Ada Plant Ferts

[john starkey]

Hi all, i was just wondering if anyone was following the ada system for feeding their plants, if so can you tell me what your opinion is and are your results as good as the ei method ? cost wise ei is by far the cheapest and ada is rather expensive so i was wondering if the extra cost of the ada is worth it. as tom barr says his results speak for them self and i agree from the pics he has posted on this forum in the past. regards john.

 

[George Farmer]

The ADA liquid fert range is designed to be used with the entire ADA substrate system.

ADA ferts are relatively lean in nutrients and rely on the super-rich ADA substrate to provide many nutrients , including nitrates and phosphates.

ADA do liquid ferts with NP, Special Lights and Shade, but these are relatively expensive compared with KNO3 and KH2PO4.

My advice would be to go EI, or PMDD with PO4. PMDD doesn't require the weekly 50% water change or strict 30ppm CO2.

For more info check out JamesC's excellent site - http/www.theplantedtank.co.uk/PMDD.htm

 

[xxBarneyxx]

I have gone down the ADA route but unfortunetly cant really give a lot of feedback as it my first planted tank so have nothing to compare it too (and it has only been running a few weeks).

So far at least everything seems to be doing amazingly well. I went with ADA ferts and substrate just because it was a lot easier for me to get to grips with than EI as a newbie and it means I can just keep more or less to my regular maintaince routine for non-planted tanks. For me personally I would prefer to pay a little something more for something that I just "add 7 squirts of this and 4 of this everyday" then pay a bit less and have to do a load of math and mess about with different traces and macros, etc.

 

[George Farmer]

I think Barney has hit the nail on the head.

ADA is simpler for many, but you pay a premium.

It's worth noting that once an EI or other fert regime is established though, the maintenance is no more or less than ADA.