# TNC GH Boost



## HiNtZ (12 Dec 2017)

I've got some GH boost here and was wondering if anyone could tell me what this is actually adding to the water in the way of potassium?

The label reads:

0-0-16

K -13.5%
(K2O) - 16.2%

Ca - 9%
(CaO) - 12.5%

Mg - 3%
(MgO) - 5%


For argument's sake, lets say in 100 litres what would 5g of GH Boost add as K? 

Thanks.


----------



## dw1305 (12 Dec 2017)

Hi all, 
You just need the percentage potassium (K), you can ignore the 16 K2O bit. As a decimal 13.5% is 0.135.

When you add 5g of GH boost you've added 5 x 0.135 = 0.68g of K. 





HiNtZ said:


> For argument's sake, lets say in 100 litres what would 5g of GH Boost add as K?


You can convert that to milligrams per kg (and 1 litre of  water weighs 1kg), which is 680 milligrams per litre and milligrams per litre is equivalent to ppm, so you have 680/100 (litres) = 6.8 ppm K in 100 litres.

cheers Darrel


----------



## HiNtZ (12 Dec 2017)

I'm so glad there are people that can do maths!

Sorry to be a pain, but can we work the other two elements out too please?

Ca 9%  5 x 0.09g = 0.45g of Ca - So that's 450mg per litre which equates to 4.5ppm in 100 litres?

Mg 3% 5 x 0.03g = 0.15g of Mg - so 150mg per liter is 1.5ppm per 100 litres?


Am I to assume that the percentages given on the packet is per gram?

I'm reconstituting RO with it at 7.5grams per 25 litres to get a GH of 6 but feel potassium might get a bit higher than I wanted it to with the EI dosing. Have you any advice or opinions on that?


----------



## HiNtZ (12 Dec 2017)

Arghh, this is properly giving me a headache!

I'm trying to calculate the 7.5g dose per 25 litres....

7.5g x 0.135mg = 1.0125g K    so 1012mg in 100 liters is 10.1ppm x 4 to get ppm per 25 litres? 40.4ppm?

So when I dump 50L of that reconstituted water at water change in my 150 that's giving me what K, 26ppm?

Really appreciate your time by the way. I follow a lot of your posts when searching the archives.


----------



## AverageWhiteBloke (12 Dec 2017)

HiNtZ said:


> Arghh, this is properly giving me a headache!
> 
> I'm trying to calculate the 7.5g dose per 25 litres....
> 
> ...


I think another way of looking at it mate which might clear your head would be that each gram of the stuff you add to 100ltrs of water raises K by 1.36ppm so if you add 7.5 grams to 100 that would be 10.3ppm as you are only using 25ltrs that would be 40.8ppm 

Now this is where it falls over lol if you change 50ltrs of water in a 150 the ppm of the total water would be 13.6ppm but that would be only assuming there wasn't any K in the original water in the tank. 

Sent from my STH100-2 using Tapatalk


----------



## AverageWhiteBloke (12 Dec 2017)

In fact thinking about it, if you dose EI at 20ppm N and 1ppm P weekly that roughly equates to adding 6.6ppm K brought in on the N and P so if you add that to the 13.6ppm constituted water in total weekly you are adding 20.2ppm K to the tank which sounds about spot on for the EI range of 20 to 30ppm K weekly. 

Sent from my STH100-2 using Tapatalk


----------



## AverageWhiteBloke (12 Dec 2017)

Nah I'm talking crap, I see what you mean about the bad head. Each dose of N and P is 6.6 so three times per week is 19.8ppm weekly plus your  13.6ppm water is 33.4ppm weekly K but still in the 20 / 30ppm range, just at the top end.

