_Dosing Regime's_

[plantbrain]

Originally Posted by ILuvMyGoldBarb

Great thread, very very informative. Now, does anyone have a recommended regime for liquid ferts? I'd love to go dry but I just can't afford that right now, plus I have a 2L supply of Flourish and Flourish K to use up.

Dry ferts cost about 1/4 of the cost of one of those bottles.
KCL and water is all the Flourish K+ is...........you can buy that at any grocer for 4-7$ for 50lbs.

Some folks have come up with commercial brand dosing etc.

Regards,
Tom Barr

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

So, to do dry ferts as cheap as possible could someone list the products they use for each fert and amounts used?

[plantbrain]

Sure, for your 125 gal tank there:

You need more plant biomass however.

1 tsp of KNO3
1/4 tsp KH2PO4(same thing PO4 from SeaChem is+ water)
GH booster: 1 tsp after water change only
20mls of traces 3x a week, Tropica master grow.

The macros run about 2$ a pound from aquarium fertilizers.com

So they will last about 3 mixes
4 x 1 lb of KNO3
1lb of KH2PO4
1 lb of GH booster

About 1-2 years etc for your tanks.

The trace mix, flourish is the largest expense.
I do not care for CMS personally for the trace mix.

But that's about to change, I have a custom made a aquatic plant specific mix for traces that we can mix dry(saves shipping cost by 10X less weight/less storage) and makes about 10-20x the same volume for the same price. So it's 10-20X cheaper than on line cheapo pricing.

Regards,
Tom Barr

[obet_07304]

Originally Posted by plantbrain

I use GH booster which is about 40% K2SO4 and is added after each water change. Relative to KNO3 and the amounts of N remove vs K, the K will build up to about 2X the dosing rate over time if you do 50% weekly water changes.

N is removed at a 2-4 faster rate atom for atom than K+.

Quenton has a nice calculator for EI that's pretty user friendly.
I'm old school and do not use them at all.

Regards,
Tom Barr

Tom, I was just looking at the difference between the GH Booster & K2SO4. It seems the GH comes w/ other micros the plants can use (Potassium Sulfate
Calcium Sulfate & Magnesium Sulfate). But what if your GH is already high? If I consider going w/ the GH Booster how much do you have to put(tsp please )? & for how many times? Thanks.

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

The plant biomass isn't a problem. That picture in my sig was actually over a month old. The new one is much more current.
Thanks

[obet_07304]

Originally Posted by obet_07304

Tom, I was just looking at the difference between the GH Booster & K2SO4. It seems the GH comes w/ other micros the plants can use (Potassium Sulfate, Calcium Sulfate & Magnesium Sulfate). But what if your GH is already high? If I consider going w/ the GH Booster how much do you have to put(tsp please )? & for how many times? Thanks.

Any answer to this question??? Anybody???

[Naja002]

If your Gh is already High then skip the Gh Booster and just use the K2S04.

Also, High Gh water often times turns out not to have enough Mg, so either pick up some magnesium sulfate too, or epsom salt from walmart....

HTH

[GIO590]

Originally Posted by Georgiadawgger

Good stuff...
It seems as though most people have been mixing 1 TABLEspoon with 250 ml of water or double that (2 TBS in 500 ml). That may work fine for most. At times I wish I were still in school to "borrow" a little bit of HCl.
....

You can buy HCl at most home improvement stores. It will be labeled as muriatic acid. the only thing is you are going to end up buying like a gallon of it for 5 dollars or so

[Fishdood25]

Ok I have a question that im not understanding. I didnt do good in this section of school!!! LOL I have a 120 and I want to dose trace (plantex CSM+B) Here is the chart on the 1st page that I need to use and than times it by 2....Can anyone please help me with this , how much powder do I need to dose this 120 tank???

+/-15ml 3/16Tsp-Trace 3x a week



Thanks

[Wö£fëñxXx]

Approximately 1/3 Tsp, or 1/4 + 1/8 Tsp or 1/2 - 1/8Tsp.
You could also mix a solution and use a small ml measuring glass or anything else, fill it with 6 cap full which = 30ml and use that based on the amount of 6 caps.
It does not have to be exact, you just need enough.

[Fishdood25]

Damn I should never second question my wife!!! She was right!!! Thanks so much for the input. I am new to this planted tank hobby and its kicking my butt so far!!! I will get it sooner or later....I just have to stop thinking so much cause its usually a lot easier than im thinking


BTW you tank is amazing!!!!! WOWIE!!

[fxie]

After reading through the entire thread, as well as Rex's and Tom's guides, I have come up with the following dosing regime for my 1.6w/gal, DIY co2, 135gal planted tank.

