[ElleDee]

I see that Rotala Butterfly gives measurements in grams and in teaspoons and I was wondering if people generally use the teaspoon measurements or if they do it properly with a scale? Has anyone ever tested how accurate the teaspoon measurements are? I don't have a scale that is accurate/precise enough myself, but using the tiny scoops just seems like it would invite error.

 

[repharaoh]

I use a scale. Like 10 dollars on amazon. Almost the same cost as a bunch of tiny measuring spoons.

 

[Immortal1]

Agreed - I use a digital scale as well. Actually goes pretty fast - I place a 1/2 cup Glad plastic container on the scale, zero out the scale, and start adding ferts. Takes maybe a minute to measure the 3 that I dose.

 

[Deanna]

I use a scale as well. However, I also have come to wonder how meaningful any of the precision is, i.e.; what is a significant tolerance for either the scale or a simple measurement spoon in small quantities of dosing? Is +/- 10% significant? How about +/- 50% or 100%? If you want to keep it simple, I suspect that measuring spoons are fine. Personally, I prefer the nominal comfort of a scale.

 

[Delapool]

In the minority - measuring spoons

My only excuse is it’s 500 litres so maybe not as sensitive (hopefully).

 

[ElleDee]

I use a scale as well. However, I also have come to wonder how meaningful any of the precision is, i.e.; what is a significant tolerance for either the scale or a simple measurement spoon in small quantities of dosing? Is +/- 10% significant? How about +/- 50% or 100%? If you want to keep it simple, I suspect that measuring spoons are fine. Personally, I prefer the nominal comfort of a scale.

I think you've articulated some of what I was wondering quite well, which is why I wanted to get a feel of what people are actually doing.

Thanks for weighing in, everyone.

 

[Mark Fisher]

Thanks for weighing in, everyone.

I see what you did there.:grin2:

 

[Edward]

In the past, spoon dosing projected by you know who, lead to lots of issues. One of them escalated to the Great war of Microtox. So please, high resolution scales are affordable and easy to handle, try to get one.

 

[Fat Guy]

I use spoons. By dosing EI I haven’t been too concerned about dialing in a precise amount of ferts...well NPK specifically...as long as I am able to keep up on my water changes...,so the spoons work great for me...but I have been reading up more on micro toxicity and have been keeping a closer eye on my micro dosing and fert accumulation. I started to get a spot of Staghorn a few weeks back and am looking to recent changes in the tank which could have helped make it appear. The odd thing is the staghorn appeared mainly in areas of very high flow with high amounts of co2. I’m sure there are numbers reasons for its appearance so I’m not all in on looking to my fert dosing regime as the sole cause but I feel like its easy to overdose micros...especially when our plants need them in smaller amounts...anyway...apologies for my digression... back to the OP. spoons. I dose with spoons...

 

[ElleDee]

After thinking about this more I decided to get a scale! Right now the only dry dosing I do is for remineralization, but I will probably switch over completely when I upsize. I had the idea in my head that the scale would be more expensive and I am happy to have been wrong about that.

 

[Savetheplants]

I use tiny spoons. But my NO3 built up too high do to a lack of water changing and testing. I dilute 10g KH2PO4 in 490 ml RO water with 10 ml Excel to preserve it for my Phosphate dosing solution. Phosphate was right on target after over a year of neglect. My scale isn't very accurate so I put a little one ounce weight on it. It weighed 94% of an ounce according to my scale. I divide the weight of what I want by 94% and weigh out 106% of what I want to weigh. Which is 10.6 grams KH2PO4 for my Phosphate dosing solution. You have to be careful not to put too much Phosphate powder in your tank and um, I guess also not to put too much NO3 powder in in my case. I've used my scale to weigh out ten teaspoons of whatever fertilizing compound to get an average teaspoon weight. But I don't have much cofidence in my averages. Some compound weights I look up on line for comparison. I dose and I test and I adjust the dose and I test again trying to establish a dosing regimen without testing that always eventually drifts off track. The tiny spoons are easier to use than my scale.

 

[Kubla]

I'm curious how many folks here know the exact amount of water in their tanks. I don't and unless you do, the accuracy of a scale over spoons isn't going to matter much.

 

[ElleDee]

I'm curious how many folks here know the exact amount of water in their tanks. I don't and unless you do, the accuracy of a scale over spoons isn't going to matter much.

That's true about accuracy, but a scale should still be more precise. I reckon that might be more valuable anyway in that it keeps your ratios consistent and more stable tank parameters over all.

 

[FischAutoTechGarten]

Those of you that use scales, do you have a specific recommendations for affordable, yet accurate models (yeah, I know... the terms are not mutually inclusive...)..?

 

[Edward]

Those of you that use scales, do you have a specific recommendations for affordable, yet accurate models (yeah, I know... the terms are not mutually inclusive...)..?

Any cheap one will do as long as it has one or even better with two decimal places.

 

[Greggz]

Those of you that use scales, do you have a specific recommendations for affordable, yet accurate models (yeah, I know... the terms are not mutually inclusive...)..?

Something like this works just fine. I took the clear top off mine and flip it over to weigh larger amounts.

https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Milligram-Calibration-Tweezers-Weighing/dp/B07X1R442K/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=.001+gram+scale&qid=1611082460&sr=8-5

 

[FischAutoTechGarten]

Thank you Gregg. I will give that a try.

 

[PlantedRich]

One way to certain nightmare is to try to make things too exact!
Remember that nature is almost by definition chaos and when we try to do the estimates, we should always keep in mind that even the most accurate measurement based on estimates is still going to be an estimate!
Rotela does not figure in how many plants, what type, or what type of lights, so it has to an estimate at best, so I do not sweat getting my estimates exactly right!
Until I get a far better method of ESTIMATING how much of what ferts I get back from my fish food, I'm not sweating the rest of it!
And I am NOT going to start measuring the fish poo, let alone how many dead leaves I missed throwing out! How many grams of CA was in the water you added last time?