r/Aquariums • u/Awimpymuffin • Jul 23 '21

Question about nutrient dosing a 75 Gal CO2 planted tank. Help/Advice

Currently researching CO2 for my new 75 gal, have all the parts for it either here or on the way. I'm a touch confused by the guide for nutrients on the subreddit. So far I'm planning on dosing these as recommended on the bottles to start and then increasing. I also have a bottle of Aquarium CO-OP easy green that I've been using on my 29 gal that I could add as well but was thinking not. Does this dosing list sound okay? Is there anything I should change, or watch out for, cheaper options or really just any advice would be lovely. Thanks in advance, cheers.

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u/bettableps Jul 23 '21

Make sure you only dose phosphorus and nitrogen if your tank actually needs them. A lot of aquasoil + animal waste may provide enough of these anyway and adding more will just feed algae. Just test for P + nitrates for awhile after you've set everything up to monitor if you need to supplement.

You don't need to dose excel. That's primarily an algaecide and dosing it without a purpose is both a waste of money and potentially stressful on inhabitants. Specifically dosing iron is generally only needed of you've got a deficiency or you have lots of red plants you really want to being out deep reds in.

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u/Awimpymuffin Jul 23 '21

Thanks for the info, I do plan on keeping plants with red in them, just bought 2 fluval planted plus 48" lights so hopefully it's enough. I'm actually going to be running coal slag as substrate with osmocote plus homemade root tabs.

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u/Jarofcoinss Jul 24 '21

Really the only problem I see (as a reef keeper) is if you aren’t testing don’t dose. Plenty of problems for reef keeping can stem from over dosing with out testing enough. I would dose most of those (unless you can test) only when needed, like dose iron when the reds are doing bad. But dosing phosphorus and nitrogen along with an algaecide might be counter intuitive. Besides that all those products are good

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u/Awimpymuffin Jul 24 '21

This will be a freshwater tank, don't know if this still applies. What would you recommend for testing? I was going to do the EI method with a 50% change weekly

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u/Jarofcoinss Jul 24 '21

Yea I see reef keeping is a good but different but mainly don’t add too much phosphorus or nitrogen or that will lead to bad algae when out of wack. Also don’t way over due the trace elements and irons me such. But with 50% water changes that will be alot harder

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u/meinthebox ​ Jul 23 '21

Dry fertilizers are a way better option than buying all those different liquid versions. The same amount of money would get you years worth of fertilizer in dry form.

Quite a few places sell them. It's basically all the same since it's raw ingredients but this is a good price. You'll need to do some research about how much to use. EI method is popular but most people I know have moved on to a much leaner dosing strategy.

https://www.nilocg.com/shop/ei-based-npk-csmb-fertilizer-aquarium-plants/

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u/Awimpymuffin Jul 23 '21

Would the fertilizer in the link you provided be enough? Or would I have to buy all their products?

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u/meinthebox ​ Jul 23 '21

The link should include 4 different fertilizer elements. That should be all that you need.

NPK is short for Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium. CSM+B is all the micro nutrients you'll need.

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u/Awimpymuffin Jul 23 '21 edited Jul 23 '21

Sadly it turns out I can't buy this because I live in Canada, would you know any Canadian brands by chance lol

Edit: I found this https://www.aquariumdirect.ca/en/dry/1591-aaa-estimative-index-ei-.html do you think this would work for my needs?

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u/meinthebox ​ Jul 23 '21

It's slightly different but it should work just fine.

I'm guessing some of the raw ingredients can't be sold individually there so they have alter it a bit.

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u/Genotype54 Jul 23 '21

Learn about EI dosing or pps pro