fertilizing cheap

[checkerboard]

Hi to all forumers...

On a tight bidget recently and all my seachem fert are running low...

is there other ways of giving plants, K, Ca, Fe, Mg etc w/o buying commercial bottles of fert?

[sherchoo]

The ingredients you mentioned described wat's in the Seachem Equilibrium. You could try that or you could try Dr. Mallick's straight ferterlizers which I should stress that you should know what you're doing to go down this alley.

[vinz]

Dr Mallicks website.

I think he lists the seperate chems (eg. KSO4) he has and also check out his LushGro Aqua and LushGro Micros pre-mixed fertilisers.

[fishboy]

Anybody know if the retailers at Farmmart sell Dr Mallick's K2So4? Its 7.60/kg on the site is that what they sell at the shop too?


I got my Lushgro Macro+Micro From Farmart at $8 each not $6 like in the website.

[toledosun]

Hi Checkerboard,

actually another way of killing two birds with one stone is to do what Diana Walstad suggests in her book... feed a bit more fish food!

If you read her book (see p.79) she does a comparison of the various elements found in fish food. Shrimps and other hard shell sea creatures like lobsters etc contain all the nutrition your plants need (except carbon). So that's another alternative to consider

[sherchoo]

Agree that extra feeding will help provide N and P but problem is that it's very difficult to quantify this amounts. Another thing is that you still have to supply others like K, Ca, Mg which feeding itself do not provide.

[toledosun]

Actually Sherchoo, in the book the analysis actually shows that crustacea actually supplies the following (in mg/kg dry weight):

Boron (15), Calcium (20,000), Copper (65), Iron (85),Potassium (13,000), Magnesium (2000), Maganese (850), Molybdenum (0.6), Nitrogen (84,000), Phosperous (9000), Sulphur (6000) and Zinc (140).

Guess the problem here may be that the plants may not need the various elements in exactly the proportion supplied but if you feed regularly with crustacea, your plants will get a good supplement of the necessary elements.

[hoppinghippo]

out of curiosity, do bloodworms proved a big source of Fe??

[toledosun]

that's a good question. I always thought bloodworms were called that because of their colour, not because they were rich in blood. Anybody know the answer?

[FC]

I suppose Fe is the essential building block for all bloods, women need them more once a month.

Tip: drip some blood (not yours) from the worms in water and test it.

[juggler]

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On 3/12/2003 2:43:33 PM

Agree that extra feeding will help provide N and P but problem is that it's very difficult to quantify this amounts. Another thing is that you still have to supply others like K, Ca, Mg which feeding itself do not provide.
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For K, can try K2SO4. Alternative is Lo-Salt (66% KCL) from NTUC. But K2SO4 is cheaper in the long run.
For Ca, Mg, can use coral chips but monitor it if you have fish sensitive to pH rise. It solves your low kH problem too.

FC: Would try to test the Blood Worms for Fe soon. I have frozen Blood Worms.

[vinz]

Re: iron and bloodworms... read the articled linked in this post.

Apparently, bloodworms contain haemoglobin in their blood and are comparatively good source of iron for fishes.

Anyone can throw light on how it might affect the plants? Given that frozen bloodworms leak some liquified(?) bio-matter (probably including haemoglobin) into the water after thawing.

[CK Yeo]

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On 3/13/2003 10:22:14 AM
I suppose Fe is the essential building block for all bloods, women need them more once a month.
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Not true, not all blood have Fe. E.g. Horse shoe crab blood is blue, cos instead of a Fe, it has a Cu.[]

way offtopic...
ck

[FC]

If I do feed frozen worms, I rinse them several times, 20~30% would be sacrisfied. Only clean, fresh worms would go into my tank. My Dicus like them but had been deprived of it for long time (plain lazy, just pallets them only). Ok, since the reminders come, will go to Petmart to get some (my discus tails are already fanning).[]