Switching from Flourish Line to Dry Fertilizers

[Allan Asis]

Hi guys, i'm about to switch to dry fertilizers as seachem flourish line is becoming too costly. My tank is 2ft (65L) and i can only imagine how expensive it will be if I have a 250L or more tank.

I would like to start with phosphorus and potassium as I still have full bottles of seachem nitrogen. Plus, I always have excess nitrates (10-40ppm!) just before i do water change. I perform water change weekly at 50% or 25% when i feel lazy :P

I found this http://www.ecocityhydroponics.com/po...phosphate.html KH2PO4 in powder form and i guess i can start with this to replace seachem phosphorus. It also contains potassium but it seems like it's not enough to maintain my target (around 10ppm at least). Therefore I can probably use this http://www.ecocityhydroponics.com/lu...-sulphate.html K2SO4 to supplement potassium.

When using the above mentioned dry fertilizers, can I use "rota.la" nutrient calculator to determine my target dosage?

As for iron, i've been dosing 1-2ml/day of seachem flourish iron and i never really had any issues with new leaves that may be sign of iron deficiency. Therefore I will probably stick to this liquid fertilizer for now. In case i do switch, what do you guys recommend as a good and cheaper alternative to flourish iron?

For the rest of micronutrients, i'm using flourish trace at 10-15ml/week and flourish comprehensive at 3ml/week. It's not so much so i don't really feel the need to switch to something else. But in case i do, any recommendations?

I'm also using seachem equilibrium every water change (weekly) to keep GH at around 5-6dGH and to supplement calcium and magnesium.

As for nitrate (when my nitrogen bottle becomes empty), it seems that my only option is http://www.ecocityhydroponics.com/lu...m-nitrate.html CA(NO3)2 as from what i read KNO3 now requires license to purchase. No way will i bother to get a license for that. Is there something i should worry about calcium dosing? Or as long as i regularly monitor my GH and it's in a good range I can just dose this to meet the tank's nitrate uptake?


I would like to hear from you guys who have been using dry ferts and see if my plan is a decent start. Thanks and i appreciate any feedback!

[Ipit]

Lushgrow Aqua and macro are something that you might want to consider too. I'm using them as well and Eiho Potassium.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Suzerolt]

You can also get the dry ferts from Singapore Hydrophonics. Located at Lavendar area. They provide the ferts to Ecocity Hydrophonics.

If Seachem Nitrogen is too expensive, and powder KNO3 is not easily available locally, an alternative is 5% KNO3 liquid.
Available from Singapore Hydrophonics. Should be about $12 for 1L bottle. 5% solution is allowable by the Singapore police regulations.

I've tried Lushgro micro (a cheaper alternative to Seachem trace) - works just as well.
I've also tried chelated iron powder from Singapore Hydrohponics - super cheap alternative to Seachem Iron. Works just as well too. I think its Rexolin D-11. About $9.50 for 100g. One small pinch per week. This will last years.

Allan Asis, I think you have a good fertilizing regime described. Just be cautious about duplication. More is not necessarily good.
For example, you are using Flourish trace + comprehensive + equilibrium.
- Comprehensive & trace is quite similar. I would finish up whats on hand then pick one for the future
- Seachem equilibrium is good. It should give you sufficient calcium & magnesium.

An example of my fertilization regime for 3ft tank to maintain EI
- 15-20ml of KNO3 solution (from Singapore Hydrophonics) on alternate days. For macro - Potassium (K) & Nitrogen (N). I like it because its the 'purest' form of macro fertilizer.
- Pinch of KH2PO4 powder (from Singapore Hydrophonics) 2x a week. For Phosphate (P)
- Seachem Iron. 1 capful (5ml) 2x a week. If I have a lot of red plants, I increase to 3-4 times a week.
- Seachem Trace. 1 capful (5ml) 2x a week
- Seachem Excel. 1 capful (5ml) 3x a week (for algae prevention)
- 1 teaspoon Seachem Equilibrium during water change (tap water)
- Medium planted tank. 4bps CO2

[Phillipians]

You dose quite a bit of KNO3 and I suppose it is due to the diluted content of KNO3 in the liquid form? I did not know they sell liquid form as ecocity hydroponics do not show that on their site.

[Phillipians]

I dose the following:

Lushgrow Aqua - 10ml twice a week
Lushgrow micros - 1 drop twice a week
Eiho Iron - 2 - 3ml after water change
K2SO4 - I premix myself and dose twice a week

I would definitely get KNO3 if it were available and also get the Ca(NO3) as calcium is not in my series of fert regime. That way I would do away with K2SO4

[Allan Asis]

Lushgrow Aqua and macro are something that you might want to consider too. I'm using them as well and Eiho Potassium.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thanks for the recommendations. I saw these items in ecocity hydrophonics as well. But I noticed the powder form is much more bang for the buck so i'm going for that

[Allan Asis]

You can also get the dry ferts from Singapore Hydrophonics. Located at Lavendar area. They provide the ferts to Ecocity Hydrophonics.

