Dosing Easy Green

[MadTurtle]

My bottle of Easy Green is on the way and I had a question. I apologize if I sound less then intelligent on the subject, but I am🙂. My question is about nitrates. My nitrates are less then 5ppm and it says that I should be running at about 20ppm while dosing Easy Green. I am assuming that dosing will increase my nitrates, but by how much? The tank is a 40 gallon breeder. 

 

[FrozenFins]

It all depend on the plants you have in your tank, the amount your dosing, stocking. Most all in one fertilizers will get you at the 20ppm mark, all though sometimes you will have to dose more to acheive this. Sometimes they will get you WAY above the 20ppm mark, and sometimes you may see your self dosing less then the reccemended dose.

[MadTurtle]

Thank you for replying! So I could test the nitrates before dosing. and then test the nitrates a few hours later to see where they are? If I do that, would it be okay to dose again the next day if I am not at the 20ppm yet? Meaning will it be harmful , or cause problems if I do. 

[PlaneFishGuy]

@MadTurtle I had no issues doing back to back doses - I dose my tank as a 10g and I had several days in a row when getting to 20 ppm. I had one day where I did 4 pumps and still was testing below 20ppm. Looking at my logs I dosed 4 days in a 5 day period to get to 20 ppm. 

It was a little bit of an uneasy feeling to keep dumping in ferts well above the recommended dose on the bottle but I just relied on the test results.   

Once I reached 20 ppm its taking about 2 pumps every three days to maintain 20 ppm. 

 

caveat 1 - I didn't have any shrimp/fish in the tank at the time. It was just plants and snails. Other folks may have a different opinion on how aggressive you can get changing water parameters in a stocked tank.

caveat 2 - I'm new to planted tanks so this is based on a data point of 1.  

[MadTurtle]

Thanks Fish guy! So your tank was a 10g? So you did 1 pump per day until it reached 20ppm? I would eventually like to get to the point where I am dosing smaller amounts frequently instead of large doses weekly. I appreciate your reply, it was most helpful.  I could be wrong but I would think most fish would be more tolerant of parameter changes than invertebrates. 

[PlaneFishGuy]

@MadTurtle I had several days where I was dosing 1-4 pumps to get up to 20 ppm. On the 4 pump days I was probably getting a little inpatient, but I was also dosing then testing then dosing again. I used test strips and tested between each pump just to make sure I wasn't over-doing it. I have a 14.5 gallon cube but I treat is as a 10g based on substrate, rocks, driftwood. 

I'm like you in that I would prefer to dose smaller amounts daily but with my job I need the tank to be able to self sustain for 3-4 days at a time. I am assuming once I increase my bio-load I will be able to decrease the quantity of ferts, but maintain the same schedule. 

[MadTurtle]

Absolutely. I think 3 or 4 times a week sounds good. I would be more than happy with that. Thanks for the reply, it really has helped me out
 

[lefty o]

in a 40, id probably give 2 pumps twice a week. keep testing, and let your eyes be the judge.

[PlaneFishGuy]

Attached is a quick cheat sheet I built based on some information @Mmiller2001 provided in another thread. It shows what your putting in your tank in PPM per dose of EasyGreen and Easy Iron. Nothing too fancy - just something that was helpful to me so I thought I would post. 

Seemed like the best place to hang it was in this existing thread. 

If anyone catches any errors let me know and I can edit or delete. 

 

Edited May 5, 2021 by PlaneFishGuy
Adding Clarifying Notes to the Spreadsheet

[Mmiller2001]

4 hours ago, PlaneFishGuy said:

Attached is a quick cheat sheet I built based on some information @Mmiller2001 provided in another thread. It shows what your putting in your tank in PPM per dose of EasyGreen and Easy Iron. Nothing too fancy - just something that was helpful to me so I thought I would post. 

Seemed like the best place to hang it was in this existing thread. 

If anyone catches any errors let me know and I can edit or delete. 

This is so awesome! Thank you. May I save this and use this?

Edited May 5, 2021 by Mmiller2001

[Mmiller2001]

4 hours ago, PlaneFishGuy said:

Attached is a quick cheat sheet I built based on some information @Mmiller2001 provided in another thread. It shows what your putting in your tank in PPM per dose of EasyGreen and Easy Iron. Nothing too fancy - just something that was helpful to me so I thought I would post. 

Seemed like the best place to hang it was in this existing thread. 

If anyone catches any errors let me know and I can edit or delete. 

@Cory I honestly believe, that after your review for accuracy, this should be a sticky and credited to @PlaneFishGuy

 

[PlaneFishGuy]

@Mmiller2001 glad you liked it - feel free to use and share. I started looking up EI dosing and it occurred to me I really didn't understand what I was pumping in with an all in one fert. It helped me identify some areas where I maybe needed to augment. 

[Isaac M]

Hi @PlaneFishGuy, that is a great cheat sheet you made. I do have some minor comments on it to reduce possible confusion with others that may see it. This cheat sheet is based on 10 gallons of water so I would add that to the title. For instance, it would take 20 pumps to get 30 ppm nitrates in a 20 gallon, not 10 pumps. I would also add the units. 

I love the cheat sheet though. Thank you for sharing it on the forum. I agree with @Mmiller2001, you should get credited for it and it should belong somewhere permanently on the forum to help people. 

[PlaneFishGuy]

@Isaac M Thanks for the feedback - ive added some clarifying notes and replaced the spreadsheet in my original post. 

[McShiggityPilot]

On 5/4/2021 at 9:30 PM, Mmiller2001 said:

@Cory I honestly believe, that after your review for accuracy, this should be a sticky and credited to @PlaneFishGuy

 

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[laritheloud]

On 5/4/2021 at 4:58 PM, PlaneFishGuy said:

Attached is a quick cheat sheet I built based on some information @Mmiller2001 provided in another thread. It shows what your putting in your tank in PPM per dose of EasyGreen and Easy Iron. Nothing too fancy - just something that was helpful to me so I thought I would post. 

Seemed like the best place to hang it was in this existing thread. 

If anyone catches any errors let me know and I can edit or delete. 

 

Hi, I'm just looking for some clarification on this chart!

Is the number of pumps across the top supposed to be read *PER 10 GALLONS?* As in, if I put 3 pumps each into my 29/30 gallon tank, should I be reading that as a single dose/one pump (and therefore 0.25 ppm iron and 3 ppm NO3) or should I be reading that as 9 ppm nitrate and 0.75 ppm iron? I get myself tangled in knots when I look at these charts sometimes.

[PlaneFishGuy]

@laritheloud  for a 30 gallon 3 pumps would be 3 ppm on the chart. You could basically replace the top column headers as 3,6,9,12,.....30. 

Hope that helps. I couldn't come up with a great way of explaining or showing it on the chart. 

 

[laritheloud]

24 minutes ago, PlaneFishGuy said:

@laritheloud  for a 30 gallon 3 pumps would be 3 ppm on the chart. You could basically replace the top column headers as 3,6,9,12,.....30. 

Hope that helps. I couldn't come up with a great way of explaining or showing it on the chart. 

 

Perfect, that helps a lot! Thanks for clearing it up for me!