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[APD] About EI Dosing



Hi All,

Sometime back I had started EI dosing in my 20 G planted tank. My tank
specifications are as follows:-

1. Size-20G (Actual water volume-18G)
2. Light - 108 watts of Philips PLL lights @ 12 hrs/day
3. pH- 6.5
4. CO2- Pressurised @ 3 bubbles/sec diffused through the filter
5. Filter - Eheim Professional 2224
6. Ferts (Macro) - Dosing 5 mls of KNO3 (stock sol. of 250 mls with 6
teaspoons of KNO3) & 1 mls of KH2PO4 (stock sol. of 250 mls with 3 teaspoons
of KH2PO4) on every alternate days.
7. Ferts (Micro) - Trace Elements (with Iron) - 1/2 ml once every two days
8. KH - 5
9. Fauna - 2 medium size orandas
10. Water Change: 50% every week
11. Flora: Java Fern, Anubias Nana, Anubias Afzeli, Amazon Sword, Nuphur
Japonica, Lily, Echinodorous osiris, Baby Tears, Vallesneria, Ludwigia etc.
12. Substrate - 3 inches of Calcium free sand with 2 mugs of laterite as the
bottom-most layer
After about 15 days of dosing I had major trouble in the form of diatom
algae & hair algae outbreak. The plants also stopped growing and the overall
balance seemed to have gone for a toss.

Subsequently, I got hold of Nitrate & Phosphate Test Kits manufactured by
Aquarium Pharmaceuticals and was amazed to find the Nitrate & Phosphate
levels. Nitrate was 120 PPM & Phosphate was 20 PPM.

Immediately did a 90% water change and stopped dosing completely. Have not
dosed anything for the past 10 days and the Nitrate & Phosphate levels have
come down to more acceptable levels. Nitrate is between 5 to 10 PPM although
Phosphate is still high at about 1 to 2 PPM. Am doing 50% water change once
every 3 days and keeping a tab on the Nitrate & Phosphate levels.

And yes I did test my tap water and there are no traces of Nitrate &
Phosphate.

Has somebody else too experienced such results with EI?

Regards,

Saugata
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