EI or any liquid fert dozing time

[Gautam]

After becoming a member approx 2/3 weeks back I have been going thru the excellent contribtuions to the "planted tank" hobby by all you great folks.

EI has been a revelation.

It seems there is one aspect though that has not been discussed specifically so far. Please excuse me if I have missed a post somewhere. I mean the aspect of any particular time of dozing liquid ferts in a tank.

Should one doze before switching on the lights or during the middle of photoperiod or after switching the lights off.

Regards,

Gautam

 

[Gerryd]

On days that I do not do a water change, it is about 30-60 minutes BEFORE lights on.

On water change days, it is right after the refill.

I would dose BEFORE lights on regardless.

It seems better to have more ferts when the lights are on, no?

 

[VaughnH]

Since the EI method aims to dose more than the plants will use, you should never be short of any nutrient at any time, so why would it matter if you dose before the lights come on or after the lights come on? I can see that if you have a fully planted tank, plants growing rapidly, high light level, lots of CO2, and you dose on the low end of the EI recommendation, you could run short on nitrates or phosphates just before adding more fertilizers. But, wouldn't that occur sometime anyway?

 

[Mooner]

During the week, dosing comes 5 hr before lights one due to work. On water change day due to several tanks, some get dosed at lights on and the last tank is near lights off. Can't say I see a difference from one tank to another. Occasionally, time runs out on WC day and in order to catch up on the routine I have dosed macs and mics within 4-5 hrs respectively. It appears to work just about anytime.

 

[Gerryd]

Yes, I don't see a huge difference if I don't dose at the same time either.

I was going under the assumption (most likely a problem) that if we have max concentrations of ferts when lights first are on, and that c02 is turned on prior to lights on to at least get a better concentration of that as well, that it would be better overall to dose closer to lights on was all.

Hope I didn't come across wrong there......sorry if so.