Switch to EI method

[wasabi8888]

Terence

Just to clarify...1/4 of teaspoon or tablespoon? instruction is 1 TABLESPOON for 80L.. half that dosage is still 1/2 TABLESPOON...

Another question: Lushgro micros: 1 drop for my tank?


Trying HC now..... tore down my hairgrass.....so much BGA....

Also.. i am not in town from monday to friday next week.. should i put KNO3 and KH2PO4 and trace for the whole week?

[|squee|]

I suppose it's 1/2 a tablespoon for your tank.

BTW, I quoted you the wrong amount for my example, it should be 1 teaspoon; I'm doing a non-CO2 and therefore further halved my dosing amount to 1/2 teaspoon. Let me do the maths to clarify.

1 US tablespoon = 14.7867648 milliliters
1 US teaspoon = 4.92892161 milliliters

Mine's a 56L. 56/80 x 14.79 ml = 10.35 ml. Half that dosage: 5.17 ml.

5.17 ml roughly amounts to 1 teaspoon. I dose this for my old CO2-injected tank.

What's your tank volume? I hope I didn't confuse you with my wrong information.

[wasabi8888]

The volume of my tank about 60-70 litre..ok.. i use half a tablespoon..

what about the micros?
and also can i combine the whole week into 1 higher dosage as I am not intown next week?

[|squee|]

Let's say your tank is 70L.

70/80 x 14.79 ml = 12.94 ml. Halve the dosage: 6.47 ml

Half a tablespoon is roughly the same amount.

I'm not so sure about Micros; I don't use it. What's the dosage like?

You can I guess, but I've never done it before so I don't know the results.

[wasabi8888]

It said 1 drop for 100 litres.. i almost fainted when I read it.... prob can do 1 drop.. dun know how to even half that....

can i dose more for the week i am not around?

[|squee|]

Lushgro must have changed its formula, I dug out my old one and the dosage is 1 drop to 10 litres. I used to drip carelessly for that... I think you can do 5 drops? Someone else has to help you on this.

[wasabi8888]

Just read the instruction again..it says

For aquariums, add one drop per 100 litres of water. This is for beginners. For experienced hobbyists, you can go up to 1 drop per 10litres, depending on plant population"

wah lau.. how to know how much to add....

Anyone got advice?

got 3 types of stem plants at the background... HC in foreground.... mid ground DW+ fissiden moss....

[wasabi8888]

Terence

So far everything looks good...

Before I flew off on Monday afternoon.. I followed everything up till Monday (KNO3 and KH2PO4).. i did not do the full week dosage as advised..

no fertilzation from tue to Sat (arrvied last nite midnite).. everything was looking good.. no BGA, staghorn and so forth.. in fact those stem plants that had those algae also cleared... not sure whether it's because there was no feeding and my yamatos ate those up....

so far very happy with the EI method.. just did a 50% WC just now and dose KNO3 and KN2PO4 and equilibrium... will do trace tom...

will update in a few days time.. one question..

do you add S7 and TR7 for the fishes?

[|squee|]

Sorry I couldn't help with the earlier post.

That's great, I don't add anything for the fishes. I guess I'm more of a plant person.

[wasabi8888]

HI Terence

After about 2 weeks.. i have a little bit of BGA coming out from the same place as the last time

Since I already know, BGA is about lack of nitrates and/or bad water circulation.

I am adding 1/8 tsp of KNO3 already.. is that not enough?

No signs of other algae except BGA. any advice? i had one suspicion of plant mass but that will only result in excess of nitrates and not lack of nitrates rite?

[Plantbrain]

Add a bit more CO2, and keep up on water changes and filter cleaning.
Intense plant growth gets rid of most BGA related issues.

I noted that persistent BGA in some locations even when high NO3 was dosed in some tanks, but not others. In problem tanks, there was a slight CO2 issue and adding more CO2 resolved any BGA issues.

This occured in both a flourite and an ADA AS tank.
So ferts and substrate type had little impact overall it might be suggested.

