Broken Image Links in EI Post and Rotala Butterfly Calculator

Yes, EI is pretty "estimative", but I would rely on the calculator for a more precise dosing.

 

You are very welcome. EI should be thought to be "very flexible". As Tom said a thousand times: "it is not written in stone"


Let us know your results!

 

I can definitely add that, but I'd need the composition of urea... And what would be its optimal concentration in PPM per dose?

 

Hi Dennis Sure do you know the composition of urea and what is its optimal concentration?

 

Oops seems fab replied at the same time

 

Urea - CO(NH2)2


N - 46.65%

 

What we'd really need is the "concentration by mass". Fore example, the data for Kno3 is the following:


NO3: 0.6133


N: 0.138539


K: 0.3867


We'd need that kind of information for urea as well... I made some research on the web, and what I could find is just its molar mass which is 60.06 g·mol, but I am not a chemist and I don't now how to extrapolate data like above! Who of us knows this stuff??!

 

Thanks Strungout, I read through it but I can't make a sense of the data... we'd need someone expert in chemistry?

 

Urea can be dosed, particularly if you lack fish and do not feed them. Or perhaps you like the new ADA As growth. You should not dose more than about 0.8ppm per day of NH4 based ferts. I doubt most any tank would need more than that amount.

 

Fantastic rajkm! I see if I can work the calculator later today with those numbers and see what results we get.

 

Thanks Tom, that's useful info. So, shall we target 0.8ppm max daily for the N value of urea? I am not sure it'll work that way... but I can try to include all this data into the calculator and see what results we get.

 

Well, as NH4 anyway, or total N if you urea. Urea added to water does what exactly?


I will let you look that up. Also, what is the solubility?


My target is based on what I know about aquatic plants and toxicity of the NH4.


Some will get attacked by bacteria as well. But some should make it to the plants, or bind in the sediment.


The rest will get used as NO3 later.


I think folks use to do this years ago, not sure anyone really does it much these days at 0.4 to 0.8ppm ranges daily.


I used mostly NH4Cl and (NH4)2SO4. I got algae often times, most of the time, but with high light and not enough CO2, well.........


I can likely do this today without issues.


My issue was looking at algae responses.


But it was more CO2 related factors.


NH4 itself did not cause the algae blooms.


Independent of other factors.


Adding a little bit of fresh ADA AS can provide the same effect also.


Or you can siphon out say 10-20% of the ADA AS, then add fresh with no ill effects.


2-4 more months, do it again.


That's one possible routine, or you can add it to a dosing liquid for the water column.

 

Thanks Tom for additional details, I have added urea to the calculator, but I am not sure the results are correct. I will have to tweak it probably... if anyone can test it, please, let me know... thanks.

 

Still working on the site, Fab?


FWIW - I add 1/4 tsp of Urea to my 180 daily. Not sure what that does, if anything. My guess is that it gets processed by the filters mostly. Plants probably get a little.


I do it because I don't have a lot of fish and barely feed them.