Confused With Ei

[alanchown]

I understand the principals of EI, but with phosphates in my tap water of at least 4ppm, and nitrates at over 40ppm, where do I start? If I do a 50% water change I already have levels in excess of the ideal, ands testing during the week shows no significant change in nitrates (the API test kit is a bit awkward to read!) and phosphates dropping to around 2.5ppm. Do I need to dose at all?

I have had a 3 day black out and then had to dose with maracyn to kill off my BGA, and I think it knocked my plants back a bit.

Alan

 

[zig]

Think of it as free fertiliser.

You dont have to dose at all, other than trace and potassium, dont forget potassium. I would give it a go at those levels and see how you get on, if you have problems you will have to consider using RO water at water change time, but i would definatly try and run the tank using the existing water before going that route.

Edit: Just while i think of it, i would keep the bio load of this tank quite low or you will increase the nitrates further same goes for feeding, feed sparingly.

 

[alanchown]

Think of it as free fertiliser.

You dont have to dose at all, other than trace and potassium, dont forget potassium.

As luck would have it I didn't buy any potassium-I bought the Potaasium Nitrate and Pottasium phosphate!

Alan

 

[alanchown]

Think of it as free fertiliser.

You dont have to dose at all, other than trace and potassium, dont forget potassium. I would give it a go at those levels and see how you get on, if you have problems you will have to consider using RO water at water change time, but i would definatly try and run the tank using the existing water before going that route.

Edit: Just while i think of it, i would keep the bio load of this tank quite low or you will increase the nitrates further same goes for feeding, feed sparingly.

Given that I can't measure K, how much should I dose (ppm)?

Alan

 

[zig]

The recommended range for k is between 10-30ppm per week between water changes if using EI, most will get the k from the KNO3 and the KH2PO4.