Dry Fertilisers

Hi everyone ,

Is anyone familiar with dry fertilisers on the forum ?

I have obtained the various dry fertilizers
KNO3
KH2PO4
K2SO4
and some dry trace elements

And I'm hoping to start using these soon just thought I might get a helping hand here before I get to work on it.

And if so have any good receipes for preparing a soluble soluton and a weekly routine it would be of great help

Thanks.

Have a read of the first post on this page in this thread I made a couple of weeks ago, it will cover any sort of planted setup once you have a reasonably high plant load in the tank.

There are other methods but it really depends on what you want to achieve, what are your plans for the tank in question, CO2/non CO2, highlight/lowlight?

The post is a bit long but covers a fair amount to get you started, the formula for the fertiliser and links are near the end of the post if you want to skip most of it.

where did you get the chemicals btw, Aqua essentials in the UK?

Heres the link anyway


www.irishfishkeepers.com/forum/viewtopic...61b90d18bceaaf7ba891

A huge thank you to you Zig

That was a great post I will let you know how it goes , I intend to adopt your approach and yes I have co2 and good lighting using the JBL profiflora with co2 control and have metal halides the arcadia pendent , algae is under control so to speak apart from some forming on the surface which is kept under control by frequent water changes other than that everything is going well for now so to speak my tank is more of a jungle effect at present than a well aquascaped nature aquarium that you have mastered. Yes i have obtained the chemicals through aqua essentials in the uk. You are truly an inspiration good work mate and again thank you kindly .

Your welcome, just take it easy on the time you have the lights on if you are using metal halides, this can be a very intense type of light for plants.

Mix up the chemicals, but you may not get them to dissolve totally, this is normal if using granular type potassium sulphate, you can double the amount of water and then the potassium should dissolve totally, you would then just 2x the daily dose. Dose the tank daily before lights come on, an hour before is fine, 10 hours before is fine, find a routine that suits you.

Try not to do too many water changes with this method, if enough plants are in the tank this should not be nescessary to often, just do topups if the water level gets low. The only known problem with this formla is an algae called green spot algae, you will get this on the glass of the aquarium, by not doing too many water changes you will eliminate this problem, just scrape off any green spot from the glass when it occurs.

What you are seeing on the surface of the water may be just a scum buildup from the CO2, this can be normal, a gentle surface agitation will help eliminate/reduce it. You should not have algae on the water surface this would not be normal, it would indicate something is wrong if you do.

I would try and keep the fish load low and the plant load high if you are running a highlight tank, this helps reduce potiential problems and gives you more control over what is entering the tank via fertiliser. Also very importantly try and keep the CO2 as stable as possible even if this means running it 24/7, you only need low levels of CO2 with this method, about 15ppm, but you must keep it stable or you could have problems with algae, try starting with about 1 bubble per second and take it from there. Provide some surface agitation for O2 for the fish, you only need a very gentle ripple to provide enough oxygen exchange to keep the fish very happy.

Good luck with your tank.

Thanks again Zig

In regard to the build up on the surface it is green , which i presumed to be a form of algae? Does the scum on the surface colour green? If i place anything into the tank for example my arm when i remove it it takes away this green scum on my arm? I figure it was a form of algae like what you see on the surface of ponds in the summer? Would you recommend an additonal powerhead maybe to agitate the surface slightly more?
You are right in regard to the gentle agitation on the surface where there is water movement there isn't this scum.

Yes I also get the green spot algae on the front glass and i remove that every water change. Its never gets really bad.

I was trying to post a pic of the tank but cant seem to figure out how if anyone can tell me I'll post it up . Even though i think i should get a better camera first :oops:

Zig getting to work on that fertilizer just as you said

Usually algae on the water surface would indicate BGA, agitate the surface and see if it disappears, if it does its more than likely BGA.

Good circulation will help eliminate bga, the only time I get bga is when my bigger tank gets heavily grown in and I get dead spots where the bga starts to build up, if I point a powerhead at it, it disappears overnight.

Try a 72 hour blackout if its persistant (which it can be) in your case its probably caused by lack of nitrate and not circulation issues, you don't want a torrent going on the surface of the water either or you won't hold the CO2 in the water.

Try and work out the pictures and post a pic of the tank, think there is a sticky in the photo section about it.