I know, once a week isn't really that great, and most people dose 2-3 times per week, but I just can't remember to do this. I can only consistantly remember once a week during water change or daily with fish feedings (my memory sucks as well as really having to train myself to any new trivial schedule).
Everyone always recommends Tom Barr's 'The Estimative Index', which is great for what levels to shoot for, and Chuck Gadd's Calculator, which is great at figuring out how much of a nutrient makes up what ppm, etc... but doesn't cover any trace mineral mixtures :? . None of these tell me what I need to know, i.e. "how much per how often" (most only cover the how much part, except for traces, which gets passed off to the useless iron test). For me, I want this to be a mix I can make up for daily dosage for a 20g tank (can figure out the rest for the 15g & 2.5g).
Of course, this seems easy if I could test for everything, but...
Nitrate is the only thing I can test for, and is usually quite low so I've never had to dose seperately. Iron kits are basically useless, so that blows any daily trace calculations based off iron levels. I can pick up a new phosphate kit (are these actually somewhat accurate, as I've heard they're similar in uselessness to Iron kits?). Potassium kits I've seen are just too expensive for my tastes(for the rare times I've actually seen them), and this seems to be a nutrient that can be "ballpark figure".
Everyone always recommends Tom Barr's 'The Estimative Index', which is great for what levels to shoot for, and Chuck Gadd's Calculator, which is great at figuring out how much of a nutrient makes up what ppm, etc... but doesn't cover any trace mineral mixtures :? . None of these tell me what I need to know, i.e. "how much per how often" (most only cover the how much part, except for traces, which gets passed off to the useless iron test). For me, I want this to be a mix I can make up for daily dosage for a 20g tank (can figure out the rest for the 15g & 2.5g).
Of course, this seems easy if I could test for everything, but...
Nitrate is the only thing I can test for, and is usually quite low so I've never had to dose seperately. Iron kits are basically useless, so that blows any daily trace calculations based off iron levels. I can pick up a new phosphate kit (are these actually somewhat accurate, as I've heard they're similar in uselessness to Iron kits?). Potassium kits I've seen are just too expensive for my tastes(for the rare times I've actually seen them), and this seems to be a nutrient that can be "ballpark figure".