I have been doing the Aquarium thing a little over two years now, for 90% of that time I have done Low Tech setups, with dimmable LED light strips (CurrentUSA brand). I have had some good success with those types of tanks, algae is not usually an issue once I get my light dialled in correctly. I mainly liked raising Neocaridina Shrimp. Fertilization I usually do at a water change, but its minimal, usually liquid potassium, and Salty Shrimp GH+. I have some pictures waiting approval in my albums in my profile. Anyway so after rescuing this big 180 gallon vivarium I got a little extra money and I made the plunge into CO2 injection. My setup right now is:
- 20 Gallon Long
- Satellite Freshwater LED+ 13 watts 600 lumens (35+ par @ 12 inches) After reading the Tropica article on light this doesn't sound like enough
- Eheim canister classic 250 (supposed to be good for tanks up to 65 gallons, for idea of flow)
- GLA PRO-SS (dual stage regulator)
- atomic inline diffuser
So I wanted to attempt to learn EI dosing. Initially I couldn't find teaspoons small enough, so I googled the mass of a teaspoon then basically made dilutions of the KNO3 and Monopotassium Phosphate. Anyways, I upsized my daily dose to a monthly dose 8.8g of Monopotassium Phosphate, and 31.7g of KNO3, I dissolved it into 250 mL of RO water, and blah blah blah roughly 20mL of each liquid would be my daily dose (daily meaning 3 times per week) I totally could have messed this up, and probably did, so I bought some teaspoons that go to 1/64th online and I am doing it exactly the same way it's outlined in the EI sticky post from 2005. I even bought myself a gallon of Seachem Flourish for like $140 (ouch).
So, today I cleaned up and removed all the algae, took my like 2 hours, then I did a 90% water change. I added back RO that was remineralized with Salty Shrimp KH/GH and Salty Shrimp GH+. I am adding water with roughly 3-4 degrees KH and 9 Degrees GH. I decided I would dose Macros 3 times a week, Saturday (after water change), Tuesday, and Thursday. 1/4 teaspoon KNO3, and 1/16 teaspoon Monopotassium Phosphate. I also added 10 mL of Flourish Excel, becuase bleep-you algae. So I will post my findings as the weeks pass.
I always find that blueish green hairs would form on 1 week old leaves, but I guess time will tell now, hopefully everything goes alright. This is round 3 of me attempting this EI method. I had real problems with that Green Leaf Aquariums regulator, it would not keep my CO2 constant. Which drove me nuts considering what I spent. Anyways they have a crappy design where the bubble counter/check valve meets the needle valve. Anyways after complaining they sent me softer washers for that area and we seem to be 100% leak proof now.
I have mini dwarf hairgrass, anubias, weeping moss, java fern, and some rotala in my tank right now. I also posted a tank where I did correct the algae problem by adjusting the light, but this blue !@#$% is something I can't seem to beat, hopefully me doing the EI properly will work. Eventually something has to work.
Here's a link to higher res pictures, since this forum compressed mine even more: