Planted Tank: Poor Man's Dosing Drops

[J-P]

Have anyone ever tried to mix their own ferts?

I can't afford liquids forever so I'm going to try DIY dry ferts:
Mix it yourself complete 6-pack kit.
Includes calcium nitrate, potassium sulphate, potassium nitrate, mono potassium phosphate, magnesium sulphate, amonium nitrate and trace elements. Come in 500g tubs for #1-5. #6 contains trace elements and is 100g.

I am worried about the trace elements because it contains Iron and my well water is already quite hard

anyone with any success?

[Pufferpunk]

Jobe's Plant Sticks.

[J-P]

Cool! Thank you!

Can they be used for more than taget feeding? Example: If I stick one in my filter it will disperse over the tank?

[Pufferpunk]

I think there is too much nitrogen in them. I've read they ate best planted as deep under the roots as possible.

[Iliveinazoo]

I mix my own ferts using dry salts, I have a Macro mix of Nitrate, Nitrite, Potassium, Calcium and Magnesium and a Micro mix of Trace Elements.
I also have hard water with high nitrates so I don't use as much nitrate as recommended, the hard water isn't an issue for me as I have brackish water fishes but you could just dose less calcium and magnesium if you wished.

I found both of these sites helpful during my research:
http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/dosing-methods.htm
http://www.ukaps.org/EI.htm

One of the recipes lists ascorbic acid as a preservative but I don't use it and I haven't noticed a problem.

[RTR]

Be very, very cautious with Jobe's. They should be the ones for ferns & something (senior moment). The others are richer and riskier. Any that you use should be in a tank with a substrate depth >2". If you cannot get them more than 2" deep, and if you have any, repeat any, diggers at all, you may poison your tank. They use urea as a nitrogen source. In water, just like in toilet bowls left un-flushed, urea hydrolyzes to ammonia, which kills fish.

With loaches of any sort, any bottom-dwelling catfish, or substrate-breeding Ciclid, etc - anything that digs or stirs and/or bottom-feeds, skip the Jobe's (and promotes algae).

DIY ferts, traces, and supplements are not expensive, just a bit of work which I am willing to forgo (I was a lab rat for decades. I have served my time weighing and measuring and making solutions) Many,many of the members of the local planted tank group use nothing but DIY. I am the lazy exception.

EDIT: If you are looking at the original formula PMDD (the original title was Poor Man's Dupla Drops, was changed in common usage sometime later when newer hobbyist had never seen Dupla's Daily/Dosising Drops), it was made up in an era when phosphorus was unfashionable. Tanks full of algae drove it out of sight and mind. If you got a recipe from Tom Barr's site, you are OK.

HTH

[J-P]

EDIT: If you are looking at the original formula PMDD (the original title was Poor Man's Dupla Drops, was changed in common usage sometime later when newer hobbyist had never seen Dupla's Daily/Dosising Drops), it was made up in an era when phosphorus was unfashionable. Tanks full of algae drove it out of sight and mind. If you got a recipe from Tom Barr's site, you are OK.
HTH

Of course it helps
And I do have Tom's recipie but, that is going to be a seperate thread all together.

I have seen Jobes in a 4-4-4 dosage and what was recomended was a 1-1-1. Thus the point of breaking doen the sick to 1/4th its size... if that makes sence.

I couldn't find any locally so I orederd the PMDD out of Toronto (again I'll post a seperate thread on that).

[Pufferpunk]

I break up 1 stick/10g & replenish every 6 months. The ones I have, I got a really long time ago, 2 for 1.

13-4-5
GUARANTEED ANALYSIS
Total Nitrogen (N)*......................13%
2% Nitrate Nitrogen
2% Urea Nitrogen
2% Water Soluble Organic Nitrogen**
7% Water Insoluble Nitrogen
Available Phosphate (P2O5)*..............4%
Soluble Potash (K2O).......................5%

Derived from: Ureafoam, Triple
Superphosphate, Potassium Nitrate,
Chlorine (CI) not more than 2.2%

*The nitrogen, phosphate & Potash
materials in this product provide 8.5% slow
release nitrogen (N), 3.7% occluded slow
Release available phosphate
(P2O5) & 1.1% occluded slow
release soluble potash (K20).
*2% Slowly Available Nitrogen
from Ureafoam.

[Iliveinazoo]

I've just read a topic that some trace element dry powders can cause cloudiness with hard water. I use the EDTA based trace mix with my hard water without clouding problems but I thought that I would link to the post from here for your information.

http://www.ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=10416

[RTR]

One thing that Tom Barr used to mention is that phosphate addition may in some water cause things to fall of (precipitate) rather than staying in solution, so quite a number of folks routinely supplement PO4 on a different day from the others. Which is of course another reason for using particular mineral mixes.

[J-P]

Derived from: Ureafoam,
*2% Slowly Available Nitrogen
from Ureafoam.

The Urea content doesn't harm the fish? I was advised againt it.

Well my ferts arrived today. It came is 6 seperate packages:
1# Calcium Nitrate (CaNO3)
Total Nitrogen (N) = 15%
Calcium (Ca) = 19%

#2 Potassium Sulphate (K2SO4)
Soluble Potash (K2O) = 54%

#3 Potassium Nitrate (KNO3)
Nitrogen (N) = 12%
Soluble Potash (K2O) = 44%

#4 Mono Potassium Phosphate (KH2PO4)
Phosphoric Acid (P2O5) = 46%

#5 Magnesium Sulphate (MGSO4)
Magnesium (MG) = 10%
Sulphur (S) = 13%

And the little bag with lots of stuff:
Chelated Micronutrient
Iron (FE) = 7%
Manganese (MN) = 2%
Zinc (AN) = .4%
Copper (CU) = .1%
Boron (B) = 1.3%
Molybdenum (Ma) = .66%

I am working on the mixing ratios now but it looks like I am only doising a TOTAL of 50ml of mix for the entire tank! I don't know what the frequency is but I'll keep digging around for that

[Iliveinazoo]

just a quick note for the future when you run out of magnesium sulphate: it's sold in big boxes in all Garden Centres in the UK as Epsom Salts and so is cheaper than buying 100g from an online aquatic retailer.

[J-P]

Thank you! I can get that from work cheap
Are they really needed to keep happy plants?

[Iliveinazoo]

Hopefully you get it as cheap as I get my paper and biros

[J-P]

haha as low and I can go and be ligit is $.29 a kilo