Cons to Fertilizing Daily?

[webcricket]

I've found that I've been needing to dose my planted tank twice weekly for nitrogen and potassium (once weekly for Flourish and phosphorous). I'm pretty forgetful and generally too lazy to write things down on a calendar, and I end up having to test the nitrates to try and figure out when I added last (which isn't a bad thing, but it's annoying).

I think it might be easier if I dosed smaller amounts of fertilizer daily at feeding time. Are there any negatives to dosing this way? Like for potassium, I dose twice a week at 1.5 ml each time...for daily I'd do just a touch over .4 ml. It seems like it would be more stable this way, as opposed to all the nutrients being tossed in at once.

I just want to be sure there isn't any reason I shouldn't do it this way before I start up.

[gagaliya]

No negatives, actually dosing it daily is better. You dose smaller amounts which has less chance of causing water param issues/stress and reduce algae as nutrients are readily absorbed by the plants without leftovers.

In addition, it will be more consistent for plants as they are less likely to run out of certain macro/micro vs if you do weekly dosing.

Personally i dont think it's very realistic to dose it manually on a daily schedule with a fulltime job/family. You have two reliable options to automate:

1) buy 4x eheim liquid doser. Cost about $200 total, and set it up to auto dose the 3 macro + micro. I think you can do it up to 4 times a day.

2) buy 4x redsea dosing bottles. It's basically a continuious dripping system that you can set the flow rate. So the nutrients will continously drip into the aquariums 24/7. This is probably the best solution if you have the space. Not to mention the bottles are much cheaper than the eheim dosers.

Good luck!

[webcricket]

Okay, super!

I'm just using the Flourish line of products, so it's pretty easy to draw up the proper amount in a syringe and drop it in the tank at the same time as I feed the fish. The puffers eat daily, unlike my other tanks. Routine is just easier on my brain, hehe. I'm only dealing with a 10 gallon and 5 gallon (they share the same stand), nothing monstrous. I imagine it would be harder the larger the tank gets!

Only problem will come up on weekends away and vacation, in that case I'll just dose for the weekend/week before I go.

[Mgamer20o0]

i do the EI method. its micros one day trace the next day and one day a week i do a water change. so i add micros 3 times a week and trace 3 times a week. i have it printed out and posted by my tanks so i dont forget and know what to add.

[Captain Hook]

The fertilizer moderator on Aquatic Plant Central has developed a system of daily fertilization that he believes very strongly. He claims that plants respond better to fresh nutrients on a daily basis.

The sytem he invented is called PPS, Perpetual Preservation System. Here's a ton of information on it, mostly pdf's available for download.

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/science-of-fertilizing/4241-pps-perpetual-preservation-system-new-tables.html