Ultilmate fertilizer for faster plant growth

[happi]

i been working on this fertilizer for while now and it seems to work very well, ingredients are very similar to most fertilizers, but this fertilizers use combination of many different sources of chemicals to make it even work better. for example: you are not adding nitrate through KNO3 only, but in this ferts you are adding it through urea, Ca nitrate, Mg nitrate etc. stems plants responded to this very well and you will notice the difference when you dose this fert. according the plant response and those who tested it, this fert had faster growth than the EI dosing.

Original formula tested with results

1000ml solution
Urea (7 gram)
calcium nitrate (10 gram)
Magnesium nitrate (10 gram)
CSM+B (20 gram)
DTPA 11% (5 gram)
K2SO4 (30 Gram) (do not add this to solution due to solubility issue, dose separate as mentioned)
Ascorbic Acid (1g)
Potassium Sorbate (0.5g)
MnSO4 (1 gram) Optional, last time i added it to the solution, it seems to cause no issue, Mn is very important along with Fe.

Dosing: 20ml everyday for 50g high tech tank, reduce the dosage if you have low tech tank. at the water changes you should add 20ppm of K+ through K2SO4, you can also use GH booster to achieve the same, i highly recommend using GH booster. you notice that i did not say anything about the Phosphate dosing, that is because i did not want to mix it with this solution, you can make separate solution or dose EI style dry, you should dose 1ppm of PO4 3x week. The best time to dose this ferts is when the lights are already on for the first hour or so. people with higher Ph 7> should be careful when dosing this ferts, as you can see that it contain urea which could cause problem for those with higher PH.


Water Changes: I changed 50% water every 2 weeks while dosing this ferts with no problem, but you can still do you 50% water change weekly if you like that routine. i also use 100% RO water in my tank, i do not use any KH buffering.
my water parameter:
100% RO Water
KH 0
Gh 2-3
PH 6<
water temp 78F



MOST IMPORTANT NOTE: Make sure your co2 levels are good, if you forget to dose Phosphate and K+ then you might see no difference in plant growth and it will be complete fail. if you decide to use K2SO4 instead of Gh booster, i recommend that you add Ca (about 20-30ppm) and Mg (6-8ppm) through Mg/Ca sulfates.

storing the solution: i recommend that you keep it cool and keep it in the dark (fridge is highly recommended).



Reason for K2so4 to react when used in the solution:

the reaction we were seeing in the solution was caused by K2so4 and CaNo3, when you mix these together they form KNO3 and leave behind all the sulphate from K2SO4 siting on the bottom of the solution. so you get no Ca at all in the solution, you do get more K+ without adding more KNO3, all the SO4 is removed which you don't want too much of it anyway.

as you can see in the video plants were growing at 3ppm of Ca from 1tsp GH booster once a week or during water changes, after all we don't need that much Ca.

[will5]

I wonder how many people are going to be will to try this because it has Urea in it?

[happi]

Originally Posted by will5

I wonder how many people are going to be will to try this because it has Urea in it?

most of the top brand have urea in it, Seachem, TPN are some good example, if you had no problem dosing those then you should have no problem dosing this one either.

[sketch804]

sounds nice! ya IDK even where to get urea, but the rest looks good, might have to try this sometime soon! My PH is always lower than 7 so this should be a good trial..Thnx Happi for the post!

[happi]

Originally Posted by sketch804

sounds nice! ya IDK even where to get urea, but the rest looks good, might have to try this sometime soon! My PH is always lower than 7 so this should be a good trial..Thnx Happi for the post!

Andrew you can buy a urea from ebay very cheap. 1 pound for $6 shipped on [Ebay Link Removed] you might need to buy Mg nitrate and Ca nitrate i know GLA carry them.

[Seattle_Aquarist]

Hi Happi,

Plants absorb their nitrogen first from nitrates, secondly from ammonicial nitrogen sources, and finally from urea. I know that urea is inexpensive but why use a source of nitrogen that plants cannot uptake efficiently?

[happi]

Originally Posted by Seattle_Aquarist

Hi Happi,

Plants absorb their nitrogen first from nitrates, secondly from ammonicial nitrogen sources, and finally from urea. I know that urea is inexpensive but why use a source of nitrogen that plants cannot uptake efficiently?

you are completely wrong my friend, plant uses NH4 before any other source, in my dosing i could have included NH4 but after testing it out, i only included algae in my tank and plus its risky business. Urea is similar to NH4 but instead it breaks down into NH4 inside the plant and they use it right away. if plant don't use it it turns into nitrate in matter of minutes, good bacteria does this. nitrate can be taken up by plants but at much slower rate, i have included nitrate in my solution just in case if plant do absorb all the urea, you will still have nitrate source to back it up for the plants.

[DaveFish]

Originally Posted by Seattle_Aquarist

Hi Happi,

Plants absorb their nitrogen first from nitrates, secondly from ammonicial nitrogen sources, and finally from urea. I know that urea is inexpensive but why use a source of nitrogen that plants cannot uptake efficiently?

