are these the right ferts I should order?

[Thebluyak]

Alright wel surprise surprise I blew through my seachem liquid phosphate and potassium bottles. I refuse to pay 10 bucks a bottle for something that lasts me 3 weeks lol
Are these the right dry ferts? I should have ordered them when I oredered my other now I have to pay ANOTHER shipping charge grrr.

Alright for potassium
Mono Potassium Phosphate 1 lb. KH2PO4
or Potassium Sulfate 1 lb. K2SO4
( I already have potassium nitrate to dose for nitrates)

Now for phosphate, the only thing I see is
Mono potassium Phosphate KH2po4

So is that the two I need to substitute my liquid ferts?

 

[Lonewolfblue]

The Potassium Sulfate is for the Potassium. The Mono-potassium Phosphate is for phosphate, and the Potassium Nitrate is for the nitrate. Those are the 3 you need. Then CSM+B for the traces, unless you use something else for traces.

 

[Thebluyak]

well I already have CSM+B, pot nitrate. I didnt order the dry ferts of potassium and phosphate cause im retarded so I have everything but those two. I was double checking just to make sure I was getting the right things

Thanks

 

[fish_4_all]

I would also get either Gregs GH booster and/or Calcium Chloride. You will need it if you have soft water, even if it is harder water, you could still need it if the GH of your tap water is all from Magnesium. I wish I would have ordered it.

 

[Thebluyak]

i dont know what the Gh of my water is, I only know the Kh and Ph and co2 levels. Well I havnt ordered yet so can you explain it?

 

[fish_4_all]

The GH is effected directly by the amount of calcium and magnesium in the water. I have never gotten a firm answer as to what your GH should be but both plants and your fish need both nutrients. The plants will use it more than the fish. The GH booster is supposed to be in the correct ratio of 4:1 (if I remember right; which I doubt) calcium:magnesium. I keep mine right around 10 dGH just because that is where it is with what I dose. I will be getting the GH booster to complete the nutrients I need to complete my EI dosing regiment.

 

[rkilling1]

here's a good article:

"Have hard water?

Great, you do not have to add any baking soda and GH builder to your tank. Adding enough GH to bring the levels to 3-5 GH degrees will address higher light tank needs over a week's time. You can use SeaChem Equilibrium for this or a mix of CaCl2 (or CaSO4 although it is not as easy to dissolve into water) and MgSO4 at a 4:1 ratio to increase GH. You can add this without knowing what your GH is by adding 1 degree's worth after a weekly water change (or slightly less with less frequent water changes)

Plants prefer soft water? Not so, neither myself or other experience aquarist have found plants that are soft water dependent, although there may be a few exceptions out perhaps 300 species, it is safe to say that plants prefer harder water and there is research to show this is true, (Bowes 1985), (T. Barr, C. Christianson observations of clear hard water springs in Florida, USA and in Brazil). A few plants, about 5 or 6 or so species do seem to prefer softer water, but this is due to KH, GH seems to have little bearing as long as there is enough Ca and Mg. So the GH can be dosed a little higher if in doubt or if you want to check to see if that is causing an issue or not.
KH on the other hand does seem to influence these specific plants(most are not affected) to about 5-6 degrees. There is really no limit on how low the KH can be for good plant health, but it can make CO2 measurements trickier. There is a way around that though. Still, any plant can be grown at a KH of 5 and a GH of 5-10, or less. This would not be considered "soft" water, actually it would be ideal. Thus unless you desire to grow a few eclectic species, there is no need for RO, nor DI, carbon filtration of the tap water, but doing so will do no harm to the plants as long as there is enough GH for the plants and KH to determine CO2."

from:

http://www.barrreport.com/estimative-index/62-estimative-index-dosing-no-need-test-kits.html

 

[Thebluyak]

so since my KH is low 3 then my Gh is probably low to. I bet some of my plants are suffering from mag and calcium def. I couldnt figure out what was wrong with them. So how do I know how much I need to dose, and does it get dosed like a fert? Macro or Mirco days? Or is it like a water conditioner?

 

[rkilling1]

just because your KH is 3 doesn't mean your GH will be low. you should call the water department and ask what is in the water.

 

[Thebluyak]

whats the answer im going to be looking for? The amount of magnessium and calcium?

 

[rkilling1]

I would ask them for everything. PO4, Mg, Ca, NO3, ect.

 

[rkilling1]

if you could fine out what the Ca and Mg levels are you would be all set, but if not the best thing to do is to order GH boost like fish_4_all has suggested. here is another post from Tom Barr in reguards to Gh:

"In order to fully analyze GH, one needs to test for Ca and Mg individually.

Rather than doing this, simply adding enough Ca and Mg ibn a balanced form such as Gh booster, or SeaChem Eq will do the job.

As we know from other nutrients like PO4, adding more Mg and Ca (at least within a reasonable range to provide non limiting Ca/Mg for a week's growth time frame under high light) will not harm any plant we know about.

Tonia's etc are with another 1-2 degrees worth of GH.

Main thing is to not run out of Ca or Mg which is easy enough using the simple EI concept of dosing more than you need without fearing the excess nutrients. I kniow Ca++ can be over a very wide range without issues and only if you go over maybe 10-20ppm of Mg will only one or two plants might not like it(Tonia belem was the only plant that responded negatively in my test, R wallichii, nor other tonia's had any issue at 10ppm, who knows if it was defintiely Mg though? It was only correlation)

Regards,
Tom Barr"

http://www.barrreport.com/articles/1800-ei-light-less-techical-aspects-estimative-index.html

 

[Thebluyak]

yeah I think im going to go ahead and get it, so I dont have to pay a third shipping charge.

How would I figure out how much to dose?

 

[mr funktastic]

i cant seem to find the link but chucks planted aquarium site has a calculator for gregs ferts. its a download u can keep on your desktop and is extreamly easy to use and very convient.... i am sure somone knows it.

 

[rich311k]

A guide to fertilizing your planted aquarium Check out this sticky it contains the calculator link as well as much useful information.

 

[mr funktastic]

THIS is the link i was talking about. thanks for finding that rich.

 

[fish_4_all]

Ok, I will ask first, where do you find a calculation for how much GH you should add?

I think I was told by somoene that 1 tsp og GH booster in a 10 gallon tank is enough for a week. 1/4 every other day should be plenty. Hopefully someone who knows for sure will give you a definate answer.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_aquacalc.htm

 

[Thebluyak]

Alright if I could get some help me Ei...again since Im switching over that would be great currently my EI schedule is

1. 1/4 tsp CSM+b


other days

30 ml Po4 seachem fert
20ml potassium seachem fert
1/8-1/4 tsp potassium nitrate

How can I convert those two ML doses into dry fert doses from gregwatson?

Also I looked at that calc and couldnt find anything for GH dosing, should I follow the dose of 1tsp~10g and would I dose that with micros or macros?


Ryan (i know im a pain )

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Hi....

I personally don't do anything with my gh. I do have extra iron and magnesium in my CSM+B solution I made, but other than that, I'm not doing anything for gh unless the plants show a deficiency.

As for the other ferts, do you know what the ppm is for each that you are dosing in your tank? If you do, you can plug it into this calculator and it will tell you how much to dose dry. It's a good starting point, and you may need to make adjustments if you see any deficiencies.
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_dosage_calc.htm