Thanks for informing me about singapore hydrophonics. I did check the pricing and it seems the same as ecocity though so I guess ordering from either of them will be fine.

If Seachem Nitrogen is too expensive, and powder KNO3 is not easily available locally, an alternative is 5% KNO3 liquid.
Available from Singapore Hydrophonics. Should be about $12 for 1L bottle. 5% solution is allowable by the Singapore police regulations.

This is an awesome replacement for flourish nitrogen which provides only 1.5% nitrate solution and costs 13$ per 500ml bottle. However, I have not seen this product from either singapore hydrophonics or ecocity website. How do you order this?
In any case, at the moment my flourish nitrogen usage is low so I guess I can afford to keep up with the cost. Let's see once I switch to powder form for potassium and phosphorus. The reason my plants are not consuming so much nitrate is probably due to the limited amount of potassium and phosphorus that I dose.

I've tried Lushgro micro (a cheaper alternative to Seachem trace) - works just as well.
I've also tried chelated iron powder from Singapore Hydrohponics - super cheap alternative to Seachem Iron. Works just as well too. I think its Rexolin D-11. About $9.50 for 100g. One small pinch per week. This will last years.

I'll definitely take note of this. At the moment I'm sticking to seachem flourish iron as the dosage I'm using seems enough and it's not a lot.

Allan Asis, I think you have a good fertilizing regime described. Just be cautious about duplication. More is not necessarily good.
For example, you are using Flourish trace + comprehensive + equilibrium.
- Comprehensive & trace is quite similar. I would finish up whats on hand then pick one for the future
- Seachem equilibrium is good. It should give you sufficient calcium & magnesium.

Yup, I thought about this too. The original reason for using both trace and comprehensive was that trace don't have calcium and magnesium but comprehensive does. Then I realized that the amount of calcium and magnesium the comprehensive provides is almost negligible thereby prompting me to use equilibrium instead. So yes I will be dropping the comprehensive in my dosing regime from now on.

An example of my fertilization regime for 3ft tank to maintain EI
- 15-20ml of KNO3 solution (from Singapore Hydrophonics) on alternate days. For macro - Potassium (K) & Nitrogen (N). I like it because its the 'purest' form of macro fertilizer.
- Pinch of KH2PO4 powder (from Singapore Hydrophonics) 2x a week. For Phosphate (P)
- Seachem Iron. 1 capful (5ml) 2x a week. If I have a lot of red plants, I increase to 3-4 times a week.
- Seachem Trace. 1 capful (5ml) 2x a week
- Seachem Excel. 1 capful (5ml) 3x a week (for algae prevention)
- 1 teaspoon Seachem Equilibrium during water change (tap water)
- Medium planted tank. 4bps CO2

This is great! I can follow this for sure. by the way, is the potassium dosage enough from KNO3 dosing? Is seachem equilibrium providing enough potassium to compensate for it?

Thanks for these info!

[Suzerolt]

This is an awesome replacement for flourish nitrogen which provides only 1.5% nitrate solution and costs 13$ per 500ml bottle. However, I have not seen this product from either singapore hydrophonics or ecocity website. How do you order this?
In any case, at the moment my flourish nitrogen usage is low so I guess I can afford to keep up with the cost. Let's see once I switch to powder form for potassium and phosphorus. The reason my plants are not consuming so much nitrate is probably due to the limited amount of potassium and phosphorus that I dose.

This is great! I can follow this for sure. by the way, is the potassium dosage enough from KNO3 dosing? Is seachem equilibrium providing enough potassium to compensate for it?

The 5% KNO3 is available at Singapore Hydrophonics shop. (Block 461#01-79, Crawford Lane, Crawford Court. Closest MRT = Lavender station).
Its on the shelf in Dr Mallick's shop. Else he can mix it for you on the spot.
Here is a picture of the bottle i recently posted in the marketplace segment. Proof of its existence.



The potassium dosage from KNO3 is barely sufficient. I do get potassium from other sources like KH2PO4.

Anyway, i don't believe in adding fertilizers blindly. Make sure you have test kits to know how much to add.

This is the fertilization calculator i'm using (http://calc.petalphile.com/).
Most folks just sum everything they add on an excel. This will tell you if your are getting enough potassium or not.
The intent of Seachem Equilibrium is to bring the water to the right salt/mineral balance when starting with RO/DI water. The intent is not for macro nutrients. I'm using it more for Calcium/Magnesium.

[Allan Asis]

The 5% KNO3 is available at Singapore Hydrophonics shop. (Block 461#01-79, Crawford Lane, Crawford Court. Closest MRT = Lavender station).
Its on the shelf in Dr Mallick's shop. Else he can mix it for you on the spot.
Here is a picture of the bottle i recently posted in the marketplace segment. Proof of its existence.



