Ultilmate fertilizer for faster plant growth

[happi]

Originally Posted by zimbo

Was curious, so what are the actual online companies you guys use to get all of the chemicals that goes into this? A few pages back someone mentioned something about GLA or Orlando? Are there more complete names of these companies or links that might help finding this stuff?

Thanks,

Ryan

nilocg is a great person to deal with, he got better deal on ferts, but he does not have some of the ferts that are required in this recipe. you can buy Urea from ebay, very cheap.

Nilocg ferts:
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/sh...d.php?t=189841

[happi]

Originally Posted by sketch804

yes happi, I would love some updates on this as well. I am always interested in new fert formulas. I use just typical EI chemicals but I get better color outa low tech barely fertalized tanks. I think the micro mixture will account for some of the differences in color, as far as my tanks is..

Ps. How is that L. Pantanal doing still??? Mine fully melted away, what a surprise! L. Cuba is still growing nicely though.

there are no update since i no longer have that tank anymore, i have new ADA tank which am working on, aqua soil in this tank is causing brown water (using aqua soil from old tank), which need to be fixed before i start to fertilize the tank again.

but i thought somebody else would have already tried this recipe by now?

my plants are suffering at the moment due to new change to the tank, but once established, i should have no problem growing them again.

[tobystanton]

Originally Posted by happi

there are no update since i no longer have that tank anymore, i have new ADA tank which am working on, aqua soil in this tank is causing brown water (using aqua soil from old tank), which need to be fixed before i start to fertilize the tank again.

but i thought somebody else would have already tried this recipe by now?

my plants are suffering at the moment due to new change to the tank, but once established, i should have no problem growing them again.

Try filling the tank with frog-bit or dwarf water lettuce, I had the same problem with brown water as you, 2 days after I put in the floaters it cleared.

[happi]

Originally Posted by tobystanton

Try filling the tank with frog-bit or dwarf water lettuce, I had the same problem with brown water as you, 2 days after I put in the floaters it cleared.

i think the problem is dust coming out of the soil, which is causing the brown water. i don't think floaters would suck up any dirt/dust.

[sketch804]

Originally Posted by happi

there are no update since i no longer have that tank anymore, i have new ADA tank which am working on, aqua soil in this tank is causing brown water (using aqua soil from old tank), which need to be fixed before i start to fertilize the tank again.

but i thought somebody else would have already tried this recipe by now?

my plants are suffering at the moment due to new change to the tank, but once established, i should have no problem growing them again.

Well I really want to try this one but I am just trying to settle in with new job, but things seem to be calming down now. But seems since I am setting up a few things I am going to try something different soon. Well hope they recover and all! If you lose L. 'Cuba' I got ya with a few stems, I think I have 3. Well good luck with what ever you get done over there, I hope all goes well.

[TheFoleys]

Haven't read all the posts. This fert regimen is basically old school miracle grow for indoor plants. Which at the risk of being flamed ill admit I have used with success in the past.

[happi]

Originally Posted by TheFoleys

Haven't read all the posts. This fert regimen is basically old school miracle grow for indoor plants. Which at the risk of being flamed ill admit I have used with success in the past.

if it was that easy then everybody would have used miracle grow.

[Seattle_Aquarist]

Originally Posted by happi

there are no update since i no longer have that tank anymore, i have new ADA tank which am working on, aqua soil in this tank is causing brown water (using aqua soil from old tank), which need to be fixed before i start to fertilize the tank again.

but i thought somebody else would have already tried this recipe by now?

my plants are suffering at the moment due to new change to the tank, but once established, i should have no problem growing them again.

Hi happi,

I would have thought you would have tried an inert substrate instead of ADA Aquasoil which (even when aged) contains nutrients. An inert substrate would help to best judge the actual impact of your fertilizer recipe and allow others to better duplicate your results.

[happi]

Originally Posted by Seattle_Aquarist

Hi happi,

I would have thought you would have tried an inert substrate instead of ADA Aquasoil which (even when aged) contains nutrients. An inert substrate would help to best judge the actual impact of your fertilizer recipe and allow others to better duplicate your results.

sorry i got nothing else beside ADA soil, i think when the other person tried it he did not have aqua soil, he had good results.

[zimbo]

So I am back home after a bit of time away working at another hospital, and ordered all of the stuff to go into this mix.

