# EI dosing, just wanna make sure I understand!



## dmastin (Jun 27, 2009)

The EI dosing regime I see for 40-60 gallons is 1/2 tsp KNO3 three times a week.
When I use Chuck's Planted Aquarium Calculator and select the radio button for "add dry compound directly to tank" and enter 1.5 tsp (a weeks worth) it shows I'll be adding 22.68 ppm Nitrate (for 60g) and the suggested tank target level as 5ppm. Does all this sound correct? I plant to mix with liquid, but I was doing this a double check. Is the reason the dosed number is higher than the target number because Nitrate will be consumed throughout the week and hopefully you hover at the target level? When mixing my own would this be a reasonable starting point? Thanks in advance!


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## dmastin (Jun 27, 2009)

*Which not mixed and Postassium Sulfate dry?*

Which should not be mixed and potassium sulfate dry?
I have Mono Potassium Phosphate, Potassium Nitrate, Postassium Sulfate, and Plantex CSM+B.
I see on Rex's Planted Tank Guide where Rex suggests doing the K2SO4 Potassium Sulfate dry. Any reason y'all know of why? Also, should I dose the Plantex CSM+B on off days of the other three to prevent iron binding?
Thanks!


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## Philosophos (Mar 1, 2009)

You should learn to create your dosing levels from a piece of paper, a periodic table of elements and a calculator. Relying on calculators has caused enough headaches so far; I've spent dozens of posts helping to sort things out. It's not that they're bad tools, but I don't believe they should be used as shortcuts, or trusted over individual knowledge of the subject. Molar mass is your friend.

The chemical with the poor solubility would be the K2SO4. You can try warming up the DI water and adding the K2SO4 first.

Try to dose with a scale accurate to .1g at very worst, but preferably .01g or better. Measuring by volume has a very wide margin of error.

The level dosed should be 50% of the target per 50% column change. Maybe a little more for high demand tanks, and depending on the nutrient. The reason for this, expressed simply, is...

0ppm + 20ppm = 20ppm 
20ppm - 50% (water change) + 20ppm (dosing) = 30ppm
30ppm - 50% + 20ppm = 35ppm
35ppm - 50% + 20ppm = 37.5ppm
37.5PPM - 50% + 20PPM = 38.75PPM

This keeps going until you're essentially, though never mathematically at 40ppm. EI works on this sort of algorithm, and it can be bent in many different ways. I do 2x 30% WC/week which is a 51% cumulative change (100%-30%-30% = 49)

If you have any questions, let me know. I spend a lot of time playing with fert calculations; it's a part of the hobby I enjoy.

-Philosophos


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## dmastin (Jun 27, 2009)

Hey thanks. I certainly have my piece of paper and calculator going!

Rex suggests this for CSM would this sound about right for CSM+B as well?
For Plantex CSM mix 1 tablespoon or three teaspoons into 250 ml of water and dose 4 ml of this solution 3 times a week into 10 gallons of water. You can go higher or lower than this dose based on the observation of your aquarium.



Philosophos said:


> You should learn to create your dosing levels from a piece of paper, a periodic table of elements and a calculator. Relying on calculators has caused enough headaches so far; I've spent dozens of posts helping to sort things out. It's not that they're bad tools, but I don't believe they should be used as shortcuts, or trusted over individual knowledge of the subject. Molar mass is your friend.
> 
> The chemical with the poor solubility would be the K2SO4. You can try warming up the DI water and adding the K2SO4 first.
> 
> ...


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## dmastin (Jun 27, 2009)

Regarding Plantex CSM+B I'm reading posts and using Fertilator!


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## dmastin (Jun 27, 2009)

Fertilator is a big help!
Also thanks Philosophos regarding the algorithm. It's beginning to make some sense.


