# EI question



## geezer (Jun 7, 2006)

Hello Allarty: 

I have a 55 gallon tank following the EI guide. The trouble is I have a water meter so I'm cutting down the water changes to every two weeks (read that you can do that)

Does that mean I should be dosing for week two as well?

That's what I have been doing 

I'm just wondering should I only do one weeks worth of EI, and leave it be for a week


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## houseofcards (Feb 16, 2005)

I think that would depend on how heavily planted you are and what you think the uptake rate is. EI is just that Estimative, so it sounds like you should be dosing on the high end of the EI range and you probably wouldn't bottom out on anything until you do your bi-weekly water change and redose. But again I think it depends on what you uptake rate is and how your plants look.


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## geezer (Jun 7, 2006)

The plants seem to be growing really fast. Especially the Polysperma. It can grow about 7 inches a week  

The only problem is the nitrate is off the ricter scale by week 2. Above 120ppm, and there is quite a bit of algae on the glass. I'm not sure if that's because there is too much pottasium phosphate.

John recommended that I keep the lights on 8 hours a day, and that has helped a bit controlling it. I'm just a bit unsure if the excess ferts maybe causing algae?


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## erijnal (Apr 5, 2006)

I'd just cut my dosings in half then. Since EI is supposed to provide more than necessary, cutting down on dosing shouldn't affect the plants, but should keep the nutrient levels to a more reasonable level.


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## BSS (May 2, 2006)

You certainly need to try to let things settle in before you make any long term ('final') settings. But, if your NO3 is >120 by the end of the second week, I'd cut that dosing in half initially. Should it still be high after about 3 weeks at that level, I'd cut it down again.

If you are getting GSA (green spot algae) on the glass, then that's typically an indication that your PO4 dosing might be a bit low. So, I'd recommend increasing the dosing on that one (this is something I started a few days ago).

My thoughts,
Brian.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

Beware of placing too much trust in test kits!!
If the nitrate test kit is well calibrated, and you are following the EI dose recommendations, my guess is that you are underdosing phosphate, so all of the nitrate can't be used by the plants. But, I am assuming a heavily planted tank.


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## geezer (Jun 7, 2006)

thanks i may cut down a bit on the potassium nitrate and a weeny bit more phosphate to see if there's any difference.

a couple of the plants have brown spots. i'll try a video of the tank and upload it to see what people think


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## geezer (Jun 7, 2006)

small video of the leaves. 90% of them are ok, but a few are like this. more like the older lot.

video of me plants


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

You have a pretty high plant density, and high light intensity, so I doubt that if you are following EI you have too much fertilizer of any kind. My bet is that you don't have enough CO2 in the water, because I think I spotted some BBA in that video. And, the green spot algae often indicates a shortage of phosphate, so I still think you need more of that. Excess fertilizers do not cause algae, so that should not be a concern. As far as water changes go, 25 gallons of water per week is not going to have much effect on your water bill, unless Canadian water rates are much higher than ours.


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## geezer (Jun 7, 2006)

Can I ask what BBA is? I'm just going to add extra phosphate for week 2 I reckon and see how that goes.

I recently bought a new power reactor as the red sea 500 power reactor didn't seem efficent enough. I'm using 3-4 BPS and the PH drops 0.6 in hour and a half. So maybe I need to crank it more to get to the full point.

I heard it should go down 0.1 every ten minutes?


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

BBA = black brush algae.
The rate at which the pH drops when the CO2 comes on depends on the bubble rate and how efficient your reactor or mist system is. As far as I have read, the drop doesn't need to be gradual as far as the fish are concerned.


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

In the video, I see Green Spot and BBA as well as a very stunted stem of what I think is Rotala rotundifolia at around the 40 second mark. The stunting and the BBA is more than likely a result of your CO2 being too low. As previously indicated, the Green Spot Algae is a result of not having enough PO4 in your tank. PO4 will increase the uptake of NO3 in your tank so maybe between the lower CO2 and PO4 levels, your tank just isn't using enough NO3.

If you are truly concerned about the cost of water for water changes, I suggest you read up on Edward's PPS method of fertilization. It is designed to eliminate or at least, greatly reduce water changes. Most of the stickies at the top of the Fertilization Forum deal with PPS. Give it a look, it may be something that would be of interest to you.

If PPS seems too complicated for you right now or does not grab your interest, do a little experimenting with EI. After a few weeks of testing, I found that my tank used about 2ppm of NO3 per day and about 0.15ppm of PO4 per day. As a result, I tried dosing 2-3ppm of NO3 per day and 0.1-0.2ppm of PO4 every day via solutions. It worked very well and helped me reduce my water changes up to a month at a time. 

The only down side I found to this "modified EI" schedule was that if I went away for the weekend and was unable to dose my tanks, I usually came back to a small algae outbreak. It seems I was giving my plants just what they needed and a few missed doses were rewared with a algae.


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## geezer (Jun 7, 2006)

Thanks both for your help I really appreciate it. I really had a good look and actually did notice (to my horror!) some beard algae , hairy stuff!:Cry: 

I'm thinking maybe I wasn't cranking the co2 enough. I was being very tight I think. I was never dropping a full point during the day, and turning co2 on at the same time as the lights

I've upped the bubble rate and turning it on 3 hours before the lights come on, so it's at almost the optimum level. I've worked out the PH when the fish start to gasp so I know when to stop the co2 with the PH monitor

I'm gonna have a read of the PPS tonight because I really wanna succeed. I see so many beautiful tanks from the users here I just look with envy and awe at how good they look :Cry: 

Thanks both again. I'll keep you informed!


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