The potassium dosage from KNO3 is barely sufficient. I do get potassium from other sources like KH2PO4.

Anyway, i don't believe in adding fertilizers blindly. Make sure you have test kits to know how much to add.

This is the fertilization calculator i'm using (http://calc.petalphile.com/).
Most folks just sum everything they add on an excel. This will tell you if your are getting enough potassium or not.
The intent of Seachem Equilibrium is to bring the water to the right salt/mineral balance when starting with RO/DI water. The intent is not for macro nutrients. I'm using it more for Calcium/Magnesium.

I guess it's just not available online but can be purchased off the counter. I can drop by there tomorrow since I'll be in that area to buy some solid wood planks in Ban Heng Leong. I'm also building my own aquarium cabinet
I'm using rota.la but it's exactly the same calculators. Perhaps they are both made by the same people.
Ok understood on potassium dosing.

So from my understanding, that 1000ml bottle is filled with 50g of KNO3 powder?

[AQMS]

I guess it's just not available online but can be purchased off the counter. I can drop by there tomorrow since I'll be in that area to buy some solid wood planks in Ban Heng Leong. I'm also building my own aquarium cabinet

For the cabinet Ban heng leong have kapok beam that is excellent for aquarium stand...

[Suzerolt]

If my calculations are right, 5% proportions = 50g/1000g.
50g of KNO3 to 1000g of RO/DI water.

[Phillipians]

Can I just interrupt this to ask why then do you not instead use Ca(NO3)2 with K2SO4 instead? Since the dry powder gives more bang for the buck and 5% KNO3 is no longer like in the past when we could get KNO3 powder form and use that for years?

K2SO4 would give you more K then KNO3 and Ca(NO3)2 would give you more nitrate than the KNO3 solution also.

The reason I can see is that you are also adding Ca and Sulphates but those micronutrients should not affect water column by much?

[Allan Asis]

For the cabinet Ban heng leong have kapok beam that is excellent for aquarium stand...

They mentioned to me about a hard wood, 2 by 1 size, which is around 6$ per 10 feet. Not sure if that's the one. I'll ask them later.
They also have soft wood (pine) and medium wood (maranti??). But i'm going with hard wood as I will use for strengthening the cabinet.

The cabinet is actually an IKEA, Stuva model to be exact. I love it's design but like all other IKEA cabinets, it's not designed to hold heavy loads so I will reinforce with solid wood braces.

[Allan Asis]

If my calculations are right, 5% proportions = 50g/1000g.
50g of KNO3 to 1000g of RO/DI water.

Yeah that makes sense. In any case, when I dropped by their office today and purchase, I'll ask them the exact content of the solution.

[AQMS]

Ask them it is for an aquarium stand and they will show you which wood to use...
make sure you get your measurement right before they cut it for you...

[Shadow]

Can I just interrupt this to ask why then do you not instead use Ca(NO3)2 with K2SO4 instead? Since the dry powder gives more bang for the buck and 5% KNO3 is no longer like in the past when we could get KNO3 powder form and use that for years?

K2SO4 would give you more K then KNO3 and Ca(NO3)2 would give you more nitrate than the KNO3 solution also.

The reason I can see is that you are also adding Ca and Sulphates but those micronutrients should not affect water column by much?

This is good point because Ca(NO3)2 and K2SO4 will reach and produce KNO3 and CaSO4. The CaSO4 will precipitate thus you can easily separate them to get pure KNO3 .

[Phillipians]

I dont get you. You mean adding them together will cause precipitation ? If you add separately that can be avoided? At this point i m pretty confused as if i only dose kno3 and kh2po4 i am lacking sulphate and calcium. Lushgrow aqua provides that though all in smaller amounts.

[Phillipians]

I am trying to move away from dosing aqua. But at this point i am thinking kno3, kh2po4 and lushgrow micros.
How do i fill the gap for magnesium calcium and sulphur ?

[Shadow]

I'm not sure if you dose it together in the aquarium but if you dose both solution in small container, it will precipitate and render it useless. The best way is dose it alternate day. If I'm not mistaken the same happen if you dose KH2PO4 and Fe together.

Personally I would not worry so much on calcium and sulphur, plant only require tiny amount of micro nutrient. Seachem equilibrium will take care of that.

[bennyc]

I'm not sure if you dose it together in the aquarium but if you dose both solution in small container, it will precipitate and render it useless. The best way is dose it alternate day. If I'm not mistaken the same happen if you dose KH2PO4 and Fe together.

Personally I would not worry so much on calcium and sulphur, plant only require tiny amount of micro nutrient. Seachem equilibrium will take care of that.

Hi shadow, sorry for being a noob. I am just curious. I am trying to understand the logic for dosing on alternate days. For example, for the 1st day, dose eg Ca(NO3)2, Why does the 2nd day dose, eg K2SO4, won't have a reaction with Ca(NO3)2, which i assume is still in the aquarium?

Is it because it has been "fully" dissolved?