# Lazy man needs fert help



## Duque (Nov 19, 2012)

OK, please don't forget these guiding principle and a long-term contradictions: _I'm feakin' too lazy or tired to use SEachem's method of fertilizing in my NINE aquariums every night, after feeding the fish._

I'm already raising THOUSANDS of Giant Sequoias and Coast Redwoods in *Virginia* and drive 90 miles each way to the nursery. So, by the time I get home, play with the kids, pet the dog and grope my wife, I hate looking at the bottles of liquids that I'll have to measure out multiple times.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Osmocote root tabs? Can I just dose the damned tanks every 2-3 days? Should I use dry ferts of some sort (lightly demand)?? I looked at the site calculator and had no clue how it applied to Seachem Excel, Flouris, Micros, etc...

Honestly, I get home and my brain is fried from nursery-related irrigation formulas, fertilizer calculations, using toxic herbicides, and learning how identify potential fungi. ...and to think I studied Political Science in college. Hah!!

So, I'm eccentric, stubborn, exauhsted, and oddly lazy by nature It's hard to conbine those traits when running your own nursery business. So, I save the laziness for home.

Does anybody have any suggestions? ...other than psychotherapy or changing my hoibbies/work?


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## niru (Feb 8, 2012)

Nice life situation summary there... Reading an honest assessment after a long time.

You could buy peristatic pumps, timer switches, and one of the lazy weekends do an EI fert dosing calculations.. You even get readymade dry ferts. Just add enough water and some mold inhibitors.. Then Bobs your friend.

.... or ask your wifes/kids to dump spoonfuls of this EI concoction into your tanks...

Cheers
Niru

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2


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## Duque (Nov 19, 2012)

Hi Niru.

Thanks for acknowledging my candor and confessional rant. I'm in over my head with the trees and the aquariums.

Please excuse my ignorance, but what is EI, where do I get dry fertz (and what kind), and does a peristatic pump work with dry fertz or liquid?

If you have any suggestions on which Powerball numbers to play this weekend, I'll take that too. Actually, my wife refers to the lottery as a "tax on people who are bad with math".

Come to think of it, getting the kids involved might be a good solution. I'd like to work on their math skills and this might be a good challenge.

Thanks again!
D


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## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

EI starts with dumping copious amounts of fertilisers AND changing 50% of the water once a week. Drop the ball a little and algae will eat you alive because your tank is a toxic cesspool of chemicals that you yourself made sure where added to the water. 10 to 20 ppm N and 1-2 ppm P floating free in your water is the receipe to really mess things up. Think of how to trick your tank into growing a lot of algae: You will have one answer - exactly what EI suggests.

The idea behind EI is that you dump tons of ferts and change water like mad every week until you get a feel for the tank. It is assumed that you will have no problems at all because the food in excess feeds the plants in a magic way. EI has no suggestions how to handle problems other than: "You have a defficiency." and "Try to find what is missing and add more of it." So after an initial period of problem-free coasting you will get a feel for the tank and you start to reduce the amounts of ferts until you reach whatever concentrations you are happy with. 

EI is a fertilization approach that has been peddled and accepted as a method to run a planted tank. Same with another approach - PPS. The people that choose EI usually have no idea how to find information about any other, real method. EI and PPS are the only 2 "methods" that a newbie sees described on a forum. ADA's method is not found easily anywhere. Most folk using EI are stuck keeping high concentrations of chemicals because they never even paid attention on how EI is supposed to work by gradually tapering off the fertilization. "Supposed to work" is not like "works", but who cares.

So if you enjoy having no option but taking care of your tank when it tells you to EI is for you. That is a lot of fun, I assure you. You will be part of a big and passionate group of people that will fervently defend EI. Ask them about biofiltration, organics, acidity of the substrate, water flow, water flow pattern and you will see - all they will insist is to maintain a nice concentration of chemicals in excess. I guess you can use the EI idea for your sequoias and redwoods - ignore everything else other than fertilizers. If you feed those trees well everything else matters very little. Plants, you know, adapt in an amazing way to anything IF you feed them well! Noone can deny that.

You are better off finding threads that talk about tanks being run with rich substrate, minimal ferilization, and parameterers that are not excessive. Think again - what is it that will make algae have a hard time growing AND plants thriving? That is what you need to do if you dislike your tanks telling you what to do and when to do it.


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## ObiQuiet (Oct 9, 2009)

niko said:


> ...tanks being run with rich substrate, minimal ferilization, and parameterers that are not excessive.


This is what I do, very low maintenance. Months between water changes.

Duque, the "El Natural" section of this forum sounds like it's for you.

Start here, maybe:
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/el-natural/26458-what-el-natural-step-step.html


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## SethJohnson (Jan 2, 2013)

I agree with niko ei, is not a good method I was keeping nine tanks until recently. Dosing 9 tanks a day, and 50% wc on 9 tanks is craziness. I also have a 1 year old, 45-60 hour work week, and two 30 year old bmw's I'm trying to restore/keep on the road.


This is how I manage my 5 tanks soon to be 3 then 2. I miss the days before mts when I was able to focus all my energy on just one tank. Mts made this hobby a chore for me. I gave up for a while and all my tanks exploded with problems. I started doing small things here and there too correct problems. I'm slowly reducing tanks I just don't need all these. I will have two very soon. I'm keeping my 26g rimless bow riparium that houses my axolotle. And I'm combining most of my plants and hardsapes from twin 72 bowfronts and 6 10g's all into one super awesome 40b. Unfortunately my roselines and bgk are going to a new home because I can't keep a tank this large in the new place im moving too. Enough of my rambling it seems nobody has time anymore, here's my solution. 


Medium light, low co2, top off with RO/DI, dose/test once a week until you always have to dose the same amount regularly, then dose weekly, test monthly or bimonthly just for Fun, water change 2-3 times a year just too make sure your siphon still works.


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## Duque (Nov 19, 2012)

Niko and everyone else, thank you so much for your information. Now I'm asking the same question about the number of aquariums as I asked about the first 1,200 Giant seedlings I ordered the first year. ...."Why did I get so much"?

Thankfully, my largest tank is only 40 Gallons and I'm going to try to make it a dirt tank. Obi, thanks for the link to the "El Natural" section. After I get the tank situated, I'll look for an "El Natural" resort for me and my wife.

Actually, if the Dirt Tank goes well, I'm going to consider switching all my tanks over, since I try to make all of the aquariums "planted", for the fish. In the woste case, I'll use Eco-Complete with some root tabs or periodically splurge on ADA Amazonia.

You guys have been great!! Thank you.


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