Dosing, my head hurts.

[BigCountry]

OK,

I have been reading up on dosing, I think that is the last part of my startup planning and my plants will be delivered any day now so I need to get this straight in my head.

I have read the following recomendations on the sticky: (My tank is 75 gallons and will have 2 54w T5HO catalina lights [high light according to Hoppy] and will be modereately to heavily planted with pressurized CO2)

60~80gal
50% H20 change-weekly
3/4 Tsp-KN03 3x a week
3/16 Tsp-KH2P04 3x a week
1 Tsp-GH booster once a week
15ml 3/16Tsp-Trace 3x a week
Optional
4-8ml-Fe/Iron 3x a week

Mixing Trace Element and Iron, Plantex CSM+B,
Fe/Iron Chelate 10%- mix 1Tbsp per 250ml water-
one cap full=5ml

Given that, I see I need to get:
KNO3, KH2PO4, GH Booster,Trace and Iron.

Where is the best place for me to procure said items? Can I get stuff like that at PetSmart, or do I have to order online? Any brands better than others? I have looked at some of the online sites referenced in the threads, but for the life of me cannot figure out whihc ones to order.

[ChadRamsey]

www.aquariumfertilizer.com

[BigCountry]

Originally Posted by ChadRamsey

www.aquariumfertilizer.com

OK, from looking at that site, I think I have figured out what to buy.

• Potassium Nitrate
  1 lb KNO3
• Mono Potassium Phosphate 1 lb.
  MKP or KH2PO4
• Barrs GH Booster
• CSM+B Plantex 1 lb, a micro nutrient mix
• Iron Chelate 13% (by mass) 8 ounces

I am assuming that the Iron Chelate 13% would work since 10% was mentioned in the sticky.

If I dose those according to the above mentioned charts, then I should be OK right?

[Hoppy]

If you follow the charts you will be ok for fertilizing. The hard part is the CO2. Getting that right takes some effort. If you get a drop checker and use it with standard 4 dKH water and API pH reagent in it, you will have an easier task getting the CO2 high enough, but not too high.

A two T5HO bulb light from Catalina can be one with the bulbs close together - high light and poor uniformity of light intensity unless you raise it about 10 inches above the top of the tank. Or, it can be one with the bulbs separated 6 inches or more - medium light, better light intensity uniformity (low medium if you raise it about 4 inches above the top of the tank.)

[BigCountry]

Originally Posted by Hoppy

If you follow the charts you will be ok for fertilizing. The hard part is the CO2. Getting that right takes some effort. If you get a drop checker and use it with standard 4 dKH water and API pH reagent in it, you will have an easier task getting the CO2 high enough, but not too high.

A two T5HO bulb light from Catalina can be one with the bulbs close together - high light and poor uniformity of light intensity unless you raise it about 10 inches above the top of the tank. Or, it can be one with the bulbs separated 6 inches or more - medium light, better light intensity uniformity (low medium if you raise it about 4 inches above the top of the tank.)

I ordered a Drop Checker from BTimmer92 and some 4 dKH water, so hopefully I will get it set up right. I plan to build a Cerges reactor for it. I ordered the Milwaukee regulator.

The light I ordered from Catalina is the one where the lights are spread out about 4 or 6 inches. It will either sit on top of the tank, or on the brackets Catalina made for me that raise it about an inch above the surface.

According to your chart in the lighting sticky, I thought I read that 2 T5HO lights at 20 inches was high light. I also could have sworn that you had told me in the past it would be high light. Oh well, I hope medium light will be sufficient then. And surely it will be better than my Coralife 130watt CF.

[sketch804]

Well 13% iron will work, but will be available to the plants for less time as I understand it. Iron 13% is Fe+3 and needs to be converted to Fe+2 before plants can use it. Now 11/10% Iron is Fe+2 already so it is easier to absorb by plants and available for 24 hrs to the plants in the water column..really there isn't much difference and both will give you what you need..just a few small differences..but what you are gonna get sounds good, that is the same stuff I use for my ferts..good luck, it will get easier after the first few times..

This info is what I have read so take it with a grain of salt so to speak..

[roadmaster]

GH booster may not be needed unless you have very soft water.
With weekly water change, and fairly hard water, minerals should be available in tapwater if this is what is being used.
Course some tapwater may contain more calcium than magnesium, but I should think with weekly water change and fairly hard water that GH booster is not needed?

[BigCountry]

Originally Posted by roadmaster

GH booster may not be needed unless you have very soft water.
With weekly water change, and fairly hard water, minerals should be available in tapwater if this is what is being used.
Course some tapwater may contain more calcium than magnesium, but I should think with weekly water change and fairly hard water that GH booster is not needed?

