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Cycling a hi-setup with EI dosing?

D

D1gg3r

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9 Sep 2012
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What is the best way to cycle a hi-tech setup from scratch? Previously I've always cycled my tanks without fish, but have avoided adding ammonia (just used a bit of fish food) and then stocked slowly once cycled.

My rescape will include pressurised CO2 and EI dosing. I've read the setting up a hi-tech tank on the articles which mentions daily water changes. How will this effect the EI dosing as surely this will remove the ferts at a higher rate than the recommended weekly water change suggested when dosing EI?

In addition, once the tank has been filled is there a suggested lighting period to consider whilst the tank is new? i.e should I start with a short light period and build up to 6-8 hours to allow the plants to gain a foothold?

Thanks in advance :)
 
Basically, dosing every day is just to reinforce the habit. Though you will remove some of the nutrients it doesn't matter too much as EI provides more or less unlimited nutrients. Also, if you use an aquatic soil product (e.g. ADA Amazonia) this has loads of nutrients anyway. You can do daily water changes for a week, then every other day for a week. If things are OK it could be fine to do weekly water changes from the 3rd week onwards (though sometimes people keep up daily/alternate water changes for longer).

For a few weeks the light period should be reduced to just 5-6 hours. Don't be in a hurry to increase it as light=algae (if you're not careful!). As you increase light, you might need to increase the CO2 as well as faster growing plants need more CO2.
 
Thanks Pepedopolous,

I'll be using Fluval plant stratum and will be planting quite heavily. I'm planning quite a large area of H.C and there will be a fair amount of slower growers like crypts, so was toying with the idea of floating a few bunches of stem plants at the beginning, such as H.polysperma.
 
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