Sent from my STH100-2 using Tapatalk


----------



## HiNtZ (12 Dec 2017)

AverageWhiteBloke said:


> I think another way of looking at it mate which might clear your head would be that each gram of the stuff you add to 100ltrs of water raises K by 1.36ppm so if you add 7.5 grams to 100 that would be 10.3ppm as you are only using 25ltrs that would be 40.8ppm



At least I got that close 



> Now this is where it falls over lol if you change 50ltrs of water in a 150 the ppm of the total water would be 13.6ppm but that would be only assuming there wasn't any K in the original water in the tank.
> 
> Sent from my STH100-2 using Tapatalk



I'm not overly concerned by what's left in the tank for now. I'll attempt a nutrient accumulation calculation further down the line. Can you explain your calculation to get 13.6ppm? It's half what I arrived at almost exactly. Where did I go wrong?



AverageWhiteBloke said:


> Nah I'm talking crap, I see what you mean about the bad head. Each dose of N and P is 6.6 so three times per week is 19.8ppm weekly plus your  13.6ppm water is 33.4ppm weekly K but still in the 20 / 30ppm range, just at the top end.
> 
> Sent from my STH100-2 using Tapatalk



That's usually where I slip up.... it's 3 x week. I want to bring K down to around 10-15ppm. My nitrates are pretty healthy so could cut out KNO3 altogether and not even bother with K2SO4 (unless I saw a need to top it up). If I feel I need N I'll dose MGNO3 as I often add MGSO4 anyway. My tank seems to hoover the P up so would need to keep on with KH2PO4 but that adds barely any K anyway.

Thanks for this and sorry to share a headache.


----------



## AverageWhiteBloke (12 Dec 2017)

HiNtZ said:


> At least I got that close
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Hmm 13.6 can't remember now haha, I think it was the average of the 3. So assuming for arguments sake you have 100ltrs of water in your tank (obviously after you've removed 50ltrs for the change) and this 100 ltrs has 0ppm k in it. You pour in 50 ltrs of water which has 40.8ppm of K in it then the average would be 40.8ppm divided by 3 or total water volume 13.6ppm 

I think anyway my heads spinning now haha. Either way you could lower the dose of buffering salt as your at the top end of K weekly dosing and the gh and kh aren't that important anyway. 

Sent from my STH100-2 using Tapatalk


----------



## ceg4048 (12 Dec 2017)

I don't understand why everyone suddenly panics when it comes to this. I mean, this _is _science, but it's not rocket science.

For goodness sake, you're adding 5g of this stuff right? Well isn't that the same as 5000mg?

Suppose you and I won 5000 Euros in the lottery and my percentage of the winnings was 13.5%
How difficult would it be to figure out my share? I'm pretty sure you'd figure it out in less than 10 seconds, right?
Wouldn't it simply be 13.5% of 5000 - 0.135 x 5000? Isn't that just 675 Euro, or 675mg?

Suppose my share were only 9%. Wouldn't that just be 0.09 x 5000, or 450 Euro /  450mg?

How about a measly 3%. Wouldn't I get only 0.03 x 5000, or 150 Euro / 150mg?

So adding 5000mg (5g) of this stuff adds
680mg K
675mg Ca
150mg Mg

This is child's play isn't it?

The only part that might even remotely be considered "difficult" is realizing that ppm is the same as mg powder divided by Kg of water, or mg/Kg.
You'd better know that 100L of water weighs 100Kg, by definition, because that's how the Kg was invented.

So, for K, as Darrel mentions, adding 5000mg of this powder will add  680mg/100Kg = 6.8ppm
For Ca,  675mg/100Kg = 6.75ppm
For Mg, 150mg/100Kg = 1.5ppm

C'mon people, you do these types of calculations every day. Lets keep it real. 

Cheers,


----------



## AverageWhiteBloke (12 Dec 2017)

ceg4048 said:


> I don't understand why everyone suddenly panics when it comes to this. I mean, this _is _science, but it's not rocket science.
> 
> For goodness sake, you're adding 5g of this stuff right? Well isn't that the same as 5000mg?
> 
> ...


