Interest check: NPK fertilizer solution at near EI ratios

[Navanod]

Hi Folks,

Had been reading about the various threads with regards to life after certain fertilizers became unavailable. Since I'm also facing the same issue, I decided to see what can be done.

One of the main problems of trying to dose alternative fertilizers is the overdosing of the by-products, especially at the EI dosage which some of us are trying to achieve.
There were reported death of shrimps and precipitations

After some work, I believe I've been able to create an NPK solution that contains Nitrates, Phosphate and Potassium dissolved in DI water in the ratio of 1.5:0.1:1 respectively, and with very minimal contamination (traces of calcium and perhaps undetectable traces of sulphates).
Based on quantifications of the final dilutions, I can also tell how many ml to dose to obtain the ppm required for EI.
I'm still researching how I can boost the potassium levels to the same as the nitrate without affecting the pH or introducing contaminants but I think the current mix is good enough for my home tank since I'm not operating at 5-6wpg.

The process is quite simple on paper, but laborious in practice, even with access to the kind of equipment I have.
Since I had to make a certain volume of it to be cost and time effective, as well as to ensure that there's enough DI water volume to dissolve everything at room temperatures, I'm making far more than I'll be able to use in a year.

Rather than to store it in one corner, it'll be good if I can do some cost recovery and also offer an alternative to those with heavily planted tanks. It'll be more convenient since all the macros are dosed at once and the ppm can be more accurately estimated.

Anyone interested in testing it out? I can give out afew samples but only to those doing EI dosing (don't want people to lose livestocks from overdose). I'll be trying it on my own tank with shrimps and fishes first of course.

[Navanod]

It is done!
Adding 12.5ml of the solution 4 times a week to a 100L tank would provide 15ppm of nitrate, 1ppm of phosphate and 10ppm of potassium to the tank.
I have about 10L of it, so that'll last....say....200 weeks?

[Gilamonster]

will u be selling?

[Navanod]

Hi Gilamonster
There seemed to be no interest so I didn't put up a sales thread. Furthermore, I wanted to be 100% sure that it's working so I gave some to a friend to try and I'm trying it on my home and office tanks.
So far so good and the plants are thriving. The high grade CRS didn't complain and the algaes are really suffering.

Interested to try?

[Gilamonster]

Sorry for the late reply.
Found the same reply in my email and actually replied from email.
Not too sure if the reply reaches u.
Anyway, I m a amateur so will not be able to give comment after trying.

[ranmasatome]

It is done!
Adding 12.5ml of the solution 4 times a week to a 100L tank would provide 15ppm of nitrate, 1ppm of phosphate and 10ppm of potassium to the tank.
I have about 10L of it, so that'll last....say....200 weeks?

Would that mean you would have to dose 48ml of this weekly to get 15ppm of nitrate, 1ppm of phosphate and 10ppm of potassium?
since i run my tank at 30ppm nitrate.. i was wondering if i could just dose 96 ml of it all at one shot?

[Navanod]

Would that mean you would have to dose 48ml of this weekly to get 15ppm of nitrate, 1ppm of phosphate and 10ppm of potassium?
since i run my tank at 30ppm nitrate.. i was wondering if i could just dose 96 ml of it all at one shot?

Hi,

You have a hungry tank!
I'm not sure if you're using EI dosing with 50% waterchange weekly?
Assuming you are, we would be "carrying over" half of whatever was left of last week's nitrate (and the K & P), so there's a risk of the peak nitrate ppm going beyond 40ppm if the entire 30ppm is dosed at one shot.
Aside from being bad for shrimps, I'm not sure if the algaes may come out to dance? IMHO, I prefer to maintain a more constant nutrient levels (rather than see rollercoaster graph) by breaking up the dose but it is troublesome, which is why I gave up on dosing the 3 separate Seachem ferts and made my own. Now it takes only 1 min to dose every morning and gives me something to do to the tank everyday. Otherwise I'll keep feeding food!

At this time, I'm dosing 6ml each time on Mon, Wed, Fri and Sun (after water change. Other days are for dosing iron and micro ferts) and nitrate stays within 10-20ppm (I do random sampling during the week) despite heavy feeding. The 12.5ml dose was when livestock was much less.

[Navanod]

On a separate note, should I boil and recrystalize the remaining stocks that wouldn't see any use for quite sometime? I'm starting to worry that fungus and stuff grows