wanted to try E I in my 120, and needed dosing amounts. 4.6 wpg 30ppm co2. i have purchased mono potassium phosphate(KH2PO4) potassium nitrate(KNO3), plantex csm+b from greg watson. I'm lost on the amounts of each.

thanks

You might need some GH booster.
With that much light, I would.

CMS is okay, I personally do not like it, I prefer TMG, in about 3-4 months(summer), I'll have the special dry trace blend that's better than anything on the market.

It uses a mix of different chelators similr to that of SeaChem and TMG but for all the trace metals, not just Fe.

General dosing:

After water change: 2-3 teaspoons of GH booster
3x a week starting right after the water change:

1 teaspoon of KNO3
1/4 teaspoon KH2PO4
20 mls of Trace

You might up this a tad as the plant biomass fills in.
Most folks have issues with CO2 from there as EI rules out low and high levels of nutrients.


Regards,
Tom Barr

120 gallons! If that is right, 4.6 watts per gallon is a huge amount of light that will bring you a lot of grief. For that big a tank you don't really need anywhere near that much light to grow anything. You could cut the light in half and still do very well.

The tap water in west texas is pretty hard, total hardness as CaCo3 is 402ppm do you think i will still need the gh booster or am i confused about the purpose of the gh booster.

yes I did go a little overboard with the lights but I have not had any problems in the last year since i put them on.

Is it better to dissolve the KNO3 and KH2PO4 in warm water? Will it be the same dosage for 75-90 gallons?

Both KNO2 and KH2PO4 dissolve very easily in water, so warm water doesn't help. I just dump it in the tank and it dissolves before it reaches the substrate. To be honest I do spread it across the top of the water, not just dump it as a glob in one spot. The fish chase the grains for a second, but I haven't seen one actually try to eat a grain.

Pass on the Gh booster, you might do well to add some epsom salt, maybe 1 teaspoon, 1-2x a week.

Use Tropica master grow for your traces.

Greg will defintiely be coming out with a product that is similar to TMG but in a dry form and also has some of the same type of SeaChem Flourish traits as well.
But it'll be better than either because I am using some more expensive chelators for not just the iron, but all the metals.

It'll be about 10X cheaper than either name brand though.
1 lb will make about 50 liters and run about 50-60$.
I might sell it to the UK through a wholesaler(aquaessentials etc).

This June/July.

Till then, a 5 liter jug from Big Al's is the best/only place in the USA really, about 69.99.

Regards,
Tom Barr

This is the first I have heard that CSM+B (that GW sells) isnt as good as anything else on the market. I am wondering, since I have been using it (and other dry ferts I got from him) things have been doing much better, but I havent tried varying the amount of CSM+B, just do the IE dosing for 75G (1/4tsp 3X weekly). If it isnt as good should I perhaps be trying to dose a bit more? Also, about the mg, as per GW's advice I have been dosing epsom salt at the same time & quanity as CSM+B (1/4tsp 3x) should I modify that? My 75G is stuffed with plants, pearls, and is about 2.8wpg with T8's, nothing super bright, but most of my plants are easy/medium light or less anyhow.

Algea is almost all gone (was terrible before dosing EI and upping the co2) the only bit that remains is a little bitty of green and brown spot like algea on some of the slower growing sword and java fern leaves. Some or most of them probably are just old leaves from when I had the problem that I probably could pick out.

~Tristan

The macro nutrients are wells erved with harder water, it's the trace metals that are mostly the issue.

Yes, you can add more, but often that does not seem to help, still, CO2/macros will get you a long long way.

So then it's just an issue with traces and namely the chelator that works best for hard and/or soft tap water.

the Texas water is got a lot of CaCO3, and that's what adds lots of the Ca and KH.
So for GH, all that you might need might be Mg really.

Epsom salt is very cheap.
You can add Epsom salt to the traces also(the CMS + B etc)
Then dose both at the same time.
TMG would be better for your tap water though.

Regards,
Tom Barr

Thanks for all the help. This is the most informative forum on planted aquariums I've found, I like the scientific take on all of it. Looking forward to learning a lot more.


thanks everyone