Nutrients

In case anyone finds this interesting of helpful. Been dosing ferts using the the EI (Estimative Index) method on my 65 (CO2 injected) for over and year (wow - its already been over a year getting back into the hobby) and my 16 (non CO2 injected) for about two months. I have found using the EI method being a lot of fun (if you like the high tech stuff) and the plants love and do really well with the balanced nutrients. Have two more 16s coming online soon so more funwork for me :) and will be dosing ferts on those as well

Aquascapeguide made a very informative video on the EI method - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKdhnNYb0ak

Anyone thinking about doing this method ---

1) You have to manually (unless you setup a way to automatically do this) dose alternatively Macro and Micro nutrients daily skipping the water change day (I do 50% water changes once per week).

2) You have to manually mix your salts i.e. MACROS (KNO3, KH2PO4 and K2SO4) and MICROS (CSM+B) manually with hot RO(DI) water or otherwise hot distilled water or tap water if that is all you have.

3) You have to monitor the NITRATE levels as too much fertilization will spike your NITRATE level which WILL cause algae issues and possibly harm livestock. The more plants you have and as they mature more ferts would likely be necessary. I try to keep my tanks at 5 ppm (not including water change days), if it goes higher I just back off on the ml a bit. I dose about 60ml a day in the 65 and 2-3ml in the 16 (again not counting the water change day) for now. Difference is tank/plant maturity and plant count. Again, if you dose more than the plants can handle you will start seeing green stuff you didn't plant :P

(time, patience and enjoy the process)

4) You can get all setup from the Aquascapeguide site here (ferts and measurement\dosing containers) https://www.aquascapeguide.com/plantcare-tools