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**turbomkt** · 04-23-2006, 09:24 AM

If you've got questions from the first meeting, let them fly here or in the appropriate part of APC!

OK...the #1 question I got from the first meeting was how much to dose fertilizers. As anyone who has been around APC for a while knows, there are two mainstream "new school" ways to fertilize: EI and PPS. I personally work with the Estimative Index way of business as it is really low impact most days. I think other than water change day I spend all of an extra 15 seconds adding fertilizers as appropriate.

Here's the EI article from the Barr Report.

Here is a decent quick start guide.

The two fertilizers I provided were KNO3 and KH2PO4 (I was lazy labeling the KH2PO4 bags and only wrote PO4 on them - gotta hand it to Greg Watson for the labels he puts on all of his bags. In a year or two I may even run out of the ferts I last bought from him!).

Bottom line for my 50g tank (as a reference) is I add 1/2 tsp KNO3 and 1/16-1/8 tsp of KH2PO4 after a water change and every other day after that. When I don't add the macro nutrients, I add traces. Right now I've got more CSM+B than I know what to do with and meant to bring some to the meeting for any takers. If anyone in San Diego wants some, let me know

CSM+B is just one of the options for traces (micro nutrients). TB is recommending Tropica Master Grow right now, and I'm really considering it (Big Al's group buy is a good choice for this - but we should keep it regional or near the next meeting - though Carl has volunteered to be a courier of sorts as work brings him down to north county San Diego on occasion). Also, Flourish plus Flourish Iron can be a source of micro's.

This is not all inclusive...just the first ramblings I put down as I wait to head to church

04-23-2006, 09:24 AM	#1 (permalink)
turbomkt Member of SCAPE Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: San Diego, Ca Posts: 2,249 iTrader Ratings: 15 iTrader Positive Rating: 100% Plant Points: 39024	Questions from the first meeting If you've got questions from the first meeting, let them fly here or in the appropriate part of APC! OK...the #1 question I got from the first meeting was how much to dose fertilizers. As anyone who has been around APC for a while knows, there are two mainstream "new school" ways to fertilize: EI and PPS. I personally work with the Estimative Index way of business as it is really low impact most days. I think other than water change day I spend all of an extra 15 seconds adding fertilizers as appropriate. Here's the EI article from the Barr Report. Here is a decent quick start guide. The two fertilizers I provided were KNO3 and KH2PO4 (I was lazy labeling the KH2PO4 bags and only wrote PO4 on them - gotta hand it to Greg Watson for the labels he puts on all of his bags. In a year or two I may even run out of the ferts I last bought from him!). Bottom line for my 50g tank (as a reference) is I add 1/2 tsp KNO3 and 1/16-1/8 tsp of KH2PO4 after a water change and every other day after that. When I don't add the macro nutrients, I add traces. Right now I've got more CSM+B than I know what to do with and meant to bring some to the meeting for any takers. If anyone in San Diego wants some, let me know CSM+B is just one of the options for traces (micro nutrients). TB is recommending Tropica Master Grow right now, and I'm really considering it (Big Al's group buy is a good choice for this - but we should keep it regional or near the next meeting - though Carl has volunteered to be a courier of sorts as work brings him down to north county San Diego on occasion). Also, Flourish plus Flourish Iron can be a source of micro's. This is not all inclusive...just the first ramblings I put down as I wait to head to church