I didn't understand any of that. but then again I left school with a beginners swimming certificate. 

Sent from my STH100-2 using Tapatalk


----------



## AverageWhiteBloke (12 Dec 2017)

AverageWhiteBloke said:


> I didn't understand any of that. but then again I left school with a beginners swimming certificate.
> 
> Sent from my STH100-2 using Tapatalk


Now if you need to retrieve a rubber brick from the bottom of a swimming pool by somebody in pyjamas, I'm your man right here. 

Sent from my STH100-2 using Tapatalk


----------



## AverageWhiteBloke (12 Dec 2017)

AverageWhiteBloke said:


> Now if you need to retrieve a rubber brick from the bottom of a swimming pool by somebody in pyjamas, I'm your man right here.
> 
> Sent from my STH100-2 using Tapatalk


I appreciate that has limited applications my friend but one day that will come in handy. 

Sent from my STH100-2 using Tapatalk


----------



## ceg4048 (12 Dec 2017)

AWB, you and I are heading to the betting shop next weekend . I'll calculate the earnings. You can trust that I will hand over your fair share of the earnings...

Cheers,


----------



## AverageWhiteBloke (12 Dec 2017)

ceg4048 said:


> AWB, you and I are heading to the betting shop next weekend . I'll calculate the earnings. You can trust that I will hand over your fair share of the earnings...
> 
> Cheers,


Haha, look forward to it mate. No reason to doubt your integrity, I'm sure you'll give me my fair share. 

Now money, that's a different matter all together. For some reason my maths improves where money is involved. Never really got anywhere at school. Not through lack of intelligence, more through far too much attitude. That teenage thing just I forgot to stop so was asked to leave school.  I use the word "asked" loosely, more like told on one of the rare occasions that I was in.

I think I've learned more about biology and science in this forum and reading up on my hobby than all those years at school. 48 year old and now I get a thirst for knowledge, go figure. 

I can't think of a worse time to be sitting exams which will define the rest of your life. Maybe if they had an aquarium in the science lab and showed how the stuff in the books related to that I would have done a lot better as I've kept fish since I was 16 but with no idea of any science other than keep changing water and cleaning the filter, at least some things haven't changed.
All I had for encouragement back then was the the constant threat of our science teacher nick named "excalibur" so called because he had a metre long metal ruler above the black board which he was partial to putting over the cheeks of your blahblahblahblah whenever he seen fit. Haaaa the good old days.

Hasn't held me back, I've managed to run my own business for the last 25 years but I put that down to the fact I'm totally unemployable for the same reasons I got kicked out of school. For some reason I feel like I have to right wrongs and stick up for the under dog wherever I find it. I'll grow out of it one day!

Sent from my STH100-2 using Tapatalk


----------



## dw1305 (13 Dec 2017)

Hi all,





HiNtZ said:


> I follow a lot of your posts when searching the archives.


I'm pleased they are useful, looking back to 2008, I see that I haven't made six thousand posts, I've made three different posts, but repeated each of them two thousand times.





AverageWhiteBloke said:


> Maybe if they had an aquarium in the science lab and showed how the stuff in the books related to that I would have done a lot better


I think that is a real issue, science in schools fails to engage pupils and they achieve a fraction of what they could.

cheers Darrel


----------



## AverageWhiteBloke (13 Dec 2017)

dw1305 said:


> I'm pleased they are useful, looking back to 2008, I see that I haven't made six thousand posts, I've made three different posts, but repeated each of them two thousand times.



At least you're consistent 



dw1305 said:


> I think that is a real issue, science in schools fails to engage pupils and they achieve a fraction of what they could.



