I was going to do this but just went with dry fertilizers from aquarium fertilizers. It's a macro and micro mix that should last me well over a year for only 19$ shipped might try checking that out. Osmocote costs almost the same.
Atxpunx said:Hijackification! What if I crushed osmocote granules, put them in a container with water, waited a while and used that for water column doses like one would with dry ferts? A couple drops per gallon per day.
Atxpunx said:Hijackification! What if I crushed osmocote granules, put them in a container with water, waited a while and used that for water column doses like one would with dry ferts? A couple drops per gallon per day.
TankMan said:I'm doing the dry ferts that are in the Original post, as well as API liquid ferts. Overkill?
jetajockey said:I agree, like most terrestrial ferts it has ammoniacal nitrogen in it. Crushing it is like directly dosing ammonia into the tank. In small amounts it's probably fine but not a risk that I'm willing to take personally.
jetajockey said:I agree, like most terrestrial ferts it has ammoniacal nitrogen in it. Crushing it is like directly dosing ammonia into the tank. In small amounts it's probably fine but not a risk that I'm willing to take personally.
Is this a good fertilizer for below my sand substrate?
If so, how much should I put? (low-medium light plants)
Thanks!!
That being said we wouldn't dose tons of dry ferts knowing that too much is not beneficial. You wouldn't dump tons of oscomote into the tank either. With both you start low and then dose up
jetajockey said:Definitely, it only takes a small amount of most ferts in most cases anyway. The main point I was making was that aquatic plant ferts use KNO3 (nitrate) as a nitrogen source because it is far less toxic to animals compared to ammonia. Plants like ammonia better than nitrate so terrestrial ferts use it, but they also don't have to worry about fish swimming around in it.
It's possible to dose small amounts of ammonia into the tank for the plants but the margin of error is variable and quite small compared to dosing nitrate. In the result of even a slight overdose the tank stock can suffer ammonia burns and/or death.
bigbanker said:I'd say what goes in crushed vs slow released is the same but with a difference in timeframe.