Re: [APD] EI dosing

[Thomas Barr <tcbiii at yahoo_com>]

  >4. CO2- Pressurised @ 3 bubbles/sec diffused through the filter

  Now, if you added enough plants to start with and have good CO2 ppm, you would have little issue. How accurate is the pH test kit you have? Does it test between .2pH unit or .5 pH units?
   
  You need to add more CO2, that much I can tell you, does not matter what dosing you do, you'll get algae with lots of light(you would do better with 1/2 that amount) and poor CO2....... every time.
  
>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.

  This is not the EI routine I gave you.
  For a 20 gal:
   
  Add 1/4 teaspoon KNO3, 2-3x a week
  Add 1/16th teaspoon KH2PO4 2-3x a week
  Traces: add 5 mls 2-3x a week
  What is your GH?
   
  Acording to Chuck Gadd's calculator, each ml of the KNO3 solution will give you 1.21 ppm x 5 mls x 4 x a week = 24ppm
  KH2PO4 = .69 ppm per mls x 4x a week = 2.76ppm
   
  If you are actually dosing this amount, and doing weekly 50% water changes with tap that has neither, there is simply no possible way to get beyond 48ppm and 5.5ppm of PO4 ........ever. And that assumes zero uptake by plants. 
   
  So your test kits are inaccurate(which is a very common problem). You assumed they are correct, and they are not. You also assumed the dosing of the ferts is wrong, it's not, the CO2 and total plant biomass you started with likely was the issue.  
   
  Does not matter what dosing routine you use, you mess up and not add enough plants from the start and have poor CO2 dosing + very high light(108w/20 gal), you will faill and have algae every time.
   
  >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.

  If they stopped growing it was NOT due to a lack of any NO3, K, PO4, trace etc (GH perhaps but not likely with a KH of 5), rather, a lack of CO2.
  
>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.

  Well, that assumes of course that you have accurate test kits(very very unlikely) and you have been adding 200+ ppm of NO3 and 30-40ppm PO4 EVERY week. Mathmatically, these levels are impossible if you are doing weekly 50% water changes and following EI. They can only max out at 2x the total dosed for the week and that assumes no uptake at all. See above, if you do larger than 50% then the levels will descend lower to become closer to match your weekly total dosing.
  
>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. 
   
  These are not high levels if we assume they are correct levels.
  Do you think the algae was any more "limited" by these levels vs the higher ones?
  How big are you fish?
  Are they fed a great deal?
  That's the only other thing left.
  Or the test kits and your CO2 dosing. 
   
  >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

  Yes, and any method not followed correctly by addressing the CO2,+ adding high light. I add many others dose the same amounts weekly to our tank yet no algae, now what other things might we be doing(assuming we add the same amount and frequency of KNO3 etc) that might influence growth other than the dosing routines?
   
  CO2, light(easy to rule that one out, but it's a bit high and this can make it tougher to balance things). GH also, but to a much lesser degree.
   
  So poor CO2 is one of the best ways to get algae. About 90% of every algae related issue is CO2 related. always check that and even if things look funny, add more anyway. Just do not gas the fish, so do this slowly/gradually and when you are around to tend the tank and make sure things are doing well.
   
  EI rules out the nutrients for you, the CO2 is now the thing you need to work on.
  Prune, pick, preen the algae off, then correct the issue.
   
  Regards, 
  Tom Barr
   
  www.BarrReport.com
   
   
   
   
   
   


		
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