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Dosing Schedule Creator - v2 - should be much more user-friendly now!

Discussion in 'Advanced Strategies and Fertilization' started by Spar, Nov 5, 2005.

  1. Spar

    Spar Guru Class Expert

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    Let me know what you think of it now. The new Solution option on everything should make for a nice small tank addition. I am a little weary that I messed something up when converting it over to the new table (rather than all those old scattered tables), so please try your dosing regime out on it and see if you notice any errors pop up!

    And let me know if there are any additional products you want added to it.

    As usual, MS Excel is needed to run it.

    AND ignore the instructions right now :) haven't updated them yet. Should be self explanatory now anyway.

    http://www.fwstingrays.com/DosingCalculator.htm

    Cliff
     
    #1 Spar, Nov 5, 2005
  2. Tom Barr

    Tom Barr Founder
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    Re: Dosing Schedule Creator - v2 - should be much more user-friendly now!

    Not that this is directed towards you or anyone, but the dosing cals need to be very user friendly for the non Chem folks, chem folks already know how.

    That is something to consider.

    Two versions might be appropriate,

    1. Dosing Calulator "Advanced for advanced aquarist familar with chemistry"
    2. Dosing Calculator "lite for the non Chem majors"

    Lite might only need KNO3, KH2PO4, Fleet enema, Sea Chem's line, GH(My GH builder or Seachem's Eq) baking soda, MgSO4 and traces(Sea Chem, TMG and CMS)

    Advanced can have everything and the modeling.

    Ideas to this?
     
    #2 Tom Barr, Nov 5, 2005
  3. PMC

    PMC Junior Poster

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    Re: Dosing Schedule Creator - v2 - should be much more user-friendly now!

    Cliff,

    Here's some comments from someone new to the hobby and certainly not a chemist.

    I do like this version more than your earlier one. It's more understandable, better layout and and you can print it on one page. I also think it's great you're building this spreadsheet.

    From my perspective, I would like to be able to provide all my pertinent parameters (size tank, pH, KH, GH, etc....) at the top of the sheet and then have the spreadsheet flow down logically with only the results I need to see (this is where Tom's suggestion of "advanced" vs "basic" sheets could come in.) It would be helpful also to have target parameters alongside my tank parameters for the water change chemicals. I would really welcome default targets to get me started.

    I would put the product choice and dosage as the second table. I really like your being able to choose dry or formula. I'm not sure what the 7th column "ml/t result:" tells me. Perhaps this could be clarified in a footnote under the table.

    Throughout the spreadsheet, I found the water change info format confusing. My novice knowlege is that you only need to put the chemicals in, if your parameters indicate they're needed. If possible, I would find it more helpful if your sheet only showed dose information which is called for. In this respect your sheet is not as intuitive as I need at this point in my knowledge. It would be great if your sheet calculated from my original parameters what I need to do to bring my water to desired targets (with the default targets set for us novices). I realize this is probably asking a lot.

    I would put the weekly schedule as the third table. Again only showing whatever water change doses are called for.

    The Dosing Calculator/Summary table looks great.

    The Water Change table below it: Again, I would show the info called for by my original parameters.

    Hope my comments are helpful and don't drive you up a wall.

    Peter
     
    #3 PMC, Nov 5, 2005
  4. Spar

    Spar Guru Class Expert

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    Re: Dosing Schedule Creator - v2 - should be much more user-friendly now!

    That sounds like a good idea, and would actually be fairly easy to put together. I could set up an auto-dry-vs-solution formula that makes any dry dosage under 1/8t to automatically be set up as a solution. And then have the actual dosing schedule automatically filled out with specs.

    If I added in a wpg and non-co2 spec, then I could even allow for less dosage than EI recommends.

    I think yall are right in that new people don't want to fill anything out. Or at least just the basics and have everything else spelled out for them.

    How should it be decided what dosing products will be used though? A box similar to what is there now, asking for the person to choose the product for each compound (i.e. KNO3 for Nitrate)? Maybe a intro-box recommending the person to look at their LFS or Greg Watsons site for products that are deemed necessary, and then to put a check mark next to the product they found?

    I just think that even an easy-to-use schedule creator would have to be complex to some extent, merely because people aren't even educated on what products are available. Which I think is what Tom was getting at above in that their should only be commercially avaialble products listed (i.e. Seachem products) for beginners since they easily find these at their LFS.

    Thanks for the pointers PMC. I will begin on a beginners edition soon.

    In the mean time, others make sure the current one has no errors in it. I ran a 10g example and found a couple. The errors are obvious though, so I would hope no one would rely on them if seen :) i.e. 1500ppm NO3 showed up as being dosed with a small solution... I would hope that wouldn't be possible... fixed it, but more may be around with the different options.
     
    #4 Spar, Nov 5, 2005
  5. PMC

    PMC Junior Poster

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    Re: Dosing Schedule Creator - v2 - should be much more user-friendly now!

    I liked your product choices. I wouldn't make a change there. Greg Watson's site offers very cost effective alternatives to the mainstream. Your spreadsheet clearly gives direct guidance on the fertilizers which is good. However, I think you need to link the users' parameters more directly to the water change additives sections to enable the novice to get their tanks to appropriate targets more intuitively.
     
    #5 PMC, Nov 5, 2005
  6. Laith

    Laith Lifetime Charter Member
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    Re: Dosing Schedule Creator - v2 - should be much more user-friendly now!

    Hadn't had much time to check it out thoroughly but from the quick look I had I like it.

    I have a question: what's a US or UK metric system? :p

    And for the next version I'd also recommend having the option of dosing using grams instead of spoons (maybe this option is already in there but I haven't seen it).
     
    #6 Laith, Nov 6, 2005
  7. Spar

    Spar Guru Class Expert

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    Re: Dosing Schedule Creator - v2 - should be much more user-friendly now!

    US gallons and UK gallons are different. 1.2USg's to 1UKg or something like that.

    grams is an option I am working on as well.
     
    #7 Spar, Nov 6, 2005
  8. Spar

    Spar Guru Class Expert

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    Re: Dosing Schedule Creator - v2 - should be much more user-friendly now!

    need advice:

    what i am doing in order to get dosage amounts correct is setup a co2/wpg factor (automatically calculated based on the wpg and co2).

    I give a value of 0 for: co2
     
    #8 Spar, Nov 6, 2005
  9. Ken

    Ken Junior Poster

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    Re: Dosing Schedule Creator - v2 - should be much more user-friendly now!

    I like you new scheduler, seems better then the first one. The one thing I found that was confusing was the selection for traces. I am using Flourish Trace and when I entered soulution the scheduler told me to enter dry. This confused me for a little while, I am a newbie after all, but I think I have it figured out. Shouldn't you be able to select solution instead of dry?
     
    #9 Ken, Nov 6, 2005
  10. Spar

    Spar Guru Class Expert

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    Re: Dosing Schedule Creator - v2 - should be much more user-friendly now!

    Well, a "solution" would be if you took the Flourish Trace and watered it down. So by dosing as-is, you are theoretically dosing dry (even though it is actually "wet"). The formulas are set to look for solution specs (i.e. teaspoons and ml) when Solution is selected, so that is why I brought up that error warning to say to select Dry anyway. If it continues to be confusing to people I can tweak the formula to allow Solution for that product.
     
    #10 Spar, Nov 6, 2005
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