What ppm am I aiming for with each EI dose?

[Whitebeam]

I'm trying to understand my tank and the dosing I'm giving it. I know that exact levels aren't critical and that is the basic aim of EI dosing - maintaining levels at or comfortably above what the plants need. Trouble is I'm a scientist (physicist to be precise) and I just love to test and tweak so that I can observe what's going on. I have one fundamental uncertainty:

I see 'recommended' levels of each nutrient as the bands in which 'plants do best' (figures such as 10-20ppm for NO3, 0.5-2.0ppm for PO4 and so on). Am I aiming to dose to these levels as a total for the week, or am I aiming to maintain these sorts of levels for the 'majority' of the time?

Lots of quotes in the above question to indicate that I realise that these are ill defined words or phrases BTW.

Peter

PS: My plants are starting to look better already, thanks to your help and EI style dosing with dry ferts. My thanks to you all for your help so far.

 

[Biollante]

Crazy-Make-Me's

Hi Peter,

These are living things that do not easily give themselves to absolute values. There are a ridiculous number of variables involved.

Just remember lighting drives system, less light less everything else. We simply wish to provide amounts of things that are non-limiting. Dry fertz are wonderful for that purpose and accuracy to two significant digits are more than enough.

Biollante

 

[Whitebeam]

Just as well I only quoted figures to one significant digit then ;-)

I'll just carry on dosing towards maintaining those 'recommended' figures and taking my own observations of tank uptake to tune the quantities added.

Peter