Fertilizer dosing schedule

[Jeff_F]

I have a question about fertilization.  I have CO2 injection and an Aquarium Co-op light in my tank and per directions on the bottle I dose Easy Green twice a week at 3 pumps per dosing.  Since this is 6 pumps per week, wouldn’t it be better to dose one pump per day to even out the amount of fertilizer (nutrients) in the tank rather than have them cycle up and down throughout the week?

[Mmiller2001]

How many gallons is the tank?

[Jeff_F]

30 gallons

[Mmiller2001]

What's your water change schedule?

[Jeff_F]

I do a weekly water change (Sunday) of about 25%.  

[Pepere]

George Farmer specifically recommends doing just that, dosing a comprehensive liquid fertilizer daily to maintain 20 ppm nitrate every day.  He specifically mentions Easy Green as a good one.

 

I have been trying this out.  I does 1 pump daily in my 29 gallon tank and 1 pump easy iron every other day….

 

Saturday morning I do a 50% water change and dose the tank with 6 pumps of easy green and 3 of easy iron.

[Mmiller2001]

I would use 9 pumps weekly broken up however you want. Going forward, to maintain stable nutrient levels, I recommend front loading Macro's and doing Micro's 2 to 3 times a week. Micro's may not work because of the all in one fertilizer you have chosen, but if you find the micro dose from EG is too low, then adopt the 2 or 3 times a week from a different micro option.

Front loading is basically this, you dose the incoming water to the target you set the tank to. So if the tank is kept at 25ppm NO3 (as Proxy), then you dose the water change water to that target. This way, regardless of water changed, the tank maintains this target.

If the tank is kept at say 20ppm NO3, and you do a 25% water change, and only dose throughout the week; there's a lag time of lower nutrients until weeks end.

20ppm NO3(25% water change @0ppm)=15ppm NO3 water after the change. By front loading, no mater the amount changed, the water will always retain 20ppm NO3

[Jeff_F]

Thanks very much for the information.  I think I will switch to the more uniform dosing schedule and see what happens.  I had not thought about dosing the new water coming into the tank during a water change to maintain the proper nutrient level.  I'll adjust for this as well.

Thanks!

On 5/2/2023 at 11:39 AM, Pepere said:

George Farmer specifically recommends doing just that, dosing a comprehensive liquid fertilizer daily to maintain 20 ppm nitrate every day.  He specifically mentions Easy Green as a good one.

 

I have been trying this out.  I does 1 pump daily in my 29 gallon tank and 1 pump easy iron every other day….

 

Saturday morning I do a 50% water change and dose the tank with 6 pumps of easy green and 3 of easy iron.

Why do you dose additional Iron?  I've been measuring my iron and it is pretty steady at 0.5ppm.  Do you have a lot of red plants that require the added iron?

[Pepere]

On 5/2/2023 at 8:18 PM, Jeff_F said:

Why do you dose additional Iron?  I've been measuring my iron and it is pretty steady at 0.5ppm.  Do you have a lot of red plants that require the added iron?

I have a Pink Flamingo crypt and some scarlet temple, and Ludwigia.