betowess
Aquarium Advice Freak
Just for grins, I thought I might post this subject. If anyone cares to comment or correct me... I'm new to this... please do. The beauty of this dosing regimen is you can control the dosing of potassium, nitrates, phosphates, and trace elements individually. I'm thinking many serious planted tank hobbiest now dose their ferts this way. And its alot cheaper than the big name ferts which seem more hit and miss to me.
First of all, I probably shouldn't be dry/wet dosing ferts as my tanks are so small. I've just got a 26 gallon bow and an 18 gallon. But I wanted to practice fertilizing this way before I get an 80 gallon, hopefully sometime this summer. I decided to do it this way after communicating with Rex Grigg, who really has this stuff down. Its really pretty simple if you invest a few hours thinking about it. Most all of this is on Rex's FAQ.
So here goes. (Note, I have quite soft, pure well water... You may want to check with your local water department to find out your water's chemistry/parameters.)
Potassium is a key macro nutrient for plant growth. First, I add about 1/16 to 1/8 teaspoon of a dry powder of potassium sulphate (aka "K2SO4) per 4 to 4.5 gallons of change water. I still use 5 gallon buckets for change water.
The target level is 10 to 20 ppm of potassium. A 1/2 teaspoon of K2SO4 in 25 gallons of water yields around 14.18 ppm of potassium in the water. I can get a one pound baggie of potassium (aka "K2SO4) from Greg Watson's PMDD store for a couple of bucks. This is one of the least expensive ways to add potassium to a planted tank. For those who don't know, PMDD is an acrynym for Poor Man's Daily Drops. Greg also sells micro measuring spoons for folks like me with small planted tanks.
Because I have very soft well water I also add about a 1/4 teaspoon of Epsom salts to the change water (aka magnesium sulphate or MGSO4 + 7H2O) which is an important part of the water's GH... for fish health etc. I'll modify this amount depending on the GH of my water. For calcium I keep half an oyster in the can filter and it helps keep the pH from dropping too far because I'm injecting around 30ppm CO2.
The only other thing I do regularly is put in .5ml of Plantex CSM + B solution per 20 gallons of tank water three times per week. This Plantex stock solution is made from one tablespoon of Plantex mixed into 250 ml of distilled water. Plantex covers most of the essential trace micronutrients. Its also available from www.gregwatson.com PMDD store. Sometimes I add a little Seachem flourish, but that usually heralds an algae invasion for me. Also, I try to dose Seachem iron to 1ppm a about three times per week. I just follow their label because I've heard its hard to really test for iron. Just look at the plant color. Yellow, add a little more.
I almost never add KNO3 (Potassium Nitrate) because I keep too many fish in my little tanks. 8O Fish waste seems to supply plenty of nitrates, which I target to keep at 5 to 10 ppm with water changes. If I need to add some I have calculated 1/16 teaspoon would add around 2.5 ppm in a 24 gallon tank, though this is a little sketchy. But I never add the stuff.
Finally, I very rarely wet dose a tiny bit of phosphates to keep the phosphates around .5 to one ppm. Each ml of KH2PO4 (aka mono - potassium phosphate will add .5 ppm of phosphates to my 26 gallon tank.
To make the wet stock solution of this you add 2.5 tablespoons of this dry powder in 500 ml distilled water. This is also from Greg Watson's PMDD store for $3.42/lb. One baggie will last a long, long time. I lately target for .5ml of phosphates to play it safe on the algae invasion. I hope this helps anyone contemplating this method of ferts.
First of all, I probably shouldn't be dry/wet dosing ferts as my tanks are so small. I've just got a 26 gallon bow and an 18 gallon. But I wanted to practice fertilizing this way before I get an 80 gallon, hopefully sometime this summer. I decided to do it this way after communicating with Rex Grigg, who really has this stuff down. Its really pretty simple if you invest a few hours thinking about it. Most all of this is on Rex's FAQ.
So here goes. (Note, I have quite soft, pure well water... You may want to check with your local water department to find out your water's chemistry/parameters.)
Potassium is a key macro nutrient for plant growth. First, I add about 1/16 to 1/8 teaspoon of a dry powder of potassium sulphate (aka "K2SO4) per 4 to 4.5 gallons of change water. I still use 5 gallon buckets for change water.
The target level is 10 to 20 ppm of potassium. A 1/2 teaspoon of K2SO4 in 25 gallons of water yields around 14.18 ppm of potassium in the water. I can get a one pound baggie of potassium (aka "K2SO4) from Greg Watson's PMDD store for a couple of bucks. This is one of the least expensive ways to add potassium to a planted tank. For those who don't know, PMDD is an acrynym for Poor Man's Daily Drops. Greg also sells micro measuring spoons for folks like me with small planted tanks.
Because I have very soft well water I also add about a 1/4 teaspoon of Epsom salts to the change water (aka magnesium sulphate or MGSO4 + 7H2O) which is an important part of the water's GH... for fish health etc. I'll modify this amount depending on the GH of my water. For calcium I keep half an oyster in the can filter and it helps keep the pH from dropping too far because I'm injecting around 30ppm CO2.
The only other thing I do regularly is put in .5ml of Plantex CSM + B solution per 20 gallons of tank water three times per week. This Plantex stock solution is made from one tablespoon of Plantex mixed into 250 ml of distilled water. Plantex covers most of the essential trace micronutrients. Its also available from www.gregwatson.com PMDD store. Sometimes I add a little Seachem flourish, but that usually heralds an algae invasion for me. Also, I try to dose Seachem iron to 1ppm a about three times per week. I just follow their label because I've heard its hard to really test for iron. Just look at the plant color. Yellow, add a little more.
I almost never add KNO3 (Potassium Nitrate) because I keep too many fish in my little tanks. 8O Fish waste seems to supply plenty of nitrates, which I target to keep at 5 to 10 ppm with water changes. If I need to add some I have calculated 1/16 teaspoon would add around 2.5 ppm in a 24 gallon tank, though this is a little sketchy. But I never add the stuff.
Finally, I very rarely wet dose a tiny bit of phosphates to keep the phosphates around .5 to one ppm. Each ml of KH2PO4 (aka mono - potassium phosphate will add .5 ppm of phosphates to my 26 gallon tank.
To make the wet stock solution of this you add 2.5 tablespoons of this dry powder in 500 ml distilled water. This is also from Greg Watson's PMDD store for $3.42/lb. One baggie will last a long, long time. I lately target for .5ml of phosphates to play it safe on the algae invasion. I hope this helps anyone contemplating this method of ferts.
Bob