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## Philosophos (Mar 1, 2009)

CSM+B is just CSM with some boron in it. Dosing levels should be fairly much identical. I don't work with tbsp or tsp though; weight only. I just got CSM+B in the mail, and I haven't poked at the analysis too much yet my self. So far I've been using flourish just fine, but I want to switch to CSM+B with perhaps the odd dose of flourish to round things off.

On that note, I'd probably say that iron is the first thing I'm going to target. If nothing else hits toxic or deficient levels, I'll be aiming for dosing .3ppm Fe via CSM+B in order to hold a .3-.6 concentration. My aim is to get rid of the big bottle of Fe DPTA sitting around.

-Philosophos


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## dmastin (Jun 27, 2009)

Cool. Yes I was mentioning the tsp for reference, but I just got a crappy gram scale so I'm trying to measure in weights. I have two iron Hach test kits as I have to do quite a bit of iron mitigation for my well water, but at such low levels they seem iffy. I feel kinda crazy to be adding iron back to my water. I saw here that Flourish does have ingredients that CSM+B does not. Finally, how do you measure iron?



Philosophos said:


> CSM+B is just CSM with some boron in it. Dosing levels should be fairly much identical. I don't work with tbsp or tsp though; weight only. I just got CSM+B in the mail, and I haven't poked at the analysis too much yet my self. So far I've been using flourish just fine, but I want to switch to CSM+B with perhaps the odd dose of flourish to round things off.
> 
> On that note, I'd probably say that iron is the first thing I'm going to target. If nothing else hits toxic or deficient levels, I'll be aiming for dosing .3ppm Fe via CSM+B in order to hold a .3-.6 concentration. My aim is to get rid of the big bottle of Fe DPTA sitting around.
> 
> -Philosophos


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## Philosophos (Mar 1, 2009)

Ah, well water. This could make things interesting.

Flourish does add some other things, most of them are not necessary unless you're using 100% RO water. If one of them happens to be lacking in your tap water, it'll help out there too. 

How much do you know of your well water params? You could always post them here; they'll be something to consider while designing your ferts. One good chunk of dolomite near your well could change everything.

What do you mean by, "How do you measure iron?" The unit of measurement would be ppm, the method would be the scale, and for CSM+B it would be calculated as an inverted fraction based on % of dry weight. Maybe something like:

100/6*(insert desired iron concentration in 1L of water)

Does any of that sound right?

-Philosophos


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## dmastin (Jun 27, 2009)

Oh yeah, I just meant what sort of iron test kit do you use.
I've never tested my well water beyond hardness, iron, pH, and bacteria.
Raw well water is 150 ppm Hardness, 6.3 pH, 11 ppm iron, and bacteria in safe ppm range.
Before it's used in the home it's injected with chlorine, passed into holding tanks, passed through calcite and magnesium oxide, then manganese dioxide, then chevron centaur carbon, and finally cation softening ion exchange resin. It's taken about three years to get the system straight. It's stable now. Most of that is just to get the iron from 10 plus ppm down to undetectable. 
Out of tap water is 0 ppm Nitrate, 0 ppm Nitrite, <25ppm Total Hardness, 120 ppm Alkalinity, 7 pH, and undetectable Fe.
Currently in tank is 20 ppm Nitrate, 0 ppm Nitrite, 100 ppm Total Hardness, 120 ppm Alkalinity, 6.8-7.2 pH, and ~.3 ppm Fe.
I do not have a phosphate kit, yet.
Whew!



Philosophos said:


> Ah, well water. This could make things interesting.
> 
> Flourish does add some other things, most of them are not necessary unless you're using 100% RO water. If one of them happens to be lacking in your tap water, it'll help out there too.
> 
> ...


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## Philosophos (Mar 1, 2009)

I have an API kit. I don't really use it right now, given that I use 95%-99% RO water. The substrate is inert; eco-complete doesn't actually have any bioavailable nutrients. In short, I add the nutrients I want through column dosing right now. This will all be changing soon, I've got 6 bags of ADA AS sitting around waiting for the right day to flip things over.

-Philosophos


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