Overview
The Estimative Index (EI) is a straightforward method for providing nutrients for a planted tank. The idea behind EI is simply introducing an excess amount of nutrients within an aquarium, throughout the week. This excess of nutrients floods the water column and feeds the plants. This is an estimative method; measuring specific nutrient uptake rates is not necessary and no test kits are involved. EI provides a surplus of nutrients that helps to prevents plant deficiencies, and allows plant growth unhendered. Most algae releated issues are due to plant deficiencies rather than excess nutrient levels(Ammonium/NH4 + is the exception).

Basically you add a slight excess of nutrients to prevent anything from running out, then do a large water change at the end of the week to prevent anything from building up. This allows you to maintain a range of nutrients without ever using a test kit.

The water change generally takes about the same amount of time once you haul out the hoses etc do the water change so the time and work difference between a 25 % and 50% water change is fairly small.

The process of which this is done is simple. Each day (or 2-3x a week, weekly for low light tanks) fertilizers are dosed, and the nutrients are absorbed by the plants. With this method being estimative, we can dose fertilizers according to general guidelines suited for our particular setup (see below for regime). At the end of the week, one performs a 50% water change to ‘reset’ the nutrient load in the entire system. And then the entire dosing regime is repeated. The hobbyists can do larger(which will afford more accuracy) or smaller water change routines, but 50% is just guide line.

The primary fertilizers are the macro nutrients - Nitrogen (N), Phosphorous (P), Potassium (K), and the micro nutrients – trace elements (Plantex CSM+B, Flourish, Tropica Master Grow-TMG). Iron (Fe) can also be supplemented if necessary.

The Estimative Index method works best for a high light and well planted aquarium. However it is not limited to higher light setups, smaller quantities of fertilizers can be dosed if low light is used. Also, the frequency may be reduced to 1-2x a week at low light(1.5-2w/gal).

General Dosing Guideline for High Light and well planted aquariums.

10- 20 Gallon Aquariums
+/- 1/8 tsp KNO3 (N) 3x a week
+/- 1/32 tsp KH2PO4 (P) 3x a week
+/- 1/4 tsp GH booster once a week(water change only)
+/- 1/32 tsp (2ml) Trace Elements 3x a week
50% weekly water change


20-40 Gallon Aquariums
+/- ¼ tsp KN03 3x a week
+/- 1/16 tsp KH2P04 3x a week
+/- 1/2 tsp GH booster once a week(water change only)
+/- 1/16 tsp (5ml) Trace Elements 3x a week
50% weekly water change


40-60 Gallon Aquariums
+/- 1/2 tsp KN03 3x a week
+/- 1/8 tsp KH2P04 3x a week
+/- 3/4 tsp GH booster once a week(water change only)
+/- 1/8 (10ml) Trace Elements 3x a week
50% weekly water change


60 – 80 Gallon Aquariums
+/- 3/4 tsp KN03 3x a week
+/- 3/16 tsp KH2P04 3x a week
+/- 1 tsp once a week (water change only)
+/- ¼ tsp (15ml) Trace 3x a week
50% weekly water change


100 - 125 Gallon Aquarium
+/- 1 1/2 tsp KN03 3x a week
+/- ½ tsp KH2P04 3x a week
+/- 1.25 tsp once a week(water change only)
+/- ½ tsp (30ml) Trace 3x a week
50% weekly water change

Example Dosing Regime for 29 Gallon:
See attached file.

EI target ranges
CO2 range 25-35 ppm
NO3 range 10-30 ppm
K+ range 10-30 ppm
PO4 range 1.0-2.0 ppm
Fe 0.2-0.5ppm or higher
GH range 1-2 degrees "extra" 17-40 ppm or higher

See dosing calculators for additional dosing guides for Fe, etc.

Where to buy fertilizers?
Aquarium Plants, Aquatic Plants, Planted Aquariums, and Aquarium Plant Fertilizer can provide you with the necessary chemicals for dry and liquid dosing of the above. For micro - trace elements, Plantex CSM+B, Seachem Flourish, and Tropica Master Grow (TMG) are equivalent to each other. Fish Supplies, Online Fish Supplies, Aquarium Products, Aquarium Accessories at Big Al's Online for the Seachem and TMG brands.

1 lb of each for Greg Watson Chemicals will last at least 1 year:

Plantex CSM+B
Potassium Nitrate KN03
Monopotassium Phosphate KH2PO4
Potassium Sulphate K2S04

Special Notes:

Providing optimal CO2 levels of at least 30 ppm are necessary for plants to prosper. If algae issue arise, remove all visible algae and infected leaves. Recheck CO2 levels, and possibly reduce and adjust the lighting period.

