AquaZilla

Which fertilizing method do you use in your planted aquarium, and why?

Jdinh04

Throughout this hobby, I have always wondered how people are dosing their planted aquariums. This would be a great thread to get to know other people's dosing regime!

For me, I have no strict or follow a dosing regime/schedule. I basically tell the plants tell me what I should fertilize. I think it has been about 3 weeks since I've dosed any fertilizers in my 20g planted aquarium. All it has is just aqua soil for the substrate and a 55w PC bulb for lighting, and no CO2.

Occasionally however, I will dose 1/4 tsp of KNO3, 1/2 tsp of KS204, and 1/8 tsp of KH2PO4 once or twice a month. I try to do a water change once every two weeks if I can, otherwise I normally top off the tank.

I like to keep it simple and so far the plants are growing nicely

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ukamikazu

I voted EI, but even then I do it not quite how Tom Barr originally described it and not quite using the same chemical mixtures.

I'm a sad, sad SeaChem fanboy, so I use their products exclusively and for a while I followed their suggested dosing regimen, but then after reading a lot of articles by George Farmer at Practical Fishkeeping and desperately trying to control my aquarium budgeting, I started doing things a little differently.

I'll dose only Monday through Friday, nothing is added on Saturday and my 50% water change on Sunday. It works out really well for me, controls costs, I still get lush growth (when you can make Cryptocorynes pearl like an airstone, you're doing something right) and algae isn't a problem, but then I also have quite an assortment of fat, happy and ravenous Otos and SAE's.

Just my .02 dollars.

AquaZilla

I have never followed any real dosing regimen. Although, I think it is an ideal solution for new folks in the hobby. It helps get a good feel of what it takes to get plants to grow and you can make your adjustment down the road as you see fit.

I do change 30-50% of the water every week PPS-Pro would be more along what I do on a few tanks...

chillplants

My main method on my 125 gal is EI, adjusted to my tank's needs of course. Macros 3X and micros 3X weekly alternating through the week. My nitrates stay pretty steady so I only dose a minimal amount to keep things around 20 ppm. Approx 50% WC on the weekends.
My latest 75 gal setup is going with straight root feeding using Ferka Aquabase. The vast majority of plants are crypts and blyxa with a few stems for variety.

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125 gal

75 gal eel tank

dewalltheway

I use the EI method but I am trying different ml of solution then what you read on the sticky threads on STD dosing based on size of tank because I am not getting the color from my plants that I want. I have read where you can dose higher levels of potassium plus I am also dosing higher levels of iron to bring more color out. So far I have seen better results but still not where I want it.

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