[JJVanier]

I am using the PPS-PRO method of fert dosing, the instructions called for adding distilled water. I used boiled water, would this be a problem?

 

[Seattle_Aquarist]

Hi JJVanier,

I used to do PPS-Pro but now I dose EI. Using boiled water for your solutions is fine; tap water is fine as well. To prevent fungus from growing in my solutions I typically added 5ml of Excel / glutaraldehyde per 100ml solution.

 

[roadmaster]

I use teaspoon's and just dump the dry fertz in my tank's after weekly water change.
Micro's,the next day.
Some fishes try to eat the dry salt's, but usually spit em back out.

 

[JJVanier]

Oh great, Thanks for the quick reply.

It's the trace solution that can grow fungus correct? would I want to pre-emptively treat it with excel or wait and see if I get a fungus issue first?

Would chlorine still be present in boiled water, and be harmful for the fish when dosing ferts?

 

[Seattle_Aquarist]

Hi JJVanier,

I add 5ml/100ml Excel (glutaraldehyde) to all of my homemade solutions; iron, micro, csm+b, and macros (before I went EI).

These days not only do utilities add chlorine to our water during treatment they also add chloramines which are much more difficult to remove.

Chloramine, like chlorine, can be removed by boiling and aging. However, time required to remove chloramine is much longer than that of chlorine. The time required to remove half of the chloramine (half-life) from 10 gallons of water by boiling is 26.6 hours, whereas the half-life of free chlorine in boiling 10 gallons of water is only 1.8 hours.

That said, since I only dose a few ml of dosing solution per gallon of water in my tanks I do not treat the tap water I use for my dosing solutions.

 

[Darkblade48]

Dangit, I should of just got distilled water from the store.

Can anyone weigh in if my ferts are still useable?

Your fertilizers are fine. The only reason tap water is generally avoided is that there may be minerals and or "unknowns" that may ultimately affect your dosing.

 

[herns]

EDIT...Answer found.

 

[Hoppy]

Your fertilizers are fine. The only reason tap water is generally avoided is that there may be minerals and or "unknowns" that may ultimately affect your dosing.

Lets say you dose 4 ounces of your fertilizer mix per dose, and that is really a lot. Assume the toxic dose of Kriptonate is 10 ppm. If your 4 ounces causes a toxic problem in your 10 gallon tank, your tap water must contain about 1000 ppm of Kriptonate! You, and all your family are now surely suffering from acute Kriptonate poisoning!

That's just another way of saying the tiny amount of water that you dose with your fertilizers cannot possibly harm the fish or plants, since you do drink that water.

 

[Darkblade48]

Lets say you dose 4 ounces of your fertilizer mix per dose, and that is really a lot. Assume the toxic dose of Kriptonate is 10 ppm. If your 4 ounces causes a toxic problem in your 10 gallon tank, your tap water must contain about 1000 ppm of Kriptonate! You, and all your family are now surely suffering from acute Kriptonate poisoning!

That's just another way of saying the tiny amount of water that you dose with your fertilizers cannot possibly harm the fish or plants, since you do drink that water.

I'm not sure how you calculated that initial concentration of "kriptonate" (I assume used as a placeholder for any compound).

Could you please explain?

Also, yes, tap water won't affect the final dosing though might affect solubility of (say) a micronutrient mix.

 

[dtrea2662]

This doesn't make sense to me. If it calls for distilled water and you use boiled water, you are actually making your water less pure by boiling it. Distilled is using the steam from boiled and allowing the steam to cool and condense making pure water. Boiling water just evaporates the pure water as steam and what you have left is tap water with a high concentration of the impurities. Needless to say the tap water would have been better.

 

[Darkblade48]

This doesn't make sense to me. If it calls for distilled water and you use boiled water, you are actually making your water less pure by boiling it. Distilled is using the steam from boiled and allowing the steam to cool and condense making pure water. Boiling water just evaporates the pure water as steam and what you have left is tap water with a high concentration of the impurities. Needless to say the tap water would have been better.

You are correct and I agree with you.

However, I think people are also saying that the small amount of impurities in tap water, even when concentrated (a small amount) by boiling, will insignificantly impact the final result.

Of course, there are always exceptions (e.g. you have very hard water, you try to boil down 1L of water to 100 mL, etc)

 

[Hoppy]

I'm not sure how you calculated that initial concentration of "kriptonate" (I assume used as a placeholder for any compound).

Could you please explain?

Also, yes, tap water won't affect the final dosing though might affect solubility of (say) a micronutrient mix.

I calculated it in my head - a vast empty space. :redface:

You haven't heard of kriptonate????

 

[Darkblade48]

I calculated it in my head - a vast empty space. :redface:

You haven't heard of kriptonate????

Nope; I thought it was just a placeholder for any random chemical.

 

[Hoppy]

Nope; I thought it was just a placeholder for any random chemical.

Yes, of course, that is all it was. Kriptonate only occurs in the vast empty space in my head.:redface: