Powder fertilisers

[izzat]

Hi Guys,

This questions has been pondering me for quite sometime and I am not too sure which way/method is the most effective.

Since I bought my powder fertilisers from Dr Mallick, I have no issues with the purity of the fertilisers but since I am running a large tank, 120 x 40 x 55 (cm) tank, I want to know what is the most effective method of dosing powder fertilisers.

Options:-

1. Direct dosing of powder into the tank's outlet pipe
2. Mix with water and pour into the tank
3. Pre-mix the fertiliser, keep it in the fridge and use it when needed

Which of the above 3 will be the best/most effective way of dosing my nutrients? Why?

Following are the calculated amount for my tank:-

Direct tank fertilisation

• Nitrate - 3 teaspoons of KNO3 (37.47 ppm Nitrate)
• Potassium - 3 teaspoons of KNO3 (23.66 ppm Potassium)
• Phosphate - 0.25 teaspoon of KH2PO4 (3.16 ppm Phosphate)
• Magnesium - 3 teaspoons of MgSO47H2O (6.05 ppm Magnesium)

Mixing with 200ml of water

• Nitrate - 3 teaspoons of KNO3 (38.00 ppm Nitrate)
• Potassium - 3 teaspoons of KNO3 (24.00 ppm Potassium)
• Phosphate - 0.25 teaspoon of KH2PO4 (4.00 ppm Phosphate)
• Magnesium - 3 teaspoons of MgSO47H2O (6.00 ppm Magnesium)

*I believe the above dosing are calculated for a week dosage

Which one might be a better way? Dilute the powder fertilisers with water first or direct dosing?
I will most probably be doing alternate days dosing for traces and the above nutrients.

~ Peter, what will you suggest me to dose(amount) in my tank base on my recent BBA outbreak?

Thanks Guys

[|squee|]

Izzat, just a few thoughts, I may be wrong in some places also.

Direct dosing by putting the powder right into your tank is easy and fast. I prefer it this way. Others do it by dilution, premixing, it's alright, but the former requires you to take into account the level of saturation of dissolved powder and the latter is just plain additional work. (all imho )

Peter would probably say you don't need the Mg compound. I kind of agree (well my tap water agrees with me here) but I still took budak's advice to me to add a bit of Seachem's Equlibrium. Equlibrium caters for potassium, magnesium, calcium, Iron and maganese, and sort of maintains that kH as well. Perhaps you might want to use that instead of your Mg compound. I'd do it like this, just a suggestion:

Monday: 1 teaspoon of KNO3, 1 teaspoon of KH2PO4
Tuesday: Traces
Wednesday: 1 teaspoon of KNO3, 1 teaspoon of KH2PO4
Thursday: Traces
Friday: No dosage
Saturday: WC, 1 teaspoon of KNO3, 1 teaspoon of KH2PO4, 2 teaspoons of Equlibrium.
Sunday: Traces

Take into account also that you're only having HC, and so plant mass (since it's going to be just a field) is lower than a typical planted 4ft tank. You might want to adjust the dosage to cater for this. I know I'm just repeating stuff I said to you online but this is just in case it's not clear

[vinz]

Izzat,

I practice option 3, but only for KNO3 and KH2PO4. And I don't store it in the fridge. Cooling the solution is counter productive as it may cause the saturated solutes to precipitate out of solution.

My recipe for the KNO3 dosing stock is 4 tablespoons of KNO3 into every litre of water. 1ml of this solution added to 40litres (or 10 US gallons) of water will raise approximate 1ppm of NO3.

Incidentally, the recipe and dosing for the KH2PO4 dosing stock is the same.

Your tank is about 264litres capacity. Assuming the actual water content is about 240litres, you need to dose 60mls of the KNO3 stock and 6 mls of the KH2PO4 stock to raise 10ppm of NO3 and 1ppm of PO4 respectively.

I'm not sure about effectiveness between option 1 and 3, but I'ld forget about option 2... it is the same as option 3, but you have to take the trouble to mix each time you want to dose.

Option 1 is slightly more troublesome as you'll probably need to scrap the compacted crystals or break the larger lumps of crystals in order to get a reasonably accurate spoon measurement. You'll want smaller lumps for more effective dissolution. Too much daily work for a hobby, IMO.

For the rest, I do a weekly dose of Easylife Profito for traces/other macros and Seachem Equilibrium for Ca, Mg, K, Fe and Mn.

By the way, do not dose Equilibrium and traces at the same time as PO4. It's been discovered that PO4 and Fe will precipitate in certain conditions. It's unclear what exactly are the conditions, it is a good idea to just dose them on different days or at least a few hours apart. See this thread for more info and detailed links.

[Phillipians]

hi there, i do option 2 which you have found out by now from the rest being very very troublesome, but i only dose twice a week... half teaspoon of KNO3
and half teaspoon Mgso4h20 and a minute bit of Kh2po4, i dont dose too frequently as i change water only once in 3 - 4 weeks. Works fine for my tank of 2 x 1 x 1.5 (ht) ... but mine is densely populated with plants that why i dont have problems with dosing.... and also no algae has plagued my tank so far... i like to mix it as i realise that dumping it into the tank may not be as effective... some clumps may tank longer to dissolve.... no too good in my opinion but then again this is IMHO.

P.S. sorry i forgot to note.. i dose also 1 and half caps of LGA and 6 - 8 drops of LGM together each time i dose

[PeterGwee]

Dose dry..very easy.

1/2 teaspoon of KNO3 1-2x a week
1/8 teaspoon of KH2PO4 2x a week
10ml of commercial trace mix 2x a week (not seachem trace...flourish is fine).
1/2 teaspoon of Seachem Equilibrium if you want to rule out Ca/Mg deficiencies.
Crank the CO2 (30ppm if measurements are accurate..highly unlikely.) till the plants pearl well with no signs of critter stress. Do the CO2 changes slowly and be around when you do this! The BBA is a CO2 issue..nutrients are not the problem here.

For the CO2, you can try a powerhead that circulates 1-4x your tank volume and feed the CO2 direct into the suction side. Point the suction intake strainer to the surface so as to prevent the powerhead from air-locking the next day. Hide the powerhead well and hook the outlet to a spraybar stretching along the entire bottom back of the tank pointing forward. This will shoot the CO2 bubbles into the plant bed which is what you want. (New idea of 99.97% gas CO2 vs liquid CO2 of 30ppm).

Regards
Peter Gwee

[izzat]

Thanks Terence for the re-explaination of fertilisation issues
I will probably follow your dosing amount/level when my tank is probably at least 2 months mature.
Since my HC are adapting to the tank water parameters and such, will dose lightly in the beginning.


Vincent,
Thanks for sharing with me your dosing recipe as well as helping me to calculate the amount I should dose(in liquid form).
May I ask, once you pre-mix your fertilisers, you just place them in a cool and dry place?
Not forgetting, useful URL you shared with me, thanks once again


Phillipians,
Care to share your tank specifications?
Mine is going to be a high-maintaince type of tank with relatively strong lighting, so I will probably need to dose more often/slightly more than you


Thanks Peter, as suggested, I will try to dose directly into the tank, either drop the salts to the pathetically slow output or spread it around the tank.
Which will be a better choice? Or is there not much of a difference?
Will follow your dosage for now, and might gradually increase the amount to meet my HC demand(if they are really hungry for nutrients).

Will be getting Seachem Flourish, but would it work if I dose MgSO4(7H2O) to replace Seachem Equilibrium? In this case, I might lack Ca if I were to use MgSO4(7H2O).
As for CO2, I can crank it up as high as possible since there are no Fauna inside, what would be the recommended BPS?

For my algae issue, I have done as what I had posted in the other thread, and have yet to switch on the lights even though I had dumped "weeds" into my tank this morning, which covers the whole surface area of my tank Practically, I am lazy to plant them into the substrate as they will only be there for a few weeks.
Hope it's what you mean by "pack the tank with weeds"
Will be using my reactor for now, but will change to a diffuser + wavebox when I get them, by next week I think

[Phillipians]

my tank is 2 x 1 x 1.5, 72W lights, co2 pumped at 1.5 Bps (30ppms or so cos pearling and bubbling very well), dosing as per said earlier. mine is a high maintanence tank too, and i dont dose as often because i dont change water as often (once a per average). If you change every week (30% or more) then dosing every alternate day is fine i think. Yup,

[augi_ow]

You might wanna introduce excel into your fert regime...
I was reading about excel its like an organic carbon... if i'm not wrong its like those CO2 pills...
Is that why excel is so effective with BBA(MAYBE)

For my BBA case... i crank up my CO2 till the point my cyclo turbo doesn't give out wasted CO2 bubbles.. circulation of water is through the cyclo turbo and my rainbar.. one on each side of the tank

I think you should manually scrub the tank and as you scrub... do a water change so the algae would be sucked away and not drift to another part of the tank....

all the best!

[Phillipians]

i believe excel is not exactly always necessary unless you have no carbon output which means no co2 at all, but using excel is ok i believe. With co2, a good spread and diffusion of co2 always is the best way to rid BBA

[izzat]

Thanks Guys for the info

Currently I am using PMDD as my main nutrient supplies, and for traces, I bought ADA Brighty Special Lights
I will still get Seachem Equilibrium as well as Flourish and perhaps Excel for backup