Now there is quite a discrepancy between the 163ml the calculator gives me, and the 60ml according to the bottle. Additionally, it seems to me that dosing even that 60ml a couple of times per week also means I need a couple of buckets somewhere.... I've been trying to find a decent calculator since forever, but all links are either dead or don't specify what ppm I need to add specifically but instead tell me to add "x amount of spoons" to my aquarium. Which to me sounds rather unscientific.
About 95% of the liquid ferts today are based on EI and before EI: PMDD. PMDD issue about 90% EI, so it all comes from that. Tropica, SeaChem etc. All come from conversations with me 20 years ago. Others copied and saw $$$.
Trace elements where the only thing most sold back then.
As far as unscientific, EI was NEVER intended to be that.
It was intended to be a simple easy to understand method that many had been doing already.
Folks spend too much time fussing over ferts, worrying about 1 ppm here or there..........
Somethings never change.
If you dose 10ppm of NO3 vs say 12 ppm, this will never cause any issues. That's the point, it's not a narrow target, it's extremely large and folks can narrow things down to suit from there if they choose. Or not. Should not matter.
Spoons work very well. You can also make the solutions larger volume, this increases the accuracy if you fear the measuring spoons.
I ran a few sets of measuring spoon brands and then did 10 x reps for weight of each with the dry ferts. They came in very accurate actually.
Different brands of KNO3, KH2PO4 etc, grain sizes etc, that..can cause differences.
If you are concerned about nothing and want to check every atom or molecule, get a good scale that can measure to the milligram.
Weight is king.
CO2 and light are more important.
Good general care, water changes, trimming etc, more important.
Ferts? We add them routinely, that's about it.
Sediment sources? ADA aqua soil? Those offer a good increase relative to plain sand, and a back up if you forget to dose liquids.
I do not use calculators BTW, some find them useful or want to use them to check or make solutions etc.
Most do not want to learn chemistry and go through that. I've done it so long, I know what the ppm will be in most cases with the dry ferts.
Brand names, less so.
But I do not dose with brand names with good reason: they did not exists back when I started for macros. And Dupla was silly expensive.
You basically are paying for water............with a TINY little bit of ferts.
I would use the pH control as a meter only to watch what the CO2 does, rather than control it per se.
CO2 is only needed during the light cycle, not any other time.
Dennis has a good Youtube video on CO2 and measure with pH, most a synthesis of several things I mentioned.
30 ppm is just a start point for CO2, like EI's general target.
I generally target 45 ppm or so, sometimes higher even.
By using the needle valve, you can adjust the rate of CO2. This is stable.
I've suggested using milliliters/minute to measure flow rates, not bubbles etc.
I can tell how much a tank often will use by simply looking at it.
Then tweak from there. Most with 10+ years can.
But for those who cannot, or seem to always have an issue, they need to be more careful and recheck things to make sure they are not overlooking something.
No one gets everything right all the time. No method can be all things to all people either.[/quote]