Converting To Ei

[BHornsey]

Hi Everyone,

I have a 190L Juwel Trigon which I have set up using a Dennerle system (CO2, Substrate and cable heater and 4 18w trocal flourescents - two plant-gro, one amazon day and one color-plus) and have heavily planted it;

Major plants: Eusteralis Stellata, Echinodorus Red Flame.
Background plants: Hydrocotyle Leucocephala, Hygrophila (Polysperma & Difformis), Cabomba, Java Fern, Vallisneria Spiralis.
Carpeting: Sagittaria Pusillia, Echinodorus Tenellus & Eleocharis Acicularis
Floating: Pistia Stratiotes.

For fish, I have ½ dozen Discus and ½ dozen peppered cories, a dozen neons and a dozen Amano shrimps on algae patrol. I also have two juvenile BGKs (about 4-5 inches at the moment) that are in there until get my new tank set up in a couple of months when I want to transfer some of the bioload.

I have been following the Dennerle fertilising routines but am not happy with it. I got some good growth when I first set it up six weeks ago but things have slowed right down. As you can see there are plenty of fast growers, I have CO2 at around 25-30 ppm.

I am also getting a bad dose of hair algae. After trawling through various sites I have noted that Tom Barr has convincing proof that ammonia is the primary cause of this and given the bio-load I think this is my trouble. I'm surprised though, the filter was running for some time in another tank and was simply transferred to this tank and stocked straight away so no cycling was required and no ammonia or nitrite has ever been detected.

So why am I here? I have decided I wish to convert to EI and have just taken delivery of dry powder ferts (Magnesium & Calcium Sulphate, Iron Sulphate, Pottasium Phosphate, P. Nitrate, P. Sulphate and trace elements) and before I start I want to check a few things.

Since you dose NPK thrice weekly, do you mix them all in a common solution or in seperate bottles?

Once I reduce the bio-load, will the algae die off of it's own accord or do I need to remove it manually? Or will improving the nutrients to the plants make them out compete the algae?

I am using RO water (my tap water is a little too hard for my Discus) which I collect in a 70L loft tank which I preheat and treat using Sodium Bicarb to bring the kH back up to 4 and a little RO-Right. I see from the various articles that gH needs addressing as well. I assume the MgSO4:CaSO4 combo is used for this. Do I treat the water just at prep time or do the plants strip it out so that topping up is necessary?

I have the Hagen Master Test kit which covers most things. Does anyone do a Potassium test?

Lastly, the lighting is Ok but its a handful working on the tank with the two extra tubes added on; I have to fiddle about quite a bit to move them aside. I like the look of some of the pendant light systems, especially one (can I name it on this forum?) which has a 150w or 250w MH (depending on pocket depth!!) with two 24w T5s in a 600mm case which should just go over the tank nicely. Do you think this might be overkill on this tank?

Anyway, thanks for reading this long post.

Brian

 

[plantbrain]

Dose this:

3x a week:

1/2 teaspoon of KNO3
1/8 teaspoon KH2PO4

Add traces 3x a week, 10 mls(1 table spoon in 250mls of DI water).
TMG is a good name brand trace.

GH: Add a 4:1 mix of the CaSO4:MgSO4. add 1 teaspoon after the water change.

Don't add sodium bicab, bakign sioda etc, just blend the tap with RO to adjust the KH to about 3-4 range.

Eustralis is a good plant fro CO2 issues, it'll grow like a weed with a good eI routine and good CO2.

EI is straight forward and supplies plenty to the plants, so all that is left is CO2........

Toss the ferts right in there.
Some add the traces on the off days and some folks add everything on the same day etc.
I do not think there is a lot of evdence that it really matters that much.

You can always attack algae mercilessly manually with fingers, pruning etc.
With good CO2/Dosing, the algae should back off and go after, harass it.

You need a tank 2x this size to house Discus for the long term.
Try other species or get a bigger tank.

More light is not better, looks nice and I like open top tanks myself.
But it will place much more demand on CO2/nutrients and you(more pruning, dosing etc).

If you like working on the tank, then you might want to try it, generally folks have a few bumps and issues, but get the feel later for higher light.

But you can have a nice tank with what you have.





Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[BHornsey]

Thanks Tom,

The Eustralis shot up like a rocket when I first started the tank and I had to prune it back twice. Over the last three weeks though growth throughout the tank has dropped right off. I guess the nutrients have been pulled out of the water column.

For the fish, it's short term. I'm gonna be setting up a 5 or 6 foot tank in my new fish room. The 40G is in the living room and I intend it for just 4 or 5 good Discus in a planted tank. At the moment, the Discus and BGK are small and I hope to have my new tank running before they get too big.

I have CO2 running at about 30ppm at the moment. I have a ph controller which is set to 6.6 and a kH of 4.

For the lighting, it's more about accessibility. If I read you right, the lighting that I have is adequate. Things simply grow more slowly? That may not be such a bad thing, Discus can be a bit twitchy when it comes to me prodding around in their territory!

Just a question to any UK members, anyone know where I can get some dosing spoons? I only have a standard kitchen measure of a teaspoon and a tablespoon.

Thanks