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Old 07-03-2009, 11:56 PM   #4 (permalink)
dmastin
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Default Re: EI dosing, just wanna make sure I understand!

Hey thanks. I certainly have my piece of paper and calculator going!

Rex suggests this for CSM would this sound about right for CSM+B as well?
For Plantex CSM mix 1 tablespoon or three teaspoons into 250 ml of water and dose 4 ml of this solution 3 times a week into 10 gallons of water. You can go higher or lower than this dose based on the observation of your aquarium.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Philosophos View Post
You should learn to create your dosing levels from a piece of paper, a periodic table of elements and a calculator. Relying on calculators has caused enough headaches so far; I've spent dozens of posts helping to sort things out. It's not that they're bad tools, but I don't believe they should be used as shortcuts, or trusted over individual knowledge of the subject. Molar mass is your friend.

The chemical with the poor solubility would be the K2SO4. You can try warming up the DI water and adding the K2SO4 first.

Try to dose with a scale accurate to .1g at very worst, but preferably .01g or better. Measuring by volume has a very wide margin of error.

The level dosed should be 50% of the target per 50% column change. Maybe a little more for high demand tanks, and depending on the nutrient. The reason for this, expressed simply, is...

0ppm + 20ppm = 20ppm
20ppm - 50% (water change) + 20ppm (dosing) = 30ppm
30ppm - 50% + 20ppm = 35ppm
35ppm - 50% + 20ppm = 37.5ppm
37.5PPM - 50% + 20PPM = 38.75PPM

This keeps going until you're essentially, though never mathematically at 40ppm. EI works on this sort of algorithm, and it can be bent in many different ways. I do 2x 30% WC/week which is a 51% cumulative change (100%-30%-30% = 49)

If you have any questions, let me know. I spend a lot of time playing with fert calculations; it's a part of the hobby I enjoy.

-Philosophos
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