ADA substrate, ADA fert, and EI

Hi all,

I am about to set up a 20G with ADA powersand and aquasoil. It will have 65W and pressurised CO2 and I intend to plant heavily from day 1.

I purchased the Green Brighty Step 1 ADA fert which they say is for the newly planted tank, before I had heard of the EI. However I would prefer to use EI.

I have read what I can find on the ingredients of the ADA fert, and the best I can come up with is:

GREEN BRIGHTY STEP 1

A balanced existence of trace elements is
vital in the initial period, to stimulate the
sprouting of new roots and buds. Nitrogen,
Phosphorus or Potassium are not included,
as these may only induce algae development
at this stage when the plants nutrient requirements
are low.

So it seems to me that I could use it to supply trace elements along with the normal EI routine.

Do you think this would work? I don't think it has iron either so I would still need to use Flourish - so I'm not really winning here

Or does the ADA substrate supply enough stuff for a little while to only need the ADA fert? I don't know!!! I'm confused!!!

As usual, any help greatly appreciated.

maggie

as a ps. do you think that my tap water at GH of 18, pH of 8.4 and KH of 15 would be okay after CO2 injection? Thanks!

 

Re: ADA substrate, ADA fert, and EI

I think I'll just chuck the Green Brighty and go EI from the get-go. I sure as heck don't want any algae battles!

Tom, I'm going to follow the amounts listed in your article:

1/4 teaspoon of KNO3 3-4x a week (every other day)
1/16th-1/32nd teaspoon of KH2PO4 3-4x a week (every other day)

Traces added on off days as the macro nutrients, so 3x a week, 5mls each time.
SeaChem Equilibrium 1/8 teaspoon after water change.

using Flourish for the traces. OK? except the Equilibrium as I have plenty of GH from my tap. Do you really think that GH (18) is ok for the plants?

maggie

 

Re: ADA substrate, ADA fert, and EI

Thanks Tom, will do!
maggie