# EI dosing and algae



## Cannonbolt (Sep 13, 2007)

Bump for insight


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## Booger (May 17, 2004)

Cannonbolt said:


> Can someone explain to me how algae really works??


Simple answer - no. Each one of us has our own voodoo belief system based on some combination of personal experience, what Tom says, what Amano/Tropica/Seachem claim, and various other opinions published on the internet. Rather than go down that road, think about what has changed from when everything was going well.

Typically as a tank ages, light, fertilizer, and CO2 supply remain relatively constant. You adjusted it once, works fine, and haven't touched it since. However, plant mass has likely doubled or tripled or more!

1) Do you supply enough fertilizer? What are the plants telling you? What about the test kits?
2) Do you have enough CO2? What is the drop checker telling you?
3) Do you have enough flow? Does the algae tend to grow mostly in the dead spots?


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## psalm18.2 (Oct 16, 2010)

It's a balancing act of light, ferts, and CO2. Algae is part of a closed system, IMO
As stated above, there are differing ideas and information out there. All theories seem to have 1 thing in common, CO2 is needed.


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## Canuck (Apr 30, 2009)

I'd say all theories share another tenet, all provide significant amounts of nutrients ensuring healthy plant growth. The only difference is in the source of the nutrients. Walstad uses lower light, lower carbon demand is provided through natural diffusion in the water column and organic substrate. Macros are provided by a rich substrate. Tom's original EI relies on almost exclusive water column fertilization for macros (and micros) and CO2 addition. ADA uses the rich substrate from the Walstad method and the water column fertilization from EI. Most of the mystery involving ADA seems to revolve around "black box" marketing. Walstad uses cheap potting soil, Barr uses generic chemical fertilizers, it's hard to market a product for either of these methods that isn't easily replicated by the DIYer. ADA manufactures a proprietary substrate, cloaks all of their products in mystery, and adds features whose only function seems to be to bedazzle and confuse the consumer.


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## Cannonbolt (Sep 13, 2007)

Booger said:


> Typically as a tank ages, light, fertilizer, and CO2 supply remain relatively constant. You adjusted it once, works fine, and haven't touched it since. However, plant mass has likely doubled or tripled or more!
> 
> 1) Do you supply enough fertilizer? What are the plants telling you? What about the test kits?
> 2) Do you have enough CO2? What is the drop checker telling you?
> 3) Do you have enough flow? Does the algae tend to grow mostly in the dead spots?


The CO2 levels with my DIY setup are probably not consistent over the course of 10 days. The first few days it's real strong and it gradually tapers and when it gets visibly weak around the 10 day mark, I start a new bottle. I don't have a drop checker. This pattern hasn't changed over the few months I've had it setup so I don't really think this is a big factor in the problem since the algae just showed up recently. I did post a thread on investigating a cheaper pressurized setup though.

Light and nutrients levels have been stable since I started on the EI dosing and I think that's the bigger issue at hand. As you noted, it never really occurred to me that as the plant mass increased (and it has done so quite a bit) their fert requirements would also go up - most of my plants remained good looking but it was my Rananculus inundatus (K deficiency) and Bacopa australis (maybe N deficiency) that indicated to me that something was starting to go awry. 

I upped my dosages as follows:
1/8 tsp N -> left the same for now (I feed my fish pretty well so I thought maybe whatever's uneaten might contribute to this?)
1/32 tsp P -> slightly more than 1/32 tsp (a more generous scoop using the 1/32 tsp measuring spoon)
1/32 tsp K -> 1/16 tsp K
1/32 tsp Plantex CSM+B -> again, a more generous scoop using the 1/32 tsp spoon

So I'll let this go for a little while and see what happens!


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