Name That Nutrient Deficiency

Tom & others,

What are your thoughts on using an average daily dosing approach. By that I mean making a stock solution and dosing X mL per day to give the target weekly dosing rather than alternating amounts of the different ferts day by day. I have a peristaltic pump that would make dosing a stock solution very easy.

Do you feel that going that route plus the weekly large water changes would be as or more effective?
 
I've mixed up a single solution and dose daily - I keep an eye on things and add individual nutrients here or there if the levels get out of balance. I do a large weekly water change of 50% or 60% on each tank. So far, this seems to work well for my tanks.
 
I keep the traces and macros separate, never add PO4 with Fe/trace mixes.
While your fish load might be high, feeding less, doing larger water changes(this is not for the NO3 removal, and to = out the nutrient levels rather the NH4 build up) will help.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 
Sorry to hijack a little, but I thought this might benefit others too.
Tom, I know you've probably explained these things ad infinitem, but can you elaborate? I'm still so new to plants and learning more every day. If you'll indulge me, I'd like to know more.
Is it essential to separate traces from other nutrients for chemical reasons? (I mean, do they react, bind together, or otherwise affect one another?) If it makes things more effective to un mix my mix, I'll happily change my ways :).
I've got a mix that seems to work (plants look healthy, lots of pearling, rediculous growth rate), but if it's better to keep things separate and dose alternate days I will. I put everything together out of sheer laziness - it seems so easy to test levels periodically, and add Xml of mix to the tank every day with a 50% water change once a week, but just because it's easy, doesn't mean I have to keep doing things that way ;)
Right now I'm using:
7tsp KNO3
6tsp trace elements
2tsp Mg(NO3)2
2tsp KCl
2tsp MgSO4
1tsp CaNO3
1/2tsp KH2PO4
in 500ml tap water. Our tap water is quite soft, and the plants were showing signs of minor Ca deficiency (cupped leaves, and snails show signs of needing more as well) which is why I recently added CaNO3 to the mix.
 
Stop using buckets then.
A simple 1"-1.5" hose for draining takes all of 5 minutes.
Refill with garden hose attached to shower head etc.
Add dechloro as you refill.

Should take all of 20 minutes.
No lifting.Some folks use python or similar devices which do the same thing.
You can also design automatic water changers on timers with a float switch also.

Buckets stink.

Mtber-
After things are going well and you get a bit better at getting the feel for the dosing, many folks skip one week and do once every 2 weeks, but the tank tends to look better with weekly changes.
It's a trade off.

Large tanks I'll ternd to plumb with their own dedicated fill drain valves that I can flip easily.

Saves lots of time and makes it very easy.
You can run the refill water through carbon, etc to reduce/eliminate the need for adding dechlor and also set the temp by mixing the hot and cold water.

Blinky-
Add some Traces to the PO4 solution alone.
What do you see?
Generally they will precipitate (FePO4-solid)

Daily dosing and testing etc is a lot of work and hard sell.
I've done this for years, but I did it to understand and gain from this.

I generally will tell folks 2-3x a week is fine for CO2 enriched tanks, 1x a week for low light, non CO2(these have different needs and ferts I suggest).

Daily is fine becuase folks often feed fish daily.
Personally, I like to leave for the weekend and go places for long time peroids without dealing with the dosing.

Some like dosing pumps on timers.
I have a few.

Main thing is to be consistent with the dosing routine you establish.
How you get there is up to you.

I generally advise folks to do a routine I know will help their problem with the least amount of confusion and work. You can micro manage and do more work if you so chose.

But you gain little from the extra added work load.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 
Blinky,

I dose the ferts dry except for the traces.
I've yet to find a need as a hobbyists to dose liquids for more precision.
There is just not a need for such precision and it's a hassle to make them.
I dose 3-4 thing and that's it and do 2 on day and the liquid on the other.
GH etc I'll dose after a water change only.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 
Found this out the way I discover most things - the hard way ;)
I'm working on revising things to reflect your method, I'm confused ATM from reading so much over the last hour or so, but I think once I wrap my brain around this it's going to work much better.
 
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