# Help With Dosing Please



## waterfaller1 (Jul 12, 2006)

Can you please look at my dosing schedule and see if anything looks out of line? I am mostly concerned with my two cubes. They are each 4.3 gallons, and I have a nova extreme T-5 fixture over both~2 X 24 wt. I am using the seachem dosing chart, and all of their products except trace.
Here is my calculation:
Seachem chart~ http://www.seachem.com/support/PlantDosingChart.html
Excel~2 mL
Iron~.4 mL
Flourish comp~ .1 mL
Nitrogen ~.25 mL
Phosphorous~ 1 mL
Potassium~ .5 mL
I am having some algae issues, on and off. It seems some weeks the tanks look great, others I am battling thread algae, and a bit of BBA which I have been manually removing. I think my nitrates are too low,but it is ingrained in my head from keeping reef tanks that this should be 0.

Can you also tell me a good brand of accurate test kits?

The cubes


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## Left C (Jun 14, 2005)

Have you tried using this Seachem fert calculator?
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...ng/45119-seachem-dosing-calculator-chart.html

Using 85% of your 4.3 gallon capacity (or entering 3.655 gallons in the above calculator, you get:
Excel - 1.8 ml after water change and then 0.4 ml daily
Iron - 0.4 ml daily
Flourish - 0.3 ml on days 1 and 6
Phosphorus - 0.2 ml on days 1 and 4
Nitrogen - 0.2 ml on days 1 and 4
Potassium - 0.6 ml on days 3 and 5
(Optional) Trace - 0.9 ml on days 2 and 4


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## waterfaller1 (Jul 12, 2006)

I did but got different numbers, then Seachem said this..

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/seachem/48203-dear-seachem.html

Now I am really confused..


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## Left C (Jun 14, 2005)

You shouldn't get different numbers if you used 3.655 gallons for your dosing amounts.

I think that I may of found a problem. You're dosing 1 ml of F. Phosphorus and 0.25 ml of F. Nitrogen. You shouldn't be dosing 4X as much F. Phosphorus as F. Nitrogen. Maybe you should double check your math for dosing F. Phosphorus. 

The dosing amount of F. Phosphorus should be the same ml as F. Nitrogen which is 0.2 ml. 

Which days do you dose each product? You aren't dosing all of your ferts daily, are you?

Your dosing plan doesn't indicate how many times each week that these products are dosed.

If you want, try my suggested dosing amounts with 50% weekly water changes. Things should work out.

I've used this calculator for over 2 years and it works well. There's over 200 people that are using it without any complaints.


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## waterfaller1 (Jul 12, 2006)

I must have messed up calculating on the phosphorous, I did notice Seachem's answer was also different. I have been using the chart . What I did not notice was the drop in amount for Excel. I have been dosing the same amount of excel every day, except water change day. And I think I calculated at 4 gallons.
Ughh..back to square one. I will try the amounts you posted.
Today was water change day anyway. Oh and how come noone warned me on how involved you can get if you decide you need to do a 'little pruning'. Hah..I was at it all day. I got so carried away with a pair of tweezers & a scissor that they almost look like different tanks.


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## waterfaller1 (Jul 12, 2006)

I meant to say, thank you SO much for taking the time to explain this Left C! It would be nice if I was doing this correctly. Maybe now I can get a handle on this algae. I cut alot of it out with my trimming yesterday. I see why they call it black beard algae...weird stuff, like little black tufts.
Can you tell me what you would suggest for a lightly planted 4 gallon nano with 1 fish? Would you triple the above amounts for a heavily planted 10 gallon?
I also wonder if there is a part of the above chemicals that I should go easy on, due to the substrate in the cubes? The suibstrate is soil covered with fine gravel & the sand paths. So the soil will be giving me some nutrients for awhile right? The tanks were set up in september 07'.


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## Left C (Jun 14, 2005)

You're very welcome, waterfaller1.

Maybe you should trim the bad BBA, treat the other BBA leaves with Excel and use 1.5% more dosing for Excel or 0.6 ml daily.

I had some BBA form along a corner in one of my aquariums. It ran up and down almost the whole length the seam that's formed when the aquarium is made.

I poured some Excel onto a paper towel and wiped it while doing a water change. It's turned pink after two days and then it went away a few days later. I noticed some fish nibbling on it when it was pink.


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## waterfaller1 (Jul 12, 2006)

I am waiting for replacement bulbs and need to get back to a regular schedule like this. I cannot get colors like the above pic anymore, and just seem to be fighting thread algae all the time in the tank on the left.
Recent pic


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## Edward (May 25, 2004)

Is algae in one aquarium only? Then pump as much water as you can from the clean aquarium into the algae infested one. This will move beneficial bacteria and allelochemicals where you need it.


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## waterfaller1 (Jul 12, 2006)

Really? That's against my nature.. I do 30-50% wc's once a week in_ all_ my tanks. So I should put water from a tank with no algae into this tank, instead of fresh water? The tank next to it does not suffer from as much thread, but has clado. My 20 gal with press. CO2 has staghorn . The low light{but it has alot of tannins} and finnex tank with CPO's are the only ones with 0 algae.


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## Nevermore (Mar 26, 2007)

For accurate test kits, get LaMotte. They're expensive but worth it, IMO. Once you buy the kit, it's much cheaper then to just buy the reagents when you run out.


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