Aquatic Plant Central - View Single Post - How to balance NPK, Ca, Mg and micros

trilinearmipmap · 01-24-2008, 12:26 PM

Thanks for an interesting thread, Kekon.

I wonder if you can help me with my macronutrient dosing.

I have a 75 gallon tank, CO2 injected to 30 ppm, 220 watts of cf lighting.

My tap water is very soft, 9 ppm total dissolved solids which is about 1/2 a degree of hardness so I am using virtually RO water out of my tap. I am doing the EI method and have had problems with poor growth and algae.

My dosing with each weekly 50% water change is as follows:

CaCO3: 3 tsp
CaCl2: 2 tsp
MgSO4*7H2O: 3 tsp
K2SO4: 2 tsp
KH2PO4: 1/8 tsp
KNO3: 1/4 tsp

With feedings my nitrates are around 20 so I am looking at eliminating the KNO3 dosing and increasing water changes to bring nitrates down to around 5. I'll also try eliminating the CaCl2 as you have suggested.

My question is, do my amounts of CaCO3, MgSO4 and K2SO4 seem about right or should I change them?

01-24-2008, 12:26 PM	#71 (permalink)
trilinearmipmap Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 39 iTrader Ratings: 0 Plant Points: 4450	Re: How to balance NPK, Ca, Mg and micros - new experiments Thanks for an interesting thread, Kekon. I wonder if you can help me with my macronutrient dosing. I have a 75 gallon tank, CO2 injected to 30 ppm, 220 watts of cf lighting. My tap water is very soft, 9 ppm total dissolved solids which is about 1/2 a degree of hardness so I am using virtually RO water out of my tap. I am doing the EI method and have had problems with poor growth and algae. My dosing with each weekly 50% water change is as follows: CaCO3: 3 tsp CaCl2: 2 tsp MgSO4*7H2O: 3 tsp K2SO4: 2 tsp KH2PO4: 1/8 tsp KNO3: 1/4 tsp With feedings my nitrates are around 20 so I am looking at eliminating the KNO3 dosing and increasing water changes to bring nitrates down to around 5. I'll also try eliminating the CaCl2 as you have suggested. My question is, do my amounts of CaCO3, MgSO4 and K2SO4 seem about right or should I change them?