In both cases, adding a bit more CO2 resolved the issue and improved growth.
Make sure you rule out NO3/K/GH/Traces/Water changes, cleaning filter etc, then tweak the CO2.

Regards,
Tom Barr

[Ah_ZhaN]

How often should the person does his/her water change(WC) instead since EI has already required a weekly WC ?

Will addition of zeolites helps instead ?

[wasabi8888]

Tom

I understand what you saying but got a couple of questions

1. How often do you clean your filter? the BGA can appear in 2 weeks time. does that mean that i clean the filter once every 2 weeks? wouldnt BB be affected?

[|squee|]

To deal with BGA he goes through a step-by-step process ruling things out one by one.

A clogged up filter might be the one of the factors for you having BGA, so give it a wash and see how.

[wasabi8888]

Terence

So far looks quite good.. seem to have less problems than when i was using Denn ferts.. so far no algae outbreak.. except for the occasional BGA...

One question.. i have a low maintenance tank with low light and no CO2.. how should i dose EI?

[|squee|]

http://www.barrreport.com/articles/4...2-methods.html

I have a non-CO2 2ft tank done to the above method. It has given me more success than the normal EI CO2 method... mainly because I don't have BBA outbreaks anymore. I can't manage CO2 to save my life.

[StanChung]

Not one to judge or anything but Terence, let me get this straight, you were doing EI+high CO2 and still got BBA? Was it bad? I mean all over the place?

[|squee|]

Yea Stan I still got BBA. It was all mainly on my driftwood with a speckling around the plants. I can't manage CO2 well.

With EI it's hard to get green spot algae, brown algae or hair algae. It's easier to get green dust and staghorn. Easiest of all to get will be BBA.

Tom has documented a lot on how to deal with algae in your tanks. There is always a general trend in the solutions: Physically remove as much as you can, and correct CO2 (concentration and distribution around the tank).

Even with my non-CO2, I still have a speckling of BBA, but this time it's due to lights (I was using 36W PL on my standard 2ft, which is a little too much becuase the non-CO2 method is based on FL). I shielded my lights with tracing paper and BBA has stopped growing.

The reason I switched to non-CO2 was mainly because of the BBA issue, and with non-CO2 the water seems clearer... my CO2-ed tanks always seemed to have a whitish haze in the water in the late hours of the photoperiod.

[StanChung]

I can't manage CO2 well.

With EI it's hard to get green spot algae, brown algae or hair algae. It's easier to get green dust and staghorn. Easiest of all to get will be BBA.

Tom has documented a lot on how to deal with algae in your tanks. There is always a general trend in the solutions: Physically remove as much as you can, and correct CO2 (concentration and distribution around the tank).

Even with my non-CO2, I still have a speckling of BBA, but this time it's due to lights (I was using 36W PL on my standard 2ft, which is a little too much becuase the non-CO2 method is based on FL). I shielded my lights with tracing paper and BBA has stopped growing.

Did you notice around how long after you setup the tank that you get BBA?
Does Tom recommend EI for start ups?
For me I do get the occasional BBA but that's usually 3-6 months down the line. Usually on the wood and filter out.

[|squee|]

Did you notice around how long after you setup the tank that you get BBA?

You mean for non-CO2 or CO2?

For non-CO2, it was quite a while because things (including algae) grow slowly. For CO2, I can't remember because it always seemed that BBA was there

I'm not sure about Tom recommending EI for startups... but if you meant does Tom dose EI straight away on day 1 of a new tank, then he does do that.

Your BBA issue appearing months after your initial startup can be looked at logically, keeping in mind that things in a planted tank are always changing and change over time. It can be due to:

1) Increase in plant growth: therefore increasing need for CO2 = insufficient CO2, assuming your CO2 input is constant over those months (which is hardly so).

2) Clogging of filter = decreased flowrate = less circulation = fluctuation in CO2-rich water areas in tank.

3) Clogging of reactor/diffusor

... or many other factors that indirectly affect other factors blah blah blah.