I thoughtt ammonicial is the easist for plants and the first one to be absorbed. Nitrates when ammonium is not present.

[Jeff5614]

Originally Posted by DaveFish

I thoughtt ammonicial is the easist for plants and the first one to be absorbed. Nitrates when ammonium is not present.

Here's a quote from Seachem's site.

"Nitrogen comes in a variety of forms (nitrate, ammoniacal, urea). While plants can use all three forms the form that is preferred varies by species. Thus nitrogen supplements derived solely from just one form (nitrates) will not be as effective as a supplement that provides all three forms."

[happi]

Originally Posted by DaveFish

I thoughtt ammonicial is the easist for plants and the first one to be absorbed. Nitrates when ammonium is not present.

Dave, Jeff have given a good answer. let me also add something to it too, plants do prefer ammonium over Nitrate because its easily taken up by them, so you are also correct. but in my study i have found that most plant react to ammonium and some did not react very well. i did not have all the plant to test, but this test showed the results on these two sp. the plant that reacted well to ammonium was ludwigia Pantanal and plant that did not react very well to ammonium was Sp. Belem, Sp. Belem reacted better to nitrate.

[Hoppy]

I don't intend to start a war, but I do suggest that you offer a complete dosing scheme, using this mix. That just seems better than telling people that they might need to dose phosphates. What other things, in what dosages, should be used with this?

[happi]

Originally Posted by Hoppy

I don't intend to start a war, but I do suggest that you offer a complete dosing scheme, using this mix. That just seems better than telling people that they might need to dose phosphates. What other things, in what dosages, should be used with this?

hoppy i did gave the complete dosing scheme, am not going to tell the kids if they have 25g tank then they should dose 10ml and if they have 10g then they should dose 4ml etc, they can do this their own, how hard can this be. i never said they might need to add this or that, i said they have to add K+ and P, we all add K+ during water changes and P can be added 3x week just like EI. i have mentioned all this already. i already said the dosing is for 50g high tech tank 20ml per day, now they can cut down to their own tanks size.

if Newies have problem they can simply ask

[DarkCobra]

I can't try it, because I have more than enough nitrogen in all my tanks without dosing any. That's the problem with any all-in-one mix.

One suggestion. You acknowledge that extra K+ will probably be needed. But more K2SO4 probably won't dissolve. So why not add the same amount of Mg from magnesium sulfate (Epsom salts)? That will reduce the NO3 content, which can be made up for with KNO3; increasing the overall K content.

[happi]

Originally Posted by DarkCobra

I can't try it, because I have more than enough nitrogen in all my tanks without dosing any. That's the problem with any all-in-one mix.

One suggestion. You acknowledge that extra K+ will probably be needed. But more K2SO4 probably won't dissolve. So why not add the same amount of Mg from magnesium sulfate (Epsom salts)? That will reduce the NO3 content, which can be made up for with KNO3; increasing the overall K content.

the goal was trying to avoid too much kno3 while keeping the Mg and Ca in the solution, i was trying to keep everything in good amount, the main source of nitrogen from this solution is Urea, Kno3 is something i extracted from Mg and Ca nitrate, if i added this from kno3 only then i wont able to add mg and ca nitrate or i will have to add it in less amount. the point was to avoid too much kno3 while keeping everything else in the solution. K2SO4 was used separate for the same reason, to avoid too much kno3, it does dissolve fine in the 1000ml solution.

you have to try the solution first then we will find out for sure.

[plantbrain]

Originally Posted by happi

the goal was trying to avoid too much kno3 while keeping the Mg and Ca in the solution, i was trying to keep everything in good amount, the main source of nitrogen from this solution is Urea, Kno3 is something i extracted from Mg and Ca nitrate, if i added this from kno3 only then i wont able to add mg and ca nitrate or i will have to add it in less amount. the point was to avoid too much kno3 while keeping everything else in the solution. K2SO4 was used separate for the same reason, to avoid too much kno3, it does dissolve fine in the 1000ml solution.

you have to try the solution first then we will find out for sure.

Why would it matter if the K+ comes from K2SO4 vs KNO3 and why would it matter if the Mg/Ca comes from a NO3 anion? It does not.

Plants take up only the dissolved forms which disassociate entirely.

This is Toby's special N more than anything else. Some folks opt out and do not add the urea at all. Urea has been used a fair amount. But fish waste adds the same thing. I think the max NH4 uptake I've measured was around 0.8ppm NH4 per day. You can also come close to estimating fish waste in ppm's per day.

I used the Ca(NO3)2 and Mg(NO3)2 forms since I had a fair amount laying around for Reef and Marine plant use........and used the GH booster which is 50% K2SO4, I did not see any differences in the 120 Gallon tank.

I have a lot of shrimp and fish however.

If you lack fish/livestock etc, then adding some urea may be helpful.
I like fish, so I add them.