Look at the ingredients list. Sometimes they include some sort of pesticide or weed killer, sometimes they contain large amount of heavy metals. Also it might include urea or other chemicals that's not good for fishes/inverts.
Garden Club/Dynamite/Nutricote fertilizer?
After reading up on some of the recent threads on using Osmocote as a substrate fertilizer, I've decided to give it a try, but so far have been unable to find Osmocote Plus locally. I did find the Osmocote Indoor/Outdoor version, but since it doesn't have any micros, I'm keeping that on the reserve list.
During my search though, I did end up finding a similar-looking product (in the sense that they're both tiny balls anyways) at Lowes called Garden Club. A little digging and I found out they're also sold as Dynamite Plant Food/Nutricote by the original manufacturer. Has anyone tried this yet, or know if it's safe to use for aquariums?
During my search though, I did end up finding a similar-looking product (in the sense that they're both tiny balls anyways) at Lowes called Garden Club. A little digging and I found out they're also sold as Dynamite Plant Food/Nutricote by the original manufacturer. Has anyone tried this yet, or know if it's safe to use for aquariums?
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i found mine at lowes, however they said they will no longer carry that item, i just bought one bottle for $15. if they drop the price then i might buy more. but i think one bottle should last for long time.After reading up on some of the recent threads on using Osmocote as a substrate fertilizer, I've decided to give it a try, but so far have been unable to find Osmocote Plus locally. I did find the Osmocote Indoor/Outdoor version, but since it doesn't have any micros, I'm keeping that on the reserve list.
During my search though, I did end up finding a similar-looking product (in the sense that they're both tiny balls anyways) at Lowes called Garden Club. A little digging and I found out they're also sold as Dynamite Plant Food/Nutricote by the original manufacturer. Has anyone tried this yet, or know if it's safe to use for aquariums?
currently am looking for NPK liquid fertilizer which might work too, but i cannot say for 100% sure if i will use it, i think i might stick to the EI dosing. one of my friend just add the osmocote plus in his filter and it slowly release the NPK to the tank, his tank is low light tanks and plants seems to be doing fine and so are the fishes.
they also have those sticks fertilizer for $2 or so, i have seen both with micro and without micro, or you can buy the one with both. i have read what it contain and seems to be very similar to the osmocote stuff. not sure if it release slowly
I'm beginning to regret not jotting down the list of ingredients when I was at the store, because a complete one is seemingly nowhere to be found online. I do know urea isn't an ingredient though, they seem to hawk that fact. I'm also comparing the analysis of some of the products to Osmocote, they seem to have a lot more of certain metals, and a lot less of other ones.. not sure what to make of that.
I actually have used a Staygreen product that is very similar to Osmocote plus. What you could do is print off the MSDS sheet for Osmocote plus and find a similar 'generic' alternative. That's what I did when our local stores increased the price two fold.
Osmocote Plus in a filter will release very quickly, not slowly. This is something I have tested extensively.i found mine at lowes, however they said they will no longer carry that item, i just bought one bottle for $15. if they drop the price then i might buy more. but i think one bottle should last for long time.
currently am looking for NPK liquid fertilizer which might work too, but i cannot say for 100% sure if i will use it, i think i might stick to the EI dosing. one of my friend just add the osmocote plus in his filter and it slowly release the NPK to the tank, his tank is low light tanks and plants seems to be doing fine and so are the fishes.
they also have those sticks fertilizer for $2 or so, i have seen both with micro and without micro, or you can buy the one with both. i have read what it contain and seems to be very similar to the osmocote stuff. not sure if it release slowly
In the substrate it is fine.
Went back and checked today.. they stopped selling Osmocote altogether, and the Garden Club fertilizer came in two versions.
The "organic" version uses hydrolyzed feather meal, meat and bone meal, blood meal, and sulfate of potash. It also contains some sort of "pet food protein" that has carbs and sugars and promotes microbial activity or something or other.
The "flowers and vegetables" version uses polymer coated urea, polymer coated ammonium nitrate, polymer coated potassium nitrate, polymer coated sulfate of potash magnesia, polymer coated sulfate of potash, urea, ammonium nitrate, ammonium phosphate, potassium sulfate, potassium nitrate, sulfate of potash magnesia, sulfate of potash, manganese sulfate, iron edta, iron sucrate, magnesium sucrate, maganese sucrate.
Since I wasn't going to go back in the foreseeable future, I decided to just purchase one. At worst, I could still use it for my houseplants. Anyways, I ended up picking the "flowers and vegetables" version since the ingredients seem more familiar to me and the pet food thing in the organic version kinda threw me off. The multicote thread also eased my fears about the urea.
Still, I wonder if it's safe to use. A lot of the ingredients seem to come in both polymer coated and non-coated forms.. not sure what that's about. And it basically looks like pea gravel, coming in a mix of all sorts of colors, not sure what that's about either.. I would've assumed it would just be one color like Osmocote.
The "organic" version uses hydrolyzed feather meal, meat and bone meal, blood meal, and sulfate of potash. It also contains some sort of "pet food protein" that has carbs and sugars and promotes microbial activity or something or other.
The "flowers and vegetables" version uses polymer coated urea, polymer coated ammonium nitrate, polymer coated potassium nitrate, polymer coated sulfate of potash magnesia, polymer coated sulfate of potash, urea, ammonium nitrate, ammonium phosphate, potassium sulfate, potassium nitrate, sulfate of potash magnesia, sulfate of potash, manganese sulfate, iron edta, iron sucrate, magnesium sucrate, maganese sucrate.
Since I wasn't going to go back in the foreseeable future, I decided to just purchase one. At worst, I could still use it for my houseplants. Anyways, I ended up picking the "flowers and vegetables" version since the ingredients seem more familiar to me and the pet food thing in the organic version kinda threw me off. The multicote thread also eased my fears about the urea.
Still, I wonder if it's safe to use. A lot of the ingredients seem to come in both polymer coated and non-coated forms.. not sure what that's about. And it basically looks like pea gravel, coming in a mix of all sorts of colors, not sure what that's about either.. I would've assumed it would just be one color like Osmocote.
And it sinks. It really is like gravel. Wonder if it's just gravel coated with ferts.
When ever you need details on a chemical product, Google the product name and MSDS. Material Safety Data Sheet. They're required by law.
Here is one, of several as the formulation varies, for Nutircote
http://www.growercentral.com/UPLOADS/PDFS/nutricote 16-10-10 msds (07-06).pdf
Here is one, of several as the formulation varies, for Nutircote
http://www.growercentral.com/UPLOADS/PDFS/nutricote 16-10-10 msds (07-06).pdf
Yeah, I already ran through the MSDS while I was looking for the ingredients online.
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