Do dry ferts degrade in water?

[mattcham]

Can I dissolve a week's worth or month's worth of dry fertilizers in advance and store the solution for a week or month, pouring small premeasured amounts daily for EI dosing? I read that micros in particular degrade rapidly within 24 hrs so storing dry ferts dissolved in just water is not a good idea. Is this true?

If preparing and storing such a solution is OK, can I combine N, P, and K in one solution? Or is that a bad idea?

Also what happened to the dry fertilizer vendor gregwatson.com that was popular 8 years ago? Do they have a new website or did they retire?

 

[Coyne]

What you describe doing is what you're supposed to do. You shouldn't pre-combine micros and macros though. Be sure to use distilled water.


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[mattcham]

Tap water will ruin the fertilizers? What about dechlorinated tap water (treated with seachem prime)?

Micros are OK to store in solution for a month and will not degrade?

Do these solutions have to be refrigerated while in month long storage?

Sorry for my million noob questions.

 

[Brookster123]

I'm about to mix up some dry ferts too. Gla pps pack.. I've been told to use distilled water and also to use metricide with traces in a light block bottle as a mild preventor.. I

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[Sk3lly]

I used tap water first time around with no negative effect. Distilled or RODI is better

Add 10ml seachem excel to the micros mix as an anti mould/fungus prevention

Do not mix micros and macros.

Yes you can dose N P K together ( this is suggested in instructions)

It is much better to add P and K in one bottle and N in a separate bottle. Your fish will create N in your tank already so by having N separate in a bottle you can control the levels easier.

You really are overthinking this. Just follow the instructions its very very easy


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[Fresh2o]

I believe distilled water is recommended to ensure consistency of the product. This is to eliminate variables due to the diversity of tap water. I generally use DI but in a pinch have used tap.
I just made up my micros last night and forgot about adding glut. Thanks for the reminder, Brookster.

 

[Brookster123]

I believe distilled water is recommended to ensure consistency of the product. This is to eliminate variables due to the diversity of tap water. I generally use DI but in a pinch have used tap.
I just made up my micros last night and forgot about adding glut. Thanks for the reminder, Brookster.

No problemo! I'm going to get all walter white in my TV room later.. any pointers fresh? My first go around with the dry ferts. .

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[Sk3lly]

No problemo! I'm going to get all walter white in my TV room later.. any pointers fresh? My first go around with the dry ferts. .

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Buy yourself potassium sulphate and add it to the mix. Ive found ive needed more potassium but without the increase of phosphate caused by the potassium phosphate


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[Brookster123]

I have seachem potassium and phosphate. . Good enough till it runs out?

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[Sk3lly]

I have seachem potassium and phosphate. . Good enough till it runs out?

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I dont see why not. Maybe up the dosage??


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[Fresh2o]

No problemo! I'm going to get all walter white in my TV room later.. any pointers fresh? My first go around with the dry ferts. .

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Took me a while to get that reference (I'm slow and at work ATM). Sk3llys point about Potassium is good. I used 3 bottles as seen here but have stopped dosing bottle #2 (nitrate). I labeled my bottles with the standard mix amounts so I would not have to look them up later. And no, I am not using the bananas for potassium; they are there for scale.

Mix everything and I believe it says you should let it dissolve overnight. I always give each bottle a shake prior to dosing.

 

[Brookster123]

Took me a while to get that reference (I'm slow and at work ATM). Sk3llys point about Potassium is good. I used 3 bottles as seen here but have stopped dosing bottle #2 (nitrate). I labeled my bottles with the standard mix amounts so I would not have to look them up later. And no, I am not using the bananas for potassium; they are there for scale.

Mix everything and I believe it says you should let it dissolve overnight. I always give each bottle a shake prior to dosing.

Awseome! I use bananas for potassium, i like the idea of labeling the bottles, I'll have to use a sharpie as my label maker was confiscated.. apparently labeling the label maker is going to far. Who knew??

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[Coyne]

I believe there are trace elements, minerals and heavy metals present (or potently present) in tap water. These can mix and bind with the elements in the fertilizer (potassium, iron, etc) and make them unusable as fertilizers. This is why the instructions call for using distilled water.

I've also read that when you add the fertilizers that you should stagger the time between the micros and macros because they have the potential to combine into something that's less usable. I still add mine at the same time though.

 

[Sk3lly]

I believe there are trace elements, minerals and heavy metals present (or potently present) in tap water. These can mix and bind with the elements in the fertilizer (potassium, iron, etc) and make them unusable as fertilizers. This is why the instructions call for using distilled water.



I've also read that when you add the fertilizers that you should stagger the time between the micros and macros because they have the potential to combine into something that's less usable. I still add mine at the same time though.

I think the main reason of not dosing micros and macros together, is that iron can bind with potassium and slightly haze the water


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[Brian_Nano12g]

It's interesting how everyone has a slight variation of PPS-Pro dosing. I pretty much dose it vanilla, with a slight increase in the PO4. I realized when I dosed it with the original recipe, I'd get GSA. An increase in the PO4 pretty much solved it as I don't see GSA anymore.

I thought the Fe bonded with PO4 to cause cloudiness?

 

[Sk3lly]

It's interesting how everyone has a slight variation of PPS-Pro dosing. I pretty much dose it vanilla, with a slight increase in the PO4. I realized when I dosed it with the original recipe, I'd get GSA. An increase in the PO4 pretty much solved it as I don't see GSA anymore.

I thought the Fe bonded with PO4 to cause cloudiness?

It might bond with the phosphate. Im not sure. I know it bonds with one of them though lol


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[Brookster123]

How long apart are we talking here? Couple minutes? Couple hours?!?!

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[Brian_Nano12g]

I dose my micros and macros minutes apart. I just dose in different areas. No problems.

I started dosing seachem iron as well. Just two or three times a week. But I noticed that I'll get the cloudy water if I dose it too soon from when I dosed my macros. I'm going to wait hours from now on with the Fe.

 

[Sk3lly]

I dose my micros and macros minutes apart. I just dose in different areas. No problems.

I started dosing seachem iron as well. Just two or three times a week. But I noticed that I'll get the cloudy water if I dose it too soon from when I dosed my macros. I'm going to wait hours from now on with the Fe.

Thats exactly when ive noticed my cloudy water. Using the seachem iron to top up iron levels whilst dosing macros too. Maybe its something to do with the chemical state of the iron in it??


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[Brookster123]

Hmmm, you guys are paving a great road for us right now and I thank you kindly, so how about I dose the iron after siesta period, would still give it 5 hours with lights on..

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