[mizu-chan]

Okay so I've been MIA lately and i feel like it's time to start treating my plants a bit better. They need some tlc and I've had these ferts for awhile now without using them at all. I really have no idea how to dose and how much to dose.

My tank is 24 gallons with pressurized CO2 with a 78W light.

These are what I have:

Thanks in advance
​

 

[Church]

Do you have an account over at APC? Use the fertilator. It's way better and easier than any of the other calculators I've come across.

[edit: I went ahead and pulled up some numbers for you on the fertilator. It could be adjusted of course, this was just a real quick one. This screenshot doesn't include the addition of your iron chelate, and that would have to be recalculated.]

 

[Hoppy]

Don't omit dosing phosphates. People who do that usually have slow plant growth, and when they add a little phosphates the plant growth just booms, so much it usually runs the water out of nitrates. Phosphates are essential.

 

[Church]

^ And, yeah, I forgot to question the absence of any KH2PO4.

 

[mizu-chan]

Thanks Church. Yeah I started playing around with it and I really had no idea.

So that's how much I dose?

So .25 of the CSM+B and then 1 1/4 of the other?
I'm still kind of confused. ;___;
Sorry I know I'm slow at this stuff.

 

[mizu-chan]

Don't omit dosing phosphates. People who do that usually have slow plant growth, and when they add a little phosphates the plant growth just booms, so much it usually runs the water out of nitrates. Phosphates are essential.

So should I buy some of this?

 

[Church]

Oh crap, I didn't realize that was some sort of a "pre-mix". Well that's weird, because usually you dose more of the KNO3 than you do of the other stuff. Ok, then, I guess I don't know what you should do. Sorry.

I've always gotten individual bags of all my dry ferts, rather than buying them all mixed up.

 

[Indignation]

You bought the "Poor man's dosing drops" or PMDD mix, which is an outdated method of fertilization. It centered on the premise by limiting the phosphate, the plants would take up any available phosphate and you could limit algae. Tom Barr (among others) proved this false, and now most of us add phosphates to the other essential nutrients.

Doesn't mean your ferts won't work, just that you will need to buy some KH2PO4. (potassium phosphate)

I'm not familiar with PMDD, so perhaps someone who has used it in the past could help you out with dosing amounts. If you don't have any luck here, try Tom Barr's forum. While you're there, take a look at the threads on "EI", or estimative index fertilizing. it's a relatively fool-proof method of making sure there are always enough ferts in the water so plants are never limited. Its also easy to follow. Just remember, all these strategies hinge on 50% weekly water changes.

 

[Jeff5614]

Don't forget to have a look at the "Dosing Regimes" sticky at the beginning of this forum.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/fertilizers-water-parameters/21944-_dosing-regimes_.html

 

[MarkMc]

Don't omit dosing phosphates. People who do that usually have slow plant growth, and when they add a little phosphates the plant growth just booms, so much it usually runs the water out of nitrates. Phosphates are essential.

I'll have something to say about that in a few days! Yesterday I accidentally overdosed my tank with phosphate. I started boosting the nitrate dose to help combat a BGA outbreak (along with boosting CO2) and I grabbed the bag of phosphate thinking it was the nitrate and put in 3 or 4 heaping 1/8 tsp's and I do mean heaping! That's in a 55 gallon tank.So far everything looks fine.