I was wondering if someone could critique this schedule for me and see if it falls within acceptable parameters:

1 tsp KNO3 x3 weekly
2 tsp K2SO4 x3 weekly
1/10 tsp KH2PO4 x3 weekly

Given those amounts, I would be adding (per dose) approximately:
6ppm of KNO3
30ppm of K
0.7ppm of PO4

I have yet to add the co2, as I am still waiting for the 2 diffusers I ordered to come in. What would be an appropriate co2 level for this size of tank? Also, could someone suggest a suitable amount of Fe to add as well?

Thanks very much!

[Wö£fëñxXx]

DIY C02 on a tank that size will likely cause you grief unless you lower the light intensity a bit more, the WPG rule is iffy on large tanks, so some specific specs may help a little more.
I doubt you will get diffusers to work well if at all with DIY C02.

You're intended dosing is a bit excess based on the tank specs listed.
You will need some Trace minerals, Plantex, Flourish Comprehensive or Tropica plant nutrition, I recommend the Plantex, it is cheap and just as effective as the others, save up for a pressurized C02 system.

Do you have any fauna?
Do you have a lot of plants?
Filtration? (very important)
Substrate?
Exactly what kind of light? bulbs? wattage? do you have.

Based on you're listed information I would recommend lowering light intensity a bit and use the DIY C02 and see how things go with a dose of 1Tsp K2S04 and 15ml trace once a week for starters.,

If you start to notice BBA forming (pay attention, it is hard to get rid of), stop DIY C02 and do a heavy water change and leave the light off for a couple days.
Need more info.
Go Pressurized or buy stock in Tylenol.

[fxie]

Originally Posted by Wö£fëñxXx

DIY C02 on a tank that size will likely cause you grief unless you lower the light intensity a bit more, the WPG rule is iffy on large tanks, so some specific specs may help a little more.
I doubt you will get diffusers to work well if at all with DIY C02.

You're intended dosing is a bit excess based on the tank specs listed.
You will need some Trace minerals, Plantex, Flourish Comprehensive or Tropica plant nutrition, I recommend the Plantex, it is cheap and just as effective as the others, save up for a pressurized C02 system.

Do you have any fauna?
Do you have a lot of plants?
Filtration? (very important)
Substrate?
Exactly what kind of light? bulbs? wattage? do you have.

Based on you're listed information I would recommend lowering light intensity a bit and use the DIY C02 and see how things go with a dose of 1Tsp K2S04 and 15ml trace once a week for starters.,

If you start to notice BBA forming (pay attention, it is hard to get rid of), stop DIY C02 and do a heavy water change and leave the light off for a couple days.
Need more info.
Go Pressurized or buy stock in Tylenol.

Thanks for your reply Wö£fëñxXx.

In regards to some of the information I missed in my first post:
Fauna: 7 adult Angelfish, 4 German Blue Rams, 12 black phantom tetras, 11 otos, 6 corydoras, 4 SAEs.
Plants: The current plants we have in the tank are Java Fern, Anubias nana, Cryptocoryne petchii, 2 medium and 1 large (the leaves of the large reach to within 3" of the top of the tank) Echinodorus "Rubin", and 1 VERY large (diameter of leaves approximately 3", with total length reaching to the very top of the 24" deep tank) Echinodorus 'Rose'. I have been noticing some of the leaves of the Echinodorus "Rubin" turning transparent, which I will assume is from lack of iron. I have been dosing liquid ferts in the past, but as I have just recently added a large number of crypts and will soon be adding even more plants, nutrients will definitely be lacking.
Filtration: Fluval FX5
Substrate: Unfortunately when I first started the tank, I did not plan on having as many plants as I do now, so the substrate consists of only regular plain gravel covered with an inch or so of white silica sand. I am currently using fertilizer tabs for my rooted plants. The only fertilizer other than the tabs I have been using is Flourish Excel.
Lights: 4x54w 48" T5s. They are drilled into my canopy (which is quite tall), and as a result are about 10" above the water line. I am only getting 1.6w/gal (probably less in reality, as I do not as yet have a reflector, and the lights hang a bit higher than usual).

Pressurized is too much for my current budget, so I wil be sticking with DIY for the immediate future

Thanks for your help!

[Wö£fëñxXx]

I would start out as suggested, just keep an eye on things.
You have all slow growing low light plants, you do not want to push it to hard, if you do, the plants and tank will let you know.
You have a decent fauna load so you may not need to dose any N or P but then again a little would not hurt.
Dose the K2S04 and trace once a week, maybe twice, if doing twice do 10ml TE each time with 1/2 to 3/4Tsp K+
Keep an eye on it and let us know how it goes in a week or so or sooner if needed.