Example: High Fish Load 2.5 Year Old Tank Using Strict Ei

[john starkey]

Poor man's Dupla (or dosing) drops.

Dupla is a German make that were and still are big in the planted tank industry.

Thank you george for that , its certainly a learning curve

 

[proton]

i have a stupid question, what is EI ?

 

[Underwurlde]

EI = Estimative Index: Simple, inexpensive, non-time consuming & easy method to follow such that your plants.... well, see the pics above!

Andy

 

[john starkey]

i have a stupid question, what is EI ?

Go to AQUAESSENTIALS SITE AND CLICK ON DRY FERTS

or you can look at my original thread asking about other methods besides EI its on page two or three. ITS ON PAGE THREE JUST LOOKED

 

[proton]

The reason I ask is I jsut started the hobby, I have a 240L tank just set up with Gas CO2 and glass Diffuser, at the moment I have Nymphaea lotus, Limnophilia Sessiliflora a crinum calamistratum and utricularia graminifolia x 2 bunches (i have the plant tags). I have notices a growth spurt now oh and I have eleocharis and they are doing well too, and I have a plant which i bought at ikea (yes ikea) it was in a plastic glass and is a stem plant and seems to be doing very well... and reading all this terminology is just making my head spin...

so far I found that EI is just adding in ferts, right? But according to what you say and plant experts it's just keeping an eye on them and tank etc. I also install this CO2 & PH monitor thing in my tank. It's green which is inbetween...

When I installed the CO2 I made a BIG MISTAKE of turning it up too much and then starving my fish of oxygen, most died, including my ghost knife fish and two beutiful angel fish...

 

[john starkey]

HI PROTON dont be put off by all the technical stuff its not that bad really, i felt the same when i restarted this hobby and im 52 its along time since i did chemestry at school Just try to read as much stuff about the planted side of the hobby and keep asking these experts on this forum they are all very helpful.

 

[Underwurlde]

EI is a technique discovered? formualted? invented? by Tom Barr. His website is well worth a vist:
http/www.barrreport.com/estimative-index...-test-kits.html

The basic idea behind this is a simple one: Give the plants what they need (incidentally via the most effiecent means i.e. into the leaves from the water column) and they will flourish. Plants can accept a very wide range of fertilizer dosing levels, hence without the need for complicated measurements, you just bung some ferts into your tank (small daily amounts) and then 'reset' the tank one per week via a (min) 50% water change. You can then, if you want, fine tune the dosing amounts to suit - hence the term 'Estimative'.

Using EI assumes that you MUST have good constant CO2 levels (>25ppm?) & at the very least >2W / US Gal good lighting.

Andy

 

[George Farmer]

We have our own EI pinned thread here on TFF too - http/www.fishforums.net/Jamescand39s-Est...le-t104737.html

Using EI assumes that you MUST have good constant CO2 levels (>25ppm?) & at the very least >2W / US Gal good lighting.

Not necessarily.

EI can be modified to suit lower lighting/non-CO2 as well. http/www.barrreport.com/articles/433-non-co2-methods.html

 

[Underwurlde]

Was trying to keep it simple......

 

[proton]

Excellent, thanks guys...