Ei

[Dave Pauls]

Alright.... I am ordering a whole bunch of plants to get my aquarium going, and I am ordering my fertilizers at the same time. I really have no idea about chemistry or fertilizers at all, so I read the pinned article on EI like 10 times through, and I figured I would just listen to all you experts, and go from there. sooo to start I figured I would get the Potassium Nitrate, the Flourish, and the Potassium Phosphate. I found the potassium Nitrate and the Flourish no problem, and added them to my cart.... but the potassium phosphate doesn't seem to be there. they do have this http/www.aquariumplants.com/ROCK_PHOSPHATE_p/fert1341.htm Is that the right stuff? it sais it is for advanced aquariists, and will cause an algae bloom.... I am not advanced, and I really don't want an algae bloom.... but if it is the right stuff I will just get it, follow the article, and if it doesn't work out..... I will go from there. thanks
DAVE

 

[Castellop123]

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[Dave Pauls]

Right.... sorry about that. It is a 65gal aquarium with 160wats over it. My CO2 Regulator, solinoid, needle valve etc is in the mail. I have Eco-complete for a substrate. I tested my water with my little testing kit and I came up with this:
PH = 7.5
GH = 25
KH = 17
NO2 = <0.3mg/L
NH3,NH4 = 0mg/L
I am on a well. So I was planing on going high tech with 50% water chainges and doseing. I am very new to this part of it though. I had a very successfull low tech tank several years ago, but I only had like 1.5 wats/gal with no CO2 and just ferts at water chainges. I am pretty excited to get this going and see what hapens. thanks
DAVE

 

[Castellop123]

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[Dave Pauls]

Oh, Ok...

I would deffinately get the Potassium Nitrate and Flourish... Ideally, it would be a good idea to buy a Phosphate test kit, but you could buy the Rock Phosphate (just in case...) Your setup sounds very cool...

Thank you Corin. I am pretty excited to get it going. I added the rock phosphate and a phosphate test kit to my cart. what other test kits would I need? or should I just go with what I have, and if I start having a problem, go from there?
DAVE

 

[Castellop123]

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[cheesy feet]

You don't really need any other test kits... Though, an ammonia kit could come in useful (when the tank is maturing...) I've never really bothered with Ammonia testing though, lots would probably disagree however. Everything else sounds in order... Can't wait for the setup...

Ammonia is the main test you can do.It is deadly to fish.

 

[Castellop123]

Ammonia is the main test you can do.

I've no experience of high Ammonia levels; over-stocking and infrequent water changes usually result in high NH3/NH4 levels... Though, high NH3/NH4 levels could also have a lot to do with the efficiency of the biological filter... I don't really agree with it being the 'main' test you can perform, either...

 

[BHornsey]

Hi,

It sounds like you're heading for hi-tech. CO2, 2½ wpg.
Whilst you can get test kits, they are notoriously unreliable and can cause more problems than they solve. Looking at your water it looks like you've been blessed with liquid rock.
You might just want to check to see if you have NO3 or PO4 present. Don't worry about being exact. If it looks like there's a lot, skip dosing nitrate or phosphate after a water change. If it looks low, dose half. If none's detected, fully dose.
That's it. The beauty of EI

On three planted tanks I've set up, I've never seen detectable NH3/4.
Provide you cover 75% minimum of the substrate with plants from day 1, there shouldn't be any issues. Plants will use any nitrogenous products.

My last tank was filled and planted, CO2 bought up and ferts added on day one. Then I turned on the lights.
Try not to run the lights without CO2, it's a red carpet to algae! I turn my CO2 on an hour before the lights. I turn it off overnight, about 45 minutes before they go off.
Once setup, I ran it for 3 days before putting in any fish. It's a 515L so I put in a dozen small fish, once a week, building the stock up slowly.
No fish health problems, plants grow and no algae apart from a dusting of diatoms which the Ottos lunched on nicely.
After two months, it's looking nice and I just put in some bigger fish. (if you look at my sig there's a link to some early photos)

For the first two weeks I kept lighting to 6 hours a day and changed 50% every two days. I also dosed Seachem Excel. The next two weeks I increased the lighting to 8 hours and changed water every three days. After that I went for 10 hours which is maximum I run them for and changed water twice a week (dosing ferts on the second day after) Now, after 6 weeks, I'm on the normal EI schedule. Algae hates fresh water, plants and excel. Although the first few weeks are hard work, by keeping to this schedule I've got a nice looking tank which hasn't seen any algae so far (touch wood!).

The phosphate salts normally used is mono-potassium phosphate (KH2PO4) I believe you can get it from Greg Watson on your side of the pond.

 

[SuperColey1]

If you're going heavily planted I wouldn't worry about an ammonia test kit.

Even very heavily stocked tanks will struggle to get an ammonia spike as long as there are no other defficiencys of nutrients because the plants will take ammonia before they take nitrate, therefore the reason why planted tanks don't normally cycle. The plants prevent too much of a bacteria colony growing in your filter, so ammonia doesn't get turned to nitrite and then nitrate. The plants can take the ammonia in its pure form without having to change nitrate to ammonia.

andy