I spend the next month or two in a surgical research lab, so can attempt to mix it up with the proper mixers, hood, etc. I might even attempt to crack my college gen chem book to relearn some of those chemical solubility rules.

However, before i do all of that, just wondered if anyone has attempted to mix it recently and if there were any further recommended changes?

Cheers,

Ryan

[happi]

i have created a similar recipe with stronger doses and made some minor changes, such as increase in KNO3 and added carbohydrate, vitamin, amino acid, and polyunsaturated fatty acid, we will see how plants are going to respond to this.

[happi]

it has been a while since i updated this thread. is anyone still trying this fert or has anyone already tried it? please do post your results.

after seeing something building up in the solution (on the bottom, looks like paste) i took out the K2SO4 out of the recipe. but i think the reaction was caused by too much SO4 (sulfates) in the solution. however it did not effect the plant growth, its also not good to have too much sulfate in your planted tank anyway.

[zimbo]

Hey Folks

So Happi asked me to share my experiences with this forumula. And first off, thanks to happi for sharing it.

I have been using this formula since about November. The first batch i mixed i had included the K2So4 and ran into the solubility issue, as has been discussed. I have kept the original formula pretty much as is, although i still use the K2SO4 and just mix up a seperate bottle and dose the recommended P as well.

So my set up that i use it on:
90 gallon with Kessil Amazon Sun LEDs x2, injected CO2 with pH set at 6.8, and substrate consisting of kitty litter and miracle grow organic potting mix with whatever gravel/flurite cap i had lying around. Filtration is Fluval 305 and an Eheim 2217 and have a powerhead in the tank for circulation too as growth is quite dense. I do 50% + water changes once a week.

I do have a decent fish load, its all rainbows although at least for the moment its mostly juveniles as i anticipate moving in May and had bred and sold off my adults.

If i recall using proportional ratios i got a daily dose of 30mL a day for a 90 gallon. I found it to be too much, and generally use about 20mL a day and dose P every other day. With 30 i ran into a staghorn algae issue, and even at 20mL it still springs up and i have to watch it. I can't say i've hit the perfect amount yet, however, i've been interviewing for residency (I'm a 4th yr med student) the last few months so haven't been able to necessarily get it done every day since i've been out of state a fair bit. I'm looking into trying to figure out an automatic doser.

Overall i found results to be impressive. I have experienced the really high growth rate that has been commented on before. Some people might not like this, and I do give the tank a really good haircut at least once a week. For an impoverished med student i have to say its been a nice plus as I do sell off a lot of the extras. For someone not interested in this you will likely need to dial dosing back a bit. Before using this i had always really struggled to get 'carpet plants' to grow well in the 25 in depth of the 90, however, no longer, and its been great to watch the tank floor completely close over after 3 years of futsing around with commercial ferts.

One warning i will give with this is that with a CO2 system on tanks with rare fish pay closer attention to your O2 levels at night. I'd never ever run into a low oxygen problem before i used this fert mix. However the day after water changes the O2 drops significantly overnight. Basically lesson learned is run an airstone at night even if you've never had problems before.

I have never tried EI dosing so can't compare it those interested. I could never interpret the sticki's on the subject here on the forum, so never bothered with it. I also am not a prolific tester. At the end of the day yes i love to have platns in the tanks and for them to grow well, however, my fish are my first priority and i know chemically i do water changes often enough and have enough filtration that i don't get into a danger zone. As a med student there's also only so many minutes in a day to mess around with testing, etc. So for those wanting any water measurements specifically i'll say you'll need to give it a whirl.

I have included a couple pics of my tank as of this evening. I haven't bothered with scaping much given i'm moving soon and honestly wood availability in CO is actually quite limited and comes at a steep price. I have been selling off plants steadily at 1-2 folks a day for the last couple weeks so as you can see while a lot of growth is now gone, its not exactly sparse either at the mo.

Overall i give it a big thumbs up and will continue to use it!

Cheers,

Ryan

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[happi]

ZIMBO

thanks for your feedback, i am still working further to improve this fertilizer, i think there is more to it. anyway were you able to test the solultion? i mean in the Lab? i wanted to be sure what was causing the stuff to build up on the bottom, if you did test it please do post it. IMO i think it is all sulfate that was falling from the solution, sulfate is generally bad if overdosed in the tank, if its a only sulfate that is falling from the solution then there is no need to worry, this will only make the fertilizer even better.

[happi]

updating the thread, check back in 10 minutes