It Just Occured To Me I Know Nothing About My Tank.

[garuf]

seriously, I was just reading an article on parameters of dosing, reaching that golden 30ppm and I realised I don't know what I'm Dosing, my over all ppms including co2 or what I have coming from the tap in regards to gh and kh ...
I'm not sure I even have tests to find out so what tests, items, should I have to find out because its quiet worrying that I don't know.
related to the algae I keep getting? looks that way.

 

[nry]

Hmm, I have not tested anything in my tanks for months and months, well before I started Estimative Index dosing. If you run EI then this is pretty much the point, you dose, water change, dose etc etc etc, no testing. As many here say, the off-the-shelf test kits are rarely anything like accurate anyhow.

I think even if I ever go low-light I would still dose reduced EI, it is simply easier than testing and worrying

Saying that, I don't remember if you are dosing EI.....

 

[garuf]

I am indeed dosing EI but surely I should know what's already there for dosing? otherwise how do I work out how much i should be dosing?

 

[nry]

That's the point of EI though - add a fair bit of everything so there is more than enough and use the water changes to ensure levels stay within reasonable levels. The EI pinned article has dosage rates based on a fair amount of experience, stick to those rates and don't overly concern yourself!

 

[garuf]

DEAL!
Im running what is either a 10 or 11 gallon tank depending on what calculator you trust so I've been dosing 10nl of kno3 5ml of mgso4 and 5ml of k2po4 which I think is right

 

[nry]

DEAL!
Im running what is either a 10 or 11 gallon tank depending on what calculator you trust so I've been dosing 10nl of kno3 5ml of mgso4 and 5ml of k2po4 which I think is right

I don't use the MGSO4 myself, I stick exactly to this from the pinned thread:

10ml solution or 1/8 tsp KNO3 3x a week
5ml solution or 1/32 tsp KH2PO4 3x a week
2ml solution or 1/32 tsp K2SO4 3x a week
2ml or 1/32 tsp traces 3x a week (I use 2ml of Tropica Plant Nutrition liquid as it doesn't cloud my water like the dry powder from AE)

 

[garuf]

DEAL!
Im running what is either a 10 or 11 gallon tank depending on what calculator you trust so I've been dosing 10nl of kno3 5ml of mgso4 and 5ml of k2po4 which I think is right

I don't use the MGSO4 myself, I stick exactly to this from the pinned thread:

10ml solution or 1/8 tsp KNO3 3x a week
5ml solution or 1/32 tsp KH2PO4 3x a week
2ml solution or 1/32 tsp K2SO4 3x a week
2ml or 1/32 tsp traces 3x a week (I use 2ml of Tropica Plant Nutrition liquid as it doesn't cloud my water like the dry powder from AE)

I use 2-3ml of trace which is premixed AE trace.
just out of interest, I got all my ferts from AE, did I buy the right ones?

 

[nry]

Only one I am unsure of is the MGSO4, did you perhaps buy this instead of the K2SO4?

 

[garuf]

I was lead to believe that my water could be low in magnesium so I thought it best to add some so that I was up to mark.
what role does k2so4 play? is it essential?

 

[nry]

Fair enough - as per the whole point, it should make little difference.

I was continuing to get a bit of staghorn and hair algae in my tank a fair bit into EI so I started with the K2SO4 just to see if it helped. No testing etc from me at all, all I know is the algae dropped off gradually since that point though still liked the low flow areas around my glosso.....

 

[garuf]

ahhh I see, I currently have what I think is bba spirigoya and clado and I'm having trouble shifting them all, I'm going through everything systematically trying to find the source, so far I seem to be winning exctept on the spiri which is impossible to shift, as is the last of the blanket weed (clado?) which just pulls my hc/glosso up when I try to rip it out.

 

[nry]

BBA is certainly CO2 related in my tank. It never went entirely until I started with pressurised CO2. Other stuff is perhaps the same though once I stopped moving plants around and disturbing the substrate it slowly declined.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

I would agree with the EI is is not important to measure everything. however you do not mention if you have a drop checker or not to monitor your CO2 (from the way I read it you dont). This would be the only thing I would suggest you need to monitor and I would guess that your algae problems are due to either low or unstable CO2 levels. It only took a week of low CO2 levels in my tank to get completely swamped with staghorn and BBA and after sorting the CO2 levels out it has now taken weeks for everything to go back to nromal again.

I would say if you keep dosing EI and make sure your CO2 is kept at around 30ppm then your algae problems will most likely go away. Dont expect it to be instant though and in the mean time the best thing to do is to try and emove as much as possible by hand.