Thanks, I hadn't caught that it was just for hardness. I will have to check out my water.

My head is spinning from all of this info, and it is hard to keep everything straight.

My thanks to everyone who has helped me with this process.

[m00se]

http://calc.petalphile.com/

[BBradbury]

Holy smokes, Big!

How do you keep track of all that info.? No wonder your head hurts. You're setting yourself up for some lasting brain damage, dude.

If you avoid the more demanding plants that require high end lighting and pricey CO2 systems, you'll keep the steps for planted tanks a little simpler, so there's very little to remember and very little that can go wrong.

Attached are a couple of pics of my "potted tanks". You've likely seen them, I post them a lot. They're extremely simple, inexpensive and give you time to enjoy the plants. Guess they won't win any beauty contests. The plants are healthy, though.

To this "old school" water keeper, you high end, high tech tank keepers are just amazing in your ability to figure out all that stuff!

B

[nilocg]

Originally Posted by BigCountry

OK,

I have been reading up on dosing, I think that is the last part of my startup planning and my plants will be delivered any day now so I need to get this straight in my head.

I have read the following recomendations on the sticky: (My tank is 75 gallons and will have 2 54w T5HO catalina lights [high light according to Hoppy] and will be modereately to heavily planted with pressurized CO2)

60~80gal
50% H20 change-weekly
3/4 Tsp-KN03 3x a week
3/16 Tsp-KH2P04 3x a week
1 Tsp-GH booster once a week
15ml 3/16Tsp-Trace 3x a week
Optional
4-8ml-Fe/Iron 3x a week

Mixing Trace Element and Iron, Plantex CSM+B,
Fe/Iron Chelate 10%- mix 1Tbsp per 250ml water-
one cap full=5ml

Given that, I see I need to get:
KNO3, KH2PO4, GH Booster,Trace and Iron.

Where is the best place for me to procure said items? Can I get stuff like that at PetSmart, or do I have to order online? Any brands better than others? I have looked at some of the online sites referenced in the threads, but for the life of me cannot figure out whihc ones to order.

I sell all the dry ferts that you need here in the Power Sellers section, also my prices after shipping is the cheapest that I can see, if you can find it cheaper I will match the price.

Here is the link: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/sp...value-net.html

Pm me with any questions

[BigCountry]

I'm just trying to take advantage of all of the research and hard work people like Hoppy et. al. have put into this. I'm just trying to do basic "so called" High Tech. I want to make sure that this ends better than the foray I had into planted tanks 3 years ago.

[Diana]

If the tap water GH is about 3 degrees or more it probably has calcium and magnesium in enough quantities for the plants. The ratio may not be perfect, but that is low priority.
If the GH is barely 3 degrees, then the Ca or Mg might be so low that one or the other might be missing. I would dose GH booster in this case.

[Hoppy]

Originally Posted by BigCountry

The light I ordered from Catalina is the one where the lights are spread out about 4 or 6 inches. It will either sit on top of the tank, or on the brackets Catalina made for me that raise it about an inch above the surface.

According to your chart in the lighting sticky, I thought I read that 2 T5HO lights at 20 inches was high light. I also could have sworn that you had told me in the past it would be high light. Oh well, I hope medium light will be sufficient then. And surely it will be better than my Coralife 130watt CF.

That chart is for conventionally spaced bulbs, where they are pretty close together, so the light from the two bulbs adds together. I have noticed that when they are spaced 4+ inches, maybe 6 inches apart, the light from the two bulbs doesn't add together except far enough off center from each bulb to keep from getting more PAR than a single bulb gives you. So, the light you ordered will very likely not give you twice the PAR as one bulb gives you.

But, that is a major advantage. Really high light is a sure way to be miserable with your planted tank. Even with about 50 micromols of PAR I found it very difficult to keep the CO2 concentration high enough, the water circulation in the tank good enough, the plants pruned often enough, etc. to avoid big problems with BBA. I'm enjoying my planted tank a lot more with much lower light, slower plant growth, and minimal algae problems.

Here is data from a light very similar to what you will have:

You should get fairly close to the PAR value shown on this.

[BigCountry]

Thanks Hoppy, you are one smart dude. Basically, I just want to make sure I have enough light so that I can have all of the good plants and they won't die on me. If they grow a little slower, that is OK.

When I tried this in '09 with my coralife PC fixture, I lost all of my good plants. Of course I wasn't doing CO2 or dosing either.