feeding fish is actually harder. Co2 is touch to get a feel for. Too little and plants grow less than well. Too much and you can gas your tank.

Edited July 3, 2012 by jcgd

[ubr0ke]

jcgd....Im glad you typed this out because I'm jaded and sick of repeating myself. haha..

I just choose to read this forum now a days.

congrats on the new tank...its looking awesome.