I seem to be missing something with my setup. Im using pressurized co2, EI dosing, about 2wpg and a 4 hr burst of 4wpg. I do weekly water changes and still the plants in the tank look sort of burnt. They are not bright green and healthy looking like Tom’s tank or most other tanks that you see. What could the cause of this? A lot of the plants look like the edges of the leaves are burnt, they are sort of brown and not very healthy looking. Any ideas guys?

Sounds like too much light and not enough nutrients.

Try lowering your burst and increase your dosing.....

Hi ccLansman,

Try to lower the intensity of the burst as well as the duration.
eg. 3wpg burst for 2 hours.

I've heard of people who do 4 + 2 (burst) + 4 hours light but I'd rather go with the constant 2wpg.

Make sure your EI dosing is correct. (calculations and such)
About 1 1/2 months back, I thought I was dosing correctly when I was actually under-dosing. All my plants suffered.
I'm totally convinced by the EI thread that dosing more is better than dosing less. So now, I dose a bit more than what I calculated and my plants have been growing very well.

I'm assuming the usual drop checker/CO2 is up and running as it sounds like a macro deficiency vs too much light.

Hope this helps =)

Regards,
Ryan

thanks guys, ill up my dosing and see what happens. I used to be running off two 2-liter diy yeast bottles with 4wpg and they looked great and grew like weeds. I can only assume since the only thing that has changed is the pressurized co2 is the demand is much higher then my dosing routine and my test kit is off.

Remember that DIY c02 with yeast is much less efficient than pressurized c02. You will need more of other ferts as the c02 is now more available than before and in greater quantities.

With that said, how do i begin to measure what exactly they need? Im using the EI suggested for 40-60gals. How do i decide when and what ferts to increase?

EI is just a guideline to start with. Some folks need less (not many I think) and some need more.

I started with the EI baseline and increased about 25% for about 10-14 days before the next increase to guage the effects...

Just kept adjusting from that point until I felt the plants were responding well and continuously......

So, try increasing some percentage and go from there. I tend to adjust ALL my ferts when I increase or decrease.

In general BGA means more KN03 and GSA mean more P...

It really is trial and error FOR EACH TANK.

I hate to say that patience and observation are just as important as the amounts. The PLANTS will tell you if you are off.

If you follow my threads, you know that it has taken weeks of adjustment to where the plants finally are beginning to look as they should after poor growth and algae issues.

Remember that ADVERSE high nutrient conditions will not really be reached with a 50% weekly water change, even if you go 2 or 3x EI or more. You really have to overdose in a big way for this to be an issue IMO.....

I am way over EI and no fish issues with the higher dosing............

Since the plants like it, the fish benefit from the better plant growth.....

Hope this helps........

thanks gerryd your info is extremly helpful. i think ill go ahead and increase my Ei as you have mentioned in weekly increments until i see a drop in issues, i do have to wipe the bottom edge of the glass weekly of BGA and scrape the glass every week due to GSA starting up. So looks like i may need to increase both.

Since my dosing is more in line with my tank and I am dosing daily, I only scrape the inside front glass maybe every 10-14 days. I used to do this every 4 days or it looked ugly.

Patience, observation, and adjustments are the keys.......

just sent the wife over to the fish store to get some SAE's and Ottos and a bristle nose as i currently have no alge control group, thinking this will help as well.