davidcmadrid
Member
- Joined
- 21 Jun 2009
- Messages
- 115
New to EI,
Hi I am hoping i could get some help with EI. Firstly below is a list of the chemicals that i have bought from aqua essentials. I understand that I wont be mixing Iron in my all in one and will dose this on seperate days but would like to have an all in one for NPK . I dont currently have trace ( forgot it when placing the order ) ,, so i am using seachem trace. I am currently dosing excel daily and have placed the drop checker in various locations in my tank to see if initially at least my flow is " ok " , so far so good ( non DIY co2 appx 4bps but i know that this is arbitary ). PH is stable across the tank also . At this stage there is some algae on the glass and a small amount of BBA on a plant leaf ( i am currently dosing the min or " beginner " doses on seachems NPK starter pack ( my sense is im missing something and have been responding to some small yellowing in leaves along with pinholes by increasing frequency or amount beyond the beginner amounts ).
Water Paramaters
GH 3.5 out of the tap
PH 6.8 out of the tap
Tank Paramaters
180L 60W ( 1.25 Watts per US Gallon )
Sera 250L UV filter with a bag of Purigen.
2 small powerheads at the back of the tank for internal ciculation.
Plants Medium Load and typical ( chain swords, moss , anubias , some long stem plants .. I can be more specific if needed but for now i feel i can sum it up by saying i have what appears to me to be a lot of plants 50% of the bottom of the tank is covered )
15 Fish ( biggest is 1 molly but mostly tetras and wagtail plattys )
Potassium Nitrate - 500g
Mono Potassium Phosphate - 500g
Potassium Sulphate - 500g
Iron Sulphate - 250g
Potassium Carbonate 250g
Magnesium Sulphate - 100g
When i read about EI , it seemed easy in theory and i still believe it is but when it comes to the mixing of the chemicals I have suddenly realised its a bit more complicated. For example i see the all on one thread ( i dont plant to use the iron or trace in this ) uses a " lot of Magnesium sulphate but i was advised that i prob would not need much of that so i only bought 100 grams. That sort of set of an alarm bell and i wondered if i had misundertood something.
My " simplex " view of this was that i add trace on one schedule and NPK on another with excel daily. It is the NPK that has me confused and i was hoping somebody could give me advise
1) Can i mix an NPK solution that is added 3 times weekly in one bottle ? I have 500 ML bottles and 330 Ml bottles.
2) I got confused when looking at the calculator as to the amount of each that i would add to 500mls of distilled water ( is tap ok ?) what would you advise in terms of a mix for NPK into the 500ML and then what goes in the tank.
I am assuming a teaspoon is not heaped. I am doing a 50% water change weekly.
Any advice to get me kicked off would be really appreciated. I believe the beginner amounts from the seachem starter pack are not enough but dont want to overdo it in terms of upping the dose of those and just move over to EI as soon as possible. Sorry to post yet another thread but i have searched both here and Tom Barrs site and gotten a little more confused because i seem to have ended up with a small amount of what appears to be most agressively called for ( Magnesium Sulphate ) , yet I "feel" the advice i got from Richard at AE was good. I did not immediatley see the discrepancy because sometimes posts and amounts refer to chemical symbols and other times by names. I had hoped to post pics of the tank but i cant find my card reader.
Hi I am hoping i could get some help with EI. Firstly below is a list of the chemicals that i have bought from aqua essentials. I understand that I wont be mixing Iron in my all in one and will dose this on seperate days but would like to have an all in one for NPK . I dont currently have trace ( forgot it when placing the order ) ,, so i am using seachem trace. I am currently dosing excel daily and have placed the drop checker in various locations in my tank to see if initially at least my flow is " ok " , so far so good ( non DIY co2 appx 4bps but i know that this is arbitary ). PH is stable across the tank also . At this stage there is some algae on the glass and a small amount of BBA on a plant leaf ( i am currently dosing the min or " beginner " doses on seachems NPK starter pack ( my sense is im missing something and have been responding to some small yellowing in leaves along with pinholes by increasing frequency or amount beyond the beginner amounts ).
Water Paramaters
GH 3.5 out of the tap
PH 6.8 out of the tap
Tank Paramaters
180L 60W ( 1.25 Watts per US Gallon )
Sera 250L UV filter with a bag of Purigen.
2 small powerheads at the back of the tank for internal ciculation.
Plants Medium Load and typical ( chain swords, moss , anubias , some long stem plants .. I can be more specific if needed but for now i feel i can sum it up by saying i have what appears to me to be a lot of plants 50% of the bottom of the tank is covered )
15 Fish ( biggest is 1 molly but mostly tetras and wagtail plattys )
Potassium Nitrate - 500g
Mono Potassium Phosphate - 500g
Potassium Sulphate - 500g
Iron Sulphate - 250g
Potassium Carbonate 250g
Magnesium Sulphate - 100g
When i read about EI , it seemed easy in theory and i still believe it is but when it comes to the mixing of the chemicals I have suddenly realised its a bit more complicated. For example i see the all on one thread ( i dont plant to use the iron or trace in this ) uses a " lot of Magnesium sulphate but i was advised that i prob would not need much of that so i only bought 100 grams. That sort of set of an alarm bell and i wondered if i had misundertood something.
My " simplex " view of this was that i add trace on one schedule and NPK on another with excel daily. It is the NPK that has me confused and i was hoping somebody could give me advise
1) Can i mix an NPK solution that is added 3 times weekly in one bottle ? I have 500 ML bottles and 330 Ml bottles.
2) I got confused when looking at the calculator as to the amount of each that i would add to 500mls of distilled water ( is tap ok ?) what would you advise in terms of a mix for NPK into the 500ML and then what goes in the tank.
I am assuming a teaspoon is not heaped. I am doing a 50% water change weekly.
Any advice to get me kicked off would be really appreciated. I believe the beginner amounts from the seachem starter pack are not enough but dont want to overdo it in terms of upping the dose of those and just move over to EI as soon as possible. Sorry to post yet another thread but i have searched both here and Tom Barrs site and gotten a little more confused because i seem to have ended up with a small amount of what appears to be most agressively called for ( Magnesium Sulphate ) , yet I "feel" the advice i got from Richard at AE was good. I did not immediatley see the discrepancy because sometimes posts and amounts refer to chemical symbols and other times by names. I had hoped to post pics of the tank but i cant find my card reader.