Do I need a "rest" day ?

[barbarossa4122]

Hello,

For the last 2 weeks I am dosing (EI) 7 days/week. No rest day and I can see improvements in my plant growth and color. I do 75% wc/week.........will I get into trouble doing this ? Btw, I don't test anymore, just dump the ferts in. Ferts I use are :

K2SO4, KNO3, Epsom, KH2PO4, GH booster, Equilibrium, CaCl2, Pferts(micros), CSM+B, TPN, Sprint 138, 10% DTPA and Flourish Fe.

 

[shoggoth43]

Short answer is no with some explanation

If you do the normal macro then micro alternating days and weekly water changes then for week A you will have 4 macros and 3 micros with a water change. Week B will be 3 macros and 4 micros with a water change. This may or may not be an issue with your tank but it does confer a cyclical instabilty.

If you do your water changes every other week then you are fine as you'll have 7 macros and 7 micros, however you may be dosing far higher as you'll have two weeks of any excess ferts before the WC to reset everything. This assumes you dose a bit more than needed. If you're dosing a bit lean this may not really be an issue but it would be a safe assumption that you'd be on the richer side vs the leaner side of things. Not likely an issue and it's not as though you are "wasting" the ferts since you can use them on houseplants and such when you do your WC.

If you were instead to cut your dosing in half and then daily do macros in the morning and micros at night, or vice versa, then you would still be roughly on target end of week with roughly 3.5 doses of macros and micros ( 50% daily x 7 ) vs. the 3 and 3 of each with the rest period.

It's really your call as it really won't hurt anything but there are ways to make it a bit more consistant for stability. For the WC there's nothing stopping you from doing more than 75% or more. I typically dump 85% + weekly so it's entirely up to you on that.

-
S

 

[barbarossa4122]

Thank you shoggoth43 . I'll keep doing it and see what happens. I was only worry about my goldies but, they are doing great. I have them for 6 months and they went through a lot in the beginning, veterans of uncycled tanks with high ammonium, nitrites and no plants.

 

[jonny_ftm]

Hello,
Ferts I use are :

K2SO4, KNO3, Epsom, KH2PO4, GH booster, Equilibrium, CaCl2, Pferts(micros), CSM+B, TPN, Sprint 138, 10% DTPA and Flourish Fe.

It is a non sense to use all these Ca/Mg sources at one time: Epsom, GH booster, Equilibrium, CaCl2. Just stick with GH booster at WC, no need to dump all this GH in water

About micro, really another nonsense to mix all these: TPN, Pferts, CSM+B. Just stick with one

Finally, I know Tom suggests sometimes using CSM+B, DTPA, Sprint 138 and Flourish for different Fe chelates, but you could see if it works with just CSM+B and DTPA

If you really add all this daily, then you'll end up with more ferts then water. I'm not sure fish will like it in the long term, neither plants. When you mix so much chemicals, you no longer know what you're really adding and what's really helping growth

Make it simple if it works. I dose 3x/week everything, macro before going bed and micro when awake. It gives me 4 days /week of peace. Plants love it and so does fish. Just increase doses if you have trouble and add it a boost after WC to compensate

 

[barbarossa4122]

My water is very soft and I need to add ca & mg ( http://www.barrreport.com/showthread.php/6903-My-tap-water-report ) , as for the micros I don't dump them all at once but, you are right, I need to keep it simple.

 

[SuperColey1]

When I was running CO2 + EI I was dosing macro and micro daily at the same time. First 1/7th of the wekly macro and then 1/7th of the weekly micro. 50% water change when I remembered. Plants grew really well and fish were fine.

I don't think there is a need to seperate into macro morning and micro nightime. I read somewhere that iron is used within a very short time frame and any that has not already been used goes to waste anyway after this short time.

If it is the old iron/phosphate issue then that is for storing in the bottle together due to the much higher concentration within the fert liquid. If you think about it the amounts we put into the tank are small. The macro dose once added is diluted within seconds of entering the tank water due to the flow before adding the trace 20-30 seconds later. Also if the iron/phosphate issue were a problem then there would be a problem whatever time you added the trace because of the levels of phosphate that already were in the tank water. At the end of the day my plants looked great so they can't have had a lack of iron due to it binding to the phosphate added 20-30 seconds earlier

AC

 

[jonny_ftm]

My water is very soft and I need to add ca & mg

Just GH booster is enough, in right dose. Or a mix with Epsom+CaCl2. I, like many others, do my waterchanges with only RO water, no tap, so less then 0.5 GH and KH. For a year, I only dosed CaSO4 and Epsom, no issues either. Now I moved to CaCl2 and Epsom, no difference

And yes, keep it simple, no need to drop in your tank all this mix

I fully agree with you SuperColey1

I also used to dose all but phosphate, wait few minutes and dose phosphate. Now, I do it with an overnight break because in the morning, my 3 years old sun loves putting the ferts, so I let for him the phosphate syringe. In deed, I never saw a difference compared to when I was dosing with only few minutes interval.

I think Tom suggested to separate macro from micro to avoid any confusion with some beginners not taking some cautions and maybe to some special circumstances in some tanks.

In my case, I dose one day macro+micro, and rest another day, then dose again... It also gives me 2 successive rest days at the end of the week for my nano. On the 60 gal, I dose much lower Ei with only monthly WC

 

[barbarossa4122]

I'll keep dosing 7 days, one day micros, one day macros and 75% or more wc on Fridays. On a side note, I do not have co2 injection and it's kind of weird that I don't get any algae.

 

[nipat]

That's not weird. Unless non-CO2 method would not be viable.

 

[barbarossa4122]

That's not weird. Unless non-CO2 method would not be viable.

I have 2wpg t5ho (9hrs/day ) for my 2 heavy planted tanks and I thought I'll get lots of algae. I guess Excel/Metricide works.

 

[Tom Barr]

............... I need to keep it simple.

+1

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[Tom Barr]

I don't think there is a need to seperate into macro morning and micro nightime. I read somewhere that iron is used within a very short time frame and any that has not already been used goes to waste anyway after this short time.

If it is the old iron/phosphate issue that is for storing in the bottle together due to the much higher concentration within the fert liquid. If you think about it the amounts we puit into the tank are small. The macro dose once added is diluted within seconds of entering the tank water due to the flow before adding the trace 20-30 seconds later. Also if the iron/phosphate issue were a problem then there would be a problem whatever time you added the trace because of the levels of phosphate that already were in the tank water. At the end of the day my plants looked great so they can't have had a lack of iron due to it binding to the phosphate added 20-30 seconds earlier

AC

+1

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[Tom Barr]

I have 2wpg t5ho (9hrs/day ) for my 2 heavy planted tanks and I thought I'll get lots of algae. I guess Excel/Metricide works.

It's a hybrid, eg a Carbon enriched tank, not a pure non Carbon enriched tank.
You apply similar dosing methods etc, just at a little lower rate, about 1/2 to 1/4

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[barbarossa4122]

Thank you Tom. You know, I started this in Sept of 2009 (planted since Jan, 2010) and now it's becoming a hobby and an obsession. Never thought it would happen to me