# Greg Watson ferts, EI Dosing, and Inverts…



## Walker_ (Mar 24, 2006)

Hola, Iv been using Gregs stuff for some time now and am VERY happy with the results in plant growth. Im using EI, and dosing. I have about 110G of water in my tanks and assorted filters so am dosing 1 ½ tsp of KNO3 3x a week, ½ KH2PO4 3x a week, ½ K2SO4 3x a week and ½ tsp of his trace mix Plantex CSM+B 3x a week alternated on opposite days of the macros. Im running C02 and Metal halides in the 9WPG neighborhood. 

My problem is almost every time I introduce any invert other than a snail, they are dead in a matter of a day or so! I was under the impression the the trace from the Plantex was safe for inverts? Is that the probable cause or is it likely something else?


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

Not sure what your shrimp our dieing from. But I can say that Greg Watson ferts have a higher concentration of copper than some other popular ferts. I personally use Kent micros (less copper) for my shrimp tank, dosing half of what I dose in my non-shrimp tanks.


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## Ankit (Dec 9, 2006)

From what I've seen, shrimp are sensitive to water conditions... i would dose fertilizer very carefully in their tanks.

Personally, I'm setting up my current project tank to be able to work without any CO2 injection or fertilizers to look good, it will be a shrimp only tank though and so obviously a bit more specialized... Answer? I'd avoid dosing ferts in a tank with shrimp. If you must, use much less than recommended, maybe half or 1/4th of recommended?


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## Satirica (Feb 13, 2005)

I dose straight EI including CSM+B in my shrimp tank. No shrimp deaths. However, my tap water has almost no metal ions in it, and 0 copper . CSM+B has a much higher concentration of Cu relative to Fe (1:70) than Flourish (1:3200) but less than Tropica Master Grow (1:12) (I forget what TMG is called now but the name has changed.) You might choose to change what you dose for trace or do like Trenac and dose less.

You might want to contact your water company and get an analysis of your water. Water supplies can vary a great deal from place to place, and in one place can have seasonal variation. You might find that you don't need trace -- that was the case with the water supply I used to have.

Sorry you lost your cherries. That sucks.


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## John N. (Dec 11, 2005)

I haven't had good experience with dosing fertilizers with Crystal Red shrimp, but cherry shrimp and green shrimp seem to be okay with Greg watson ferts in lower concentrations. I would dose less, and gradually build up to your current dosage to allow the shrimp to adjust to the chemicals you're adding.

Many people don't seem to have a problem dosing plantex or other gregwatson ferts with cherry shrimp according to this poll.

-John N.


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