Non Ei

[john starkey]

hi all i asked this question some time ago, nobody actually gave me an answer so i will ask again, with my new set up fast approaching my biggest concern with ei is the 50% water change each week which for me will be about 45 us gals if i wanted to just use liquid ferts what types would i need and how would it affect the frequency of water changes, and please dont chew my head off this, regards john. ( this is me thinking of trying to make things less labourious). if ei is the best way to go then so be it.

 

[nry]

EI is only one way, others can work. If you want to grow pretty much any plant, you need high light. High light generally needs CO2. High light and CO2 means your plants will grow fast, providing they have enough nutrients. High light, CO2 and poor nutrients can lead to algae, hence why EI seems to work well as it provides adequate quantities of everything.

If you want to look at lower maintenance levels then you may need to think about lower lighting which means slower growth, no need for CO2 and smaller water changes and maintenance on the plants. Even 1WPG can produce good results, my tank did pretty well on 1wpg, no CO2 and only Seachem Flourish, Flourish Trace and Flourish Excel and some decent stuff below the gravel.

 

[john starkey]

EI is only one way, others can work. If you want to grow pretty much any plant, you need high light. High light generally needs CO2. High light and CO2 means your plants will grow fast, providing they have enough nutrients. High light, CO2 and poor nutrients can lead to algae, hence why EI seems to work well as it provides adequate quantities of everything.

If you want to look at lower maintenance levels then you may need to think about lower lighting which means slower growth, no need for CO2 and smaller water changes and maintenance on the plants. Even 1WPG can produce good results, my tank did pretty well on 1wpg, no CO2 and only Seachem Flourish, Flourish Trace and Flourish Excel and some decent stuff below the gravel.

hi nry so what you are saying then if i stick with my present plans and lighting levels and co2 but dont use ei just liquid ferts
i could end up with masses of algae? even when heavily planted. regards john

 

[aaronc]

Hi John

That is right. You have to get the balance right and provide everything the plants need. If you provide an excess or deficiency on any one factor then this could contribute to alage, it thrives off imbalance, whether this be too much, too much ferts etc.

Aaron

 

[nry]

The way I understand it, algae benefits when something is out of balance. I view out of balance as a mismatch of light/nutrients/CO2. With my 1wpg tank I could not go beyond a 7-hour lighting period without some kind of algae jumping in. I think this was because the plants were not growing fast/well enough and I was putting in light for too long.

If you want to go down a non-EI route then I feel that lighting levels are the key to reducing the likelihood of algae. That's my opinion purely based on what I found with my 1wpg tank. Having 2.5wpg, unstable CO2 and poor fertilisation gave me a fair amount of algae types taking hold within weeks, even with only 7-hours of lighting. Not sure how much was related to the unstable CO2 but touchwood 2.5wpg, stable CO2 and better fertilisation via EI has stopped any major algae issues starting in the past week. I'd hazard a guess that if I dropped the EI and used my old liquid fertiliser regime I would start to see some algae problems again.