Need advice for ferts and excel dosing

[Sakij7]

I wondering how much excel and dry ferts I should be dosing in my tank. I can't afford to change anything in my tank right now, so any recommendations will have to work with what ive got .
Current setup:
20 gallon tank
55 watt 6500k compact fluorescent, on 8 hours per day, with three hour siesta
one goldfish (very well behaved so no problems there
one echinodorus bleheri
two small cryptocoryne wendtii
(i know my plant load is too light, ill be getting some dwarf hair grass next month)
weekly 50% water change

at water change i do the first dose of dry ferts as per this article: http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/ei-dosing-using-dry-salts.1211/
I figured this would account for my low plant load, but i could dose more if needed.
i also add 10ml of excel, and 5ml every other day.

 

[ian_m]

That is a lot of light 2watts per US gallon, so into medium to high light levels, so you will have to be really careful to not convert your tank into an algae farm

Due to this light level and dosing carbon (I assume you mean Flourish Excel) it is a high tech tank.

So as high tech.
- 50% weekly water changes.
- Dose as per EI alternate macro micro, assuming 100litrs so 20ml per dose http://www.aquariumplantfood.co.uk/fertilisers/dry-chemicals/starter-kits/ei-starter-kit.html
- Flourish Excel at 2.5ml per day. http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/FlourishExcel.html

Careful with Excel as it will/can keep algae at bay, especially as you are clearly overdosing, which is why you may not have seen algae at your light levels, but it can cause plants to just melt.

 

[Sakij7]

Thanks, I'm going to dose ferts more regularly then, so hopefully that will make my plants start pearling