EI was developed mainly in response to folks that had no test kits that lived in 3rd world countries and for lazy/cheap folks.

Some folks like dosing daily, when they feed their fish.
Some forget to dose 2-3x a week(uhhh was it on Tues or Wed I last dosed the traces?? ahhh......????.), so a daily routine works better for their habits.

Some have a tiny tank and want more consist ppms in their dosing than 1/64 th of a teaspoon can afford. Whatever your reasons, this is just an example. If you have high PO4 in the tap, add less KH2PO4, good GH, skip the GH booster etc.
If you have high NO3 in the tap water, skip the KNO3, use K2SO4 in place of it.
This is an example of EI for a 28 week supply for a 20 gallon tank for those with teaspoon aversion.

To 1 liter of DI water add:

60 grams KNO3
10 grams of KH2PO4
25 grams of GH booster

Add 5 mls of this solution daily.
Add TMG at 2.5 mls daily.

That's it.

That's EI without the teaspoons and more accuracy in dosing.
If you fiddle with daily dosing, you may have a better routine
and habit. Some are okay with 2-3x a week.

You can scale this up or down to suit your tank volume, light level etc, make larger batches etc.

But if you are not and skip dosings etc, then EI may not give the same results using 2-3x a week dosing as daily.

Thus it is not the method that fails, it's our own habits and routines.
Still, this gives a PMDD type routine for folks to do.
PMDD uses a similar routine and nutrients, but leaves out PO4.
That was due to the hypothesis that was falsified later that PO4 limitation controls algae and limits them.

Teaspoons are just easier to explain and most folks do not own a scale etc.
Plants are not these sensitive things, nor should your tank be either.
They have a wide range they can adapt and grow well in, thus such accuracy is not critical as some will have you believe.
Anyone with common sense can see and test that themselves.
EI nor any method was ever meant to be rigid. You finess and tweak to suit.
Often we think what we did is really causing an effect. Often it's just we are paying more attention to the tank.
That can help any tank as we all know.

Regards,
Tom Barr

Just be aware of the solubility for the amount of ferts to water. Don't increace the concentration of the ferts much more than what Tom suggested.

(Store @ 5°C)

Tom - how a bout adding some HCl (to lower pH) for an antifungal effect?

I am not Tom, but I always put some 37% HCl in my stocks. Indeed to keep the fungus away!

greets,

yme

I don't know why the HCl addition isn't mentioned more often as I find it makes a big difference. I add 0.5 ml Normal HCl to 250 ml trace solution. The HCl keeps the solution acidic so preventing the chelator from breaking down as quickly and so preventing mould.

James

I think this is namely for the traces............and it works well for CMS if you use it.

Macros really have little issue with fungi.

PMDD was an all in all concoction.
However, no PO4, so the Fe-PO4 interaction was never an issue.

So keeping them apart resolves that for the macros, but not for the traces for the fungi.

PMDD advice suggestd this a decade ago as a solution.

Regards,
Tom Barr

Also, if you use Tropica etc, there's not a need to add HCL.........

Regards.

Tom Barr

Hi Tom

I have a question about the above dosing amounts of TMG or Tropica's Plant Nutrition liquid . You are recommending dosing 2.5 ml per 20 gallons or 75.7 liters per day. Tropica recommends dosing 5 ml per 50 liters or 13.2 gallons per week.

Why are you suggesting dosing so much extra TMG? That's a 231% increase over what Tropica recommends.

This is how I got the 231% increase:
(2.5 ml ÷ 75.7 liters x 7 days per week) ÷ (5 ml ÷ 50 liters x 1 day per week) x 100 = 231.2%

Also, the EI dosing of Traces calls for 2 ml 3x per week for 10 to 20 gallon aquariums and for 5 ml 3x per week for 20 to 40 gallon aquariums.

It's odd that there is such a difference. Is this a typo?

Thanks

Left C

??? What does this mean? I just mixed up a 20x dose (for 60-gallons) of KNO3, KH2PO4 and K2SO4 in 500ml of water - I get crystals of something undissolved on the bottom of the bottle - did I perhaps break some rule of solubility?

At a given temperature there is a limit to how much of anything will remain in solution with water. So, you need to stay under that limit for each of the fertilizers dissolved into your fertilizer cocktail. Since most of the fertilizer is KNO3, that is really the limiting factor. You don't really need the K2SO4, so it might help to omit it.

Left C,

Claus suggested much less due to many folks not using CO2 and having lower lighting in Europe.

When we add CO2 and 2x as much light, the demand goes up.


Regards,
Tom Barr