I don't know about that one pal, the academy my daughter goes to has some real high end equipment, VR stuff and very interactive. I don't think it matters what's available, when you're a teenager school is just boring whatever on offer. I often say to her I can't believe she thinks school is boring. I would take her place tomorrow just to play with all the stuff they have there. I spent most of my teenage years hanging about down the beck, damming it up, keeping stickle backs and frogs, if only I realised then that going to school could have let me do that for the rest of my life and get paid for it. There's also a lot of safety nets now with pupils falling behind, teachers will email or phone and offer extra reading or things that need improved on you parents can target those areas at home. I find it interesting because there's a lot of crossover between keeping a fish tank and science subjects. A lot of the time while doing homework I can use my tank as a reference to explain something to her which is tangible and interesting. Back in my day if you fell behind you just got flogged by the teacher and then flogged when you got home for getting flogged at school, positive reinforcement hadn't made its way in to teaching at that point  Was more do or die.

I never really told my daughter about my colourful past because she looks up to me and I don't want her thinking being a drop out is ok and I've done al-right but I did things the hard way and had to sacrifice a lot of family time etc, I want her to have the choices I didn't have because I didn't have the paper work and when you leave school in 1986 with 2 million unemployed and no qualifications it sorts of limits you to what's available  No worries with her though, I think engineering is her thing, she still has the teenage chip on her shoulder but not the four stone bag of tatties I was carrying so its all good.

How did we get here anyway haha, from K in TNC boost to this, what a weird and wonderful forum this is


----------



## AverageWhiteBloke (13 Dec 2017)

BTW @ceg4048 I have a hot tip for a horse 3.30 at Aintree 16/1 odds, I'll paypal you the money and you can put the bet on. If we put a pound on each way we should get...16/1 placed is a quarter of the odds plus the pound we put on less the tax which means we should get something back at least, I'll leave it to you. Aaarrrgh damn you teenage angst, why didn't I listen to boring Mr Philips the maths teacher who ironically was later arrested for lewd conduct in the local public toilets as part of a clamp down on cottaging. The toilets had to be knocked down because of the stigma attached and now we have to use supermarkets if you get caught short in town. 

Maybe I can't do algebra but at least I wasn't responsible for getting the local toilets demolished, who's laughing now, the clown of the class that's who


----------



## HiNtZ (13 Dec 2017)

Thanks guys..... I'll give my new regime a couple weeks and see how it goes.

The tank overall is doing well and I just want to bring my potassium down a touch, the only plant showing an issue is cardamine - it's wrapped up round bogwood with free hanging roots so relies on the water column for nutrients and new leaves are showing tiny little holes which stretch bigger as the leaf gets bigger. I'm guessing micros on that one though so will up the dose here.


----------



## ceg4048 (13 Dec 2017)

Neither Potassium nor micronutrients have anything to do with holes in leaves.
Holes in leaves is caused by poor CO2.

Cheers,


----------



## HiNtZ (13 Dec 2017)

ceg4048 said:


> Neither Potassium nor micronutrients have anything to do with holes in leaves.
> Holes in leaves is caused by poor CO2.
> 
> Cheers,



I'm at the limit of choking the fauna, I've noticed slight improvement with liquid carbon supplementing the pressurised CO2. Suppose I'm just going to have to lower the light then - lucky I bought a dimmer.

Thanks Ceg


----------



## AverageWhiteBloke (13 Dec 2017)

HiNtZ said:


> I'm at the limit of choking the fauna, I've noticed slight improvement with liquid carbon supplementing the pressurised CO2. Suppose I'm just going to have to lower the light then - lucky I bought a dimmer.
> 
> Thanks Ceg


Does seem like a fine line at times. Maybe look at the flow and make sure that there's good circulation around the affected plants. I was in the same boat as you, anytime I got my co2 what is said to be right for the plants my fish would complain. 

Sent from my STH100-2 using Tapatalk


----------



## AverageWhiteBloke (14 Dec 2017)

Could also be retrospective damage as well mate, before changing anything cut off the affected leaves and see if it does it again. The leaves won't repair themselves anyway. 

Sent from my STH100-2 using Tapatalk


----------

