[Kayakbabe]

I see a lot of posts about confusion over how to figure teeny amounts of dry fert when you can't measure them. And, I see a lot of posts that give a lot of measurements and different volumes and a lot of scientific measures.

But this problem can be addressed really simply for those that get confused by lots of numbers and fractions and percentage.

Let's break this down to something as simple as possible.

The problem: You want to dose a 1/4 teaspoon of something but don't know how to measure it and only have a 1 teaspoon measure.

Okay, now look at your aquarium, is it big or little? This will make sense as you read on.

Get a bottle like a single serving coke bottle maybe, it could be a smaller bottle or a bigger one. It doesn't really matter, but if you've got a pico sized tank, a small bottle is might be better. **

Okay, grab your trusty teaspoon measure and measure out 1 teaspoon of your 'something' and put it into your bottle.

Now, get water out of your aquarium (with something other than your powder filled bottle) and fill up your powdered filled bottle.*

Shake till dissolved.

Now, you've got something dissolved in some water. But you only want to put 1/4 teaspoon of something into your tank. Remember we put 1 teaspoon into the bottle and mixed it up. So.. if I take out 1/4 of the whole mess in the bottle, the mixed in 'something' will be taken out with it.

so.. pour 1/4 of the bottle contents into your tank. (that's one dose).

Wa-la! You are done. You just put 1/4 teaspoon of something into your tank!

And, you have 3 more doses left in your trusty bottle. Shake it up first before you use it next time.

Note: This works for other measurements...
if you want 1/3 of a teaspoon, then divide full your bottle up into 3 doses.
If you want 1/2 teaspoon, then your full bottle holds 2 doses.

If you get really creative, you could get one of those rubber maid clear plastic jugs, that have numbers on the side. I've got a 1 quart jug that has 32 divisions on it... so... you can see if you want 1/32 of a teaspoon, you just put your 1 teaspoon of 'something' into the jug, top it off with water, shake, and pour out 1 division mark on the jug.

The confusion in the other posts I've read comes about because people are trying to explain how to make more concentrated solutions. That works really well, it just sounds complicated. It's actually doing the same thing I outlined above, but with different proportions and fractions. -- okay I"m getting complicated again, so I'll stop.

I hope this post helped clarify, what all those dry fertilizer solution dilutions and calculations were doing.







*You could use R/O, distilled or treated tap water instead of tank water.. but tank water is an already treated source that is safe for your tank.

** Too small a bottle won't hold enough water to dissolve your 'something'. If you run into this problem... just get a bigger bottle, pour the whole mess into the bigger bottle. You can add some water to the small bottle and slosh it around and keep putting it into the big bottle, until your small bottle is clean. Then top off your big bottle and proceed.