[coachdport]

I recently bought my first diy EI fertilizer package. I put my tank numbers into an online calculator and got this back:

36 gal tank
500 ml container
30 ml doses

Micros = 6.96g

Macros
(N) KNO3 = 27.77g
(P) KH2PO4 = 4.23g
(K) K2SO4 = 37.96g

I mixed it up with distilled water let it sit over night. The Micros bottle has disolved fine. The Macros bottle still have some of the fertilizer in the bottom it looks like. Am I okay to start dosing or should I do something to fix the stuff at the bottom of the Macros bottle? Thanks for the help.

 

[somewhatshocked]

Am I okay to start dosing or should I do something to fix the stuff at the bottom of the Macros bottle?

You should mix until everything is dissolved. You may have to adjust your concentrations (add less to the water, meaning you'll have to dose more) in order to hit a stasis where everything will dissolve and won't precipitate out. Otherwise, you're not going to be dosing what your calculator tells you. Depending upon what's not mixing well, that could lead to problems in the tank.

If you need finer granules of mineral salts, you can use a mortar and pestle to help. They're usually pretty cheap. One of the best things I've purchased for fertilizing planted tanks through the years.

 

[coachdport]

I made a new batch of Macros with a dosing size of 50 ml. Looks to be dissolved much better. There is still a small account at the bottom, but I think that will discover over the next day or I’ll just roll with it. It’s really not that much. Thank you for the help.

 

[Fissure]

Mix it on a pot on the stove and heat it up to around 50 degrees celsius. Makes it dissolve easier.

 

[KevinC]

Some fertilizers are only agricultural grade, meaning they aren't always rigorously pure. It is possible that the small amount of undissolved stuff you see in the 50ml dose-size bottle may just be the impurities.