Switching to GregWatson

[evercl92]

I currently use Seachem ferts:

Flourish Excel - 1.5x dosage every day
Flourish - regular dosage sunday and weds
Flourish Iron - regular dosage sunday

Apparently, from what I've read, ordering and using products from GregWatson.com is cheaper and just as effective. Considering the ferts I currently use, what would you suggest to replace each of them? I have a 125gal tank, so I'll be using a bit more of each. What's the dosage of each fert, how long will each 1lb bucket of fert last me? Any other ferts that I should consider? I already have 5+ppm of phosphates, so I dont think that I'll need phos supplement.

Any other suggestions welcome.
TIA

 

[Peyton]

Use CSM+B instead of Flourish and Iron. As far as excel, there is no substitute as far as I know.

 

[7Enigma]

Your biggest consumer will be the potassium. I have a 20gallon and have gone through about 3/4 of my 1lb bag in about 2 months. I'd recommend for you use to get at least 3lbs. With his shipping prices, it pays to go big.

EDIT: That's potassium sulfate, I've used very little potassium nitrAte due to my high bioload, and like you have never needed to dose phosphates (but I picked up a pound just in case).

 

[mr funktastic]

you might want to look into pressurized co2 to replace the excell. excell is costing u alot more on your large tank then a presurized system. the intitial cost will be more but in the long run u will save.

 

[JRagg]

If I recall you've got a pretty hefty light fixture don't you?

Potassium nitrate is good stuff. It's actually the majority of what I dose.

 

[evercl92]

Yeh, I have the 260wt coralife fixture, running 4x65wt 10k bulbs. Actually, today I got rid of the 160 additional wts from the shop lights, and picked up a 4x65wt odyssea fixture for $80. It has 2 12k bulbs, 2 actinics, and moonlights. I probably wont be running the actinics at all, just the 12k's. I'm sure my rate limiting factor at this point is CO2. I think my next order from drsfostersmith will have a CO2 diffuser for a DIY system....

 

[7Enigma]

Potassium nitrate is good stuff. It's actually the majority of what I dose.

It all depends on your bioload. In my 20gallon I have only on a handful of occasions had to dose nitrAte, the rest of the time the fish waste takes care of it. After diatom filtering or after I clean all of the filters are the only times where I have seen my nitrAte get close to bottoming out.

 

[JRagg]

The reason I mentioned dosing nitrates is because he has 390 Watts of lighting. I remember from past posts that he had lots of lights, and I have a hard time believing that bioload will cover that much lighting once pressurized CO2 gets installed.

 

[Tong]

The reason I mentioned dosing nitrates is because he has 390 Watts of lighting. I remember from past posts that he had lots of lights, and I have a hard time believing that bioload will cover that much lighting once pressurized CO2 gets installed.

I agree. I have about double the normal bioload in my 10 gallon tank and still have to add about 30 ppm nitrate each week. I also go through an insane amount of potassium and I even have to dose phosphate (my tap water already has 2+ ppm phosphate!). So with lots of lighting and/or plant mass, a high bioload really means nothing.

I would just buy everything (potassium nitrate, potassium sulfate, mono potassium phosphate, and CSM + B) just in case.

 

[evercl92]

Saving from reading my info:

Fish: black ghost knife, 7 glass catfish, 6 bosemani rainbows, 5 brilliant rasboras, 4 pristella tetras, 9 long-finned blue danios, 3 siamese algae eaters, flying fox, chinese algae eater, 3 green / 2 albino corydoras, red tail shark, farlowella, florida flag fish, ghost shrimp all over.

My initial guess is that I have a very light bioload considering tank size, amount of plants and such. My friend had a 75gal with 2-3x the effective biolad that I have. I should probably pick up a nitrate test...

 

[evercl92]

Did alot of testing tonite:

pH 7.1
nitrite = 0
nitrate = 0
kh = 4
phosphate = 5ppm
iron = 0.1 ppm

Sure looks like I need nitrate supplement. I'm assuming that I should get KNO3 & CSM+B. I'm thinking 3lbs KNO3 and 1lb CSM+B.

1. What's the dosage on the CSM+B (how long will a 1lb bag last for my 125 gal tank)?
2. What concentration of nitrate should I be aiming for?

 

[Purrbox]

I'd recommend using Chuck Gadd's Calculator to determine the concentration and dosing for your KNO3. There is both a internet and windows verion, the windows version also includes a CO2 calculator. Check out czcz's calculators to figure out the concentration on the CSM+B.

You'll want to maintain your NO3 levels above 10ppm, perhaps as high as 20ppm. How quickly your plants use it up will dictate how often you need to dose it. For the CSM+B, you'll want to aim for .12ppm Fe 3x per week.