Ei Dosing Began

[rsands]

Hi,

I upgraded to 2 x 55watt t5 tubes with no reflectors so a bit of light is lost! i use the old tubes to give the dusk/dawn effect still. so i have 165litre tank, 35 UK gallons, which gives me 3.14wpg i have started to make up the EI mixtures in 500ml bottles. I just added 30ml nitrate, 20ml phospate.

Is there anything i have misseD? The traces will be added tomorrow

CO2 is now at 30ppm on one cannister with the home made mix and i have a 2nd cannister to start up in a rotation mix

 

[SuperColey1]

WPG is calculated on US Gallons which gives you 2.75WPG (based on 40US Gallons)

You should really get the reflectors as you are wasting a lot of light without.

I think You should probably be adding approx 40ml KNO3, 25ml KH2PO4 and I add K2SO4 as well just for luck. lol

Andy

 

[rsands]

ah rite didn't know that..cheers for that advice on the wpg.

In that case i shall get spending again and invest in some reflectors for the new lights! the old tube reflectors are still attached to the top of the tank about 2 inches away but they aren't the right width..so i will get the proper ones to fit.

How long does it take to see growth improvements? i must admit i did a stupid thing...i left my new lights on all day yesterday without refreshing CO2 or starting the EI mix and a bit of algae started so hoping it should stop

 

[rsands]

also did i get my mixes for 500ml right?

40g nitrate per 500ml
15g of phosphate per 500ml
15g trace per 500ml

 

[SuperColey1]

Cant remember the exact quantities but I used the same as the pinned.

I just used more than the 20-40 gallon suggestion as I have a 33USG and the plants were waning a little.

They're great now with 30ml KNO3, 15ml KH2PO4 and 10ml K2SO4

Dont know about the trace as I use Tropica PN

I use my old T8 reflectors for my 55W and they work OK. I dont think they make them yet for the actual PC (although there are some in US. quite pricey too)

Wait for a week and take a pic. You will notice a huge diff from previous weeks photo. (Growth will be almost the first day)

Andy

 

[rsands]

sorry just a bit confused...you have 30ml, 15ml and 10ml

just wandering the suggestion on 40ml nitrate, 25ml phosphate is what was meant ye? lol (sorry just confused) i assume cause of the tank size difference is the reason?

also it said Kh2PO4 but yet i got K2PO4 from AE..is it still correct solution?

 

[SuperColey1]

i have a 125 (33USG) . you have a 160 (40USG)

I have a very heavy fishload hence more foodwaste and therefore more phosphates so i dose less phosphates thana 30G but still more than the pinned for a 20 gal.

I dose nitrates as normal because the plants seem to use them.

and I dose the extra K (K2SO4) just in case

You bought KH2PO4 from Richard at AE (Mono Potassium Phosphate)

Andy

 

[rsands]

that explains lol...my fish load isn't too bad so i will see what happens.

ah rite kk...bag must have got labelled wrong or something as it says k2PO4 but maybe its the same thing as KH2PO4 lol

on a quick note..should i invest in a glass diffuser instead of the powered? the 2 cannisters are linked into the standard redsea powered diffuser at the min

 

[SuperColey1]

Do you use a drop checker?

Is it green?

Do you test?

What does that say?

If you are reaching the desired levels why change unles for aesthetic reasons?

Andy

 

[rsands]

its green as far as i can see but i the reason i dont like it is cause its powered it creates a blast of water from it and disturbs the plant movement and the leaves around it aren't the best compared to the leaves not near the current.

plus a lovely black power cable is running down to it! but only concern is if my co2 gets too big what the best way to slow the glas diffuser down would be as with the powered a can just reduce the current flow from it

can an over filtered planted tank be a bad thing? i am trying to source the fluval 305 spray bar but no luck yet

 

[SuperColey1]

Pets at home do the fluval spray bars for a fiver

Over filtration is never bad unless youre creating a whirlpool

If your drop checker is green then the siffusor is working OK.

If you dont like the plants moving from its product then yes a glass diffusor will be OK but wil need cleaning every 2-3 weeks on yeast based due to the slime build up. On pressurised this isnt a problem.

You will really struggle to overdos CO2 from yeast base kits on a tank unless it is really small, so dont worry

Glass diffusor wise I would reccomend this one (also recommended by Tom Barr and George Farmer in recent posts) it is the one I have.

The seller AM who I have to admit I deal with a lot and get preferrential prices these days has changed the advert as it used to say suitable for yeast based kits whereas it now says pressurised only. This confuses me because I bought it when I used yeast based kits and it works brilliantly on 2 Nutrafins. I would get this but offer 75% of the price rather than buy it now and he should accept. I would also suggest buying the Gamba XII as well as its great value and if you go pressurised it will be very useful.

http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/Rhinox-2000-Japanese...oQQcmdZViewItem

http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/Gamba-XII-Japanese-C...oQQcmdZViewItem

Andy

 

[rsands]

need HELP! lol

after a days use of the new lights the newest leaves of the plants are now totally covered in algae! i dosed my traces today as well but still everything is covered in this algae? dont know what to do as i gave htem all the nutrients they need by pre-mixing a solutinow t the tap water into 500ml bottles

 

[nry]

The jump in light levels can cause algae break-outs quite quickly (speaking from experience!) - the plants will take a while to get used to the new light, generally I would suggest dropping your lighting period significantly when jumping up light levels like you have. I would start ~6-7 hours per day, no gap. Do not move higher until things are stable with no algae. Move ~15 minutes more each week unless you see increased algae growth.

Simply adding more light, CO2 and more fertiliser will not prevent algae appearing, which is why many people who setup new tanks like this stick loads of cheap fast growers in for months to let them get algae covered - once things settle (maybe 2 months or more!) then is the time to start slowly replacing the cheap plants with the ones you want. This may take another two months but algae appears when things are not stable (e.g. you suddenly start with more light and loads of nutrients) and at the moment things are not stable. Patience is the key I guess!

 

[BHornsey]

Hi.

Having read through this post it would seem that you have too much light for a DIY CO2 setup.
You either need to reduce the light output or upgrade to a pressure system.

At these light levels, plants are driven to grow strongly. DIY setups fluctuate. Although the drop checker is showing green it can be a little slow to respond.
It's this fluctuation that causing the problem. If CO2 is low, the plants can adapt by producing rubisco to manufacture carbon from carbonate. However, this is a costly effort for the plant and it takes time to adapt, upto a week or more, and this system shuts down when CO2 is available.

So, when CO2 isn't stable, the plant struggles and algae appears.

I would also recommend dry dosing your ferts; it's far easier

edit: sorry nry, we posted together !

 

[rsands]

hmmm so what to do...reduce the lighting period or change the whole co2 system? i have two home made yeast cannisters linked into the diffuser and co2 is always on at a steady rate.

i dont know how to measure 1/16 of a teaspoon easily lol...