Direct dry dosing into the tank is perfectly fine. Many dose straight into, or they dissolve each daily amounts in water before adding. Plantex CSM+B is often mixed into solution for liquid dosing. 1 tablespoon to 250ml water is equivalent to: 20 ml = 1/4 teaspoon of dry Plantex. This solution is stored in refrigerators to prevent mold from forming within the container. HCL acid can be added to prevent the mold. Some decide to make liquid stock solutions and dose the weekly totals daily over 7 days etc instead for narrower control. Some folks have high fish loading and add less N and P, it's really flexible and you should use common sense and try and tweak things.
It's not something that is or was designed to be written in stone to blindly follow.
I'd much rather the aquarists think and use their own skill set to approach what's best for them rather than blind loyalty(a rather scary thought!).

Small dosing teaspoons (smidgen, dash, pinch) can be found at Linen & Things, Bed Bath and Beyond, Wal-Mart, dollar stores, eBay and other online retailers. To identify the specific measurements of your smidgen, dash, pinch set, a 1/8 tsp should fill a ¼ tsp in 2 tries, 1/16 tsp in 4 tries, and a 1/32 tsp in 8 tries.

Sticking to a good dosing regime will make your plants flourish, and keep you delighted! If you seek more in depth discussion about EI, there are two other articles here. Please note, this is not intended to be "written in stone", plants are flexible in their needs and demands, so getting away with less, or more is fine. As you gain more experience with plants, you may want to modify the routine to daily(see the thread in this section) or reduce or increase some parts. Most issues revolve around CO2 and water flow(which is related to gas and nutrient exchange in aquatic systems) if the nutrients are non limiting. Also, if you limit PO4 or NO3, you will not require nearly as much CO2. For example a NO3 level of 20ppm will require 2-3x as much CO2 to maintain growth over time as 2 ppm of NO3 (Gerloff, 1966). Of couse some who do not measure nor research things critically might be tempted to assume that low NO3 is why they solved their algae issue, however, it does not explain why other planted tanks are fine with 20ppm NO3 such as this one here(2.5 ppm PO4 and 30ppm NO3)



Secondary limitation will reduce CO2 demand....thus leading hobbyists to assume nutrients are the causes for their woes. However the real issue was low CO2 all along.
When that is addressed(and for some... it may be hard to do), then their no growth or algal issue.

So be highly critical of CO2 when approaching plant and algae growth, it's a key player and can drive growth rates 10-20X faster when used correctly. Make certain there is good ample water flow, plants, slow flow rates down by 90 % in thick groups (Barko et al, 1986).

John N and Tom Barr

Pardon my newness, but where does Magnesium fall in this equation? And at what levels do you define 'high' light?

Thanks,

-MT

If your water is normal tap water it probably has enough magnesium. Look at the water quality report for your water supply department. It should tell you the amount of calcium and magnesium, in parts per million, in the water. If the amont of magnesium is even 1/4 of what the calcium is, or something around that, you should have enough. All of this assumes the GH of your water is around 5 degrees of GH or more.

High light depends on the type of light you use and whether your tank is small, medium or large. If you use lights which are about 2-4 inches above the water surface, of a quality similar to those supplied by AH Supply, with their light kits, and with reflectors also similar to theirs, high light would be above about 2.5 watts per gallon, for a 20 gallon or bigger tank, up to maybe 100 or so gallons. For still larger tanks the amount can be less, and for smaller tanks it should be more. This is a very crude way to measure the intensity of the lights, but it is adequate.

I'm sure others would have a different set of numbers, but not by a whole lot.

I generally suggest adding GH booster to raise the GH about 1-2 degrees from what ever it might be in the tap.

That covers both Ca and Mg, some tap has low Ca and high Mg, but generally most has high Ca and lower Mg.

Adding more Mg and Ca causes no issues near as I could ever tell.

Fish or plants.
So that might be added to the above discussion.


Regards,
Tom Barr

Hi Tom Barr,
is there a dosing guideline for smaller tank below 10 gallon ??

Regards,
zhan

What "GH Booster" is recommended please.

Cladari

You can simply add the dry weights to a solution of water for say 4 weeks, then divide that by say

Total ferts for 4 weeks(1.5 tsp KNO3 and 1/4 tsp KH2PO4 etc) + 500 milliliters of water / 28 days = 17mls per day.

For a 10 gal.

Add 8mls for a 5 gal etc.

And so on.
Have less light, etc, then lessis likely required, but adding this amoutn and doing larger than 50% water changes on such small tanks is not really an issue.

Note, you can do this same thing, basically PMDD version rather than dry weight version of dosing, really up to you and whatever your habits are.
Dry allows you to change the various amounts, the liquids can be used for each macro alone also to achieve the same thing.

Really up to you.
It's as versitile as you want it to be really.

If you seek a leaner a version of EI, then you can simply add less mls easy enough of any stock solution you want to use or try.
You can do this dry also but it's a little harder to get consistent differences unless the tank is larger.

Regards,
Tom Barr

See Aquarium Plant Food - hobbyist taking care of hobbyist … | Planted Aquarium Fertilizer
See SeaChem "Equilibrium"
Or DIY,

K2SO4/CaSO4/MgSO4/FeSO4/MnSO4

Regards,
Tom Barr