wyzazz Posted February 11, 2018 Report Share Posted February 11, 2018 I purchased some Easy Green from Aquarium Co-Op to begin a fertilization regimen on some of my tanks, but as I do with everything, I had to test it first. I added one pump directly to 1 Cup of RODI Water (0TDS) and it shot the TDS up to 180! I tested for GH and KH and didn't get any variation in that Cup of water. It says specifically that it is Shrimp Safe, so I'm not terribly concerned with that... ...I guess my main question is how to maintain the proper water quality/parameters if you're dosing Easy Green or any ferts that are going to raise the TDS for that matter. Is altering the TDS that significantly going to affect the shrimp? It doesn't look like it's going to affect the GH, KH or pH much if at all. Here is a link to the product page. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/products/easy-green-all-in-one-fertilizer?variant=17073627844 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClownPlanted Posted February 11, 2018 Report Share Posted February 11, 2018 Wow that is extremely high tds. No way would I use something that would bring the tds up that high. I have always used ThriveS and have always been happy with it. I get maybe 10tds raised after using 2 pumps per 10 gallons and is extremely reasonable. I would be concerned with it raising the GH that high for sure. Did you shake the bottle really well before using?? Have to ask. Just read the dosing instructions and it says 1 pump per 10 gallons so the 180 tds raise seems reasonable. Since you added 1 pump for one cup I am betting you get that down to about 5-10 tds per 10 gallons. That is the way to test it for sure. I think it is fine. wyzazz 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClownPlanted Posted February 11, 2018 Report Share Posted February 11, 2018 LOL so I just did a test with my ThriveS. So I did the same thing and added one pump of thriveS into exactly 1 cup 0tds RO water and got 320 tds. I then took that one pump in one cup water and added to my cycling shrimp tank and it raised the tds just 3. You should be even lower than that since you get 180 tds in one cup of water. You will probably get like 2 tds higher after one pump in 10 gallons. wyzazz 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wyzazz Posted February 11, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2018 It didn't raise the GH at all, just the TDS. Yes, I shook the bottle well. I'm assuming that the TDS is going to continue to rise over time in the tanks I utilize this in then? Should I account for that in my water changes or just shoot for keeping the GH & KH at the same levels? As it sits right now, I do my water changes based on TDS numbers. I remineralize my RO with Salty Shrimp to the appropriate TDS to get my GH/KH where I want them and then do about 10% every 2 weeks unless something is awry. If the TDS in a tank is unusually high I'll up the frequency of the water changes and drop the TDS in the water I'm remineralizing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClownPlanted Posted February 11, 2018 Report Share Posted February 11, 2018 Actually what I find is the tds stays relatively the same or even lower as the plants consume the fertilizer. I typically get roughly 10-15 tds raised in about a week but thats from everything like food and stuff that gets added during the week not just fertilizer. I have found its MUCH better to try and keep the plants happy than starving them of food. They are just like shrimp in the fact they also need food and unhappy plants starts to turn the ecosystem into a downward spiral. My tanks are much happier when they are fertilized. The relatively small tds raise from fertilizer has never caused a problem in all of my shrimp tanks and a healthy ecosystem keeps all happy. I would not account for it in your water changes just add your typical 4GH water like you always do(or whatever GH you go for). This is what I do and never have issued. I typically do a 25% water change in all my shrimp tank every 2 weeks. All happy and thriving wyzazz 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wyzazz Posted February 11, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2018 Well I just dosed 3x 10 gallon tanks and it raised the TDS 4-5 in each tank, I'll keep an eye and monitor it to see if the TDS creeps back down over the next few days. Thanks for the advice @ClownPlanted ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClownPlanted Posted February 11, 2018 Report Share Posted February 11, 2018 5 minutes ago, wyzazz said: Well I just dosed 3x 10 gallon tanks and it raised the TDS 4-5 in each tank, I'll keep an eye and monitor it to see if the TDS creeps back down over the next few days. Thanks for the advice @ClownPlanted ! Yeah that's about right. For me though I would start with the lower dosing of just one pump per 10 gallons especially since I assume you have low/medium light plants and low tech. 2 pumps at most. I do 2 pumps per 10 gallon tank twice a week and my mosses absolutely boom and all plants stay really healthy. wyzazz 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wyzazz Posted February 11, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2018 Will do! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrimple minded Posted February 11, 2018 Report Share Posted February 11, 2018 Wyazz, I can't be sure, but the numbers could be well within reason. Looking at their dosing, 1 pump in 1 cup of RO would be essentially 160x the recommended dose. A single pump in 10 gallons would be much less. Additionally, most shrimpers generally dose ferts as significantly lower levels than "recommmended" amounts. You could conceivably dose at 10%-20%-30% levels and still see the results you're after. At these level the TDS increases would be in the low single digits and somewhat be absorbed by your plants, and then further reduced by your water changes. Lastly, I see recommendations for this product give weekly dosing. Using the reduced amounts discussed above, you could dose this product 2x per week in lower amounts to smooth out the concentration "curve" of the ferts in your tank. wyzazz 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wyzazz Posted February 11, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2018 3 hours ago, Shrimple minded said: Wyazz, I can't be sure, but the numbers could be well within reason. Looking at their dosing, 1 pump in 1 cup of RO would be essentially 160x the recommended dose. A single pump in 10 gallons would be much less. Additionally, most shrimpers generally dose ferts as significantly lower levels than "recommmended" amounts. You could conceivably dose at 10%-20%-30% levels and still see the results you're after. At these level the TDS increases would be in the low single digits and somewhat be absorbed by your plants, and then further reduced by your water changes. Lastly, I see recommendations for this product give weekly dosing. Using the reduced amounts discussed above, you could dose this product 2x per week in lower amounts to smooth out the concentration "curve" of the ferts in your tank. Good call, I'll start off slowly and see what happens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Revaria Posted February 11, 2018 Report Share Posted February 11, 2018 (edited) From what I know about easy green, it is a very concentrated form of nutrients for plants. Its marketed as a complete food source for plants towards people who know whats going on in their tanks and just want to do a some less maintenance. The high concentration is what increases the TDS super high as any additive to water would increase the overall TDS, cory made another video regarding that as well, thats why remineralized RODI water is considered the best water to use for shrimp because you can guarantee that the TDS in that water is measuring the amount of minerals and not potassium, nitrates etc. I haven't used easy green cause I prefer the dry fert dosing method as it is much cheaper in the long run, but if dosed right easy green should not kill your shrimp as it provides everything for plants except for nitrates. Cory mentioned today that easy green does contain nitrates, but I still believe that if dosed properly it should not kill your shrimp as it was designed as a easy way to dose fertilizers to keep your plants healthy, but keep in mind that high levels of nitrates which are not taken up by plants will have bad long term effects on shrimp. Edited March 14, 2018 by Revaria Incorrect information wyzazz 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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