# EI dosing question



## stcyrwm (Apr 20, 2005)

I'm just about to start dosing according to EI index. According to EI article dosing for typical 20g tank would be 1/4t KNO3 4x/wk. If I plug that into Chuck Gadds nutrient calculator it comes to 24.52 ppm nitrate for the week. Obviously that's over the target NO3 level. Is plant uptake using all the extra nitrogen or am I reading something wrong?

Bill


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## John P. (Nov 24, 2004)

You're correct. Often the plants won't consume all of the nutrients during the week, but that's the point. Using this dosing method can be considered wasteful of NPK & micros, but the results are outstanding because the plants are never lacking a nutrient. This means no or little algae growth if your lighting, CO2, and plant load are all correct.

You may want to start out by dosing the NPK only 2 or 3x/week (or 4x in smaller dosages) until you're comfortable that the fauna in your tank can handle it.

Works for me. I haven't tested Nitrate or Phosphate in 3-4 months. All I do is enjoy the tank now.


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## cousinkenni (Jan 24, 2005)

stcyrwm said:


> I'm just about to start dosing according to EI index. According to EI article dosing for typical 20g tank would be 1/4t KNO3 4x/wk. If I plug that into Chuck Gadds nutrient calculator it comes to 24.52 ppm nitrate for the week. Obviously that's over the target NO3 level. Is plant uptake using all the extra nitrogen or am I reading something wrong?
> 
> Bill


Not that this point really matters, but if you dose 1/4 tsp 4X a week in a 20 gallon won't you will be adding upward of 45ppm per week?

Ken


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## stcyrwm (Apr 20, 2005)

*Calculator mistake*

Ken,

Thanks for the math correction - I forgot to change the tank size to the size in Tom's article so it got calculated incorrectly.

Bill


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## stcyrwm (Apr 20, 2005)

*EI dosing*

John,

I probably should have gotten that from Tom's article but I'm a little on information overload. (Tom also pointed out that the example I refferred to is for a tank with 5+ wpg so its higher than what I'll need with 3 wpg.) Thanks for the feedback. It's time to dive in now.

Bill


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## John P. (Nov 24, 2004)

stcyrwm said:


> John,
> 
> I probably should have gotten that from Tom's article but I'm a little on information overload. (Tom also pointed out that the example I refferred to is for a tank with 5+ wpg so its higher than what I'll need with 3 wpg.) Thanks for the feedback. It's time to dive in now.
> 
> Bill


Awesome--you won't regret it! Just keep the CO2 at 30 ppm & you'll be good!


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