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Alternative to Potassium sorbate

eminor

eminor

Member
Joined
5 Feb 2021
Messages
792
Location
France
Hello, is there another mold/bacteria/fungus inhibitor, i was thinking about glutaraldehyde. That stuff seems to kill algae, i have a big bottle of easy life easycarbo left alone. I want to add micro salt to it (FeSo4,MnSo4,CuSo4 etc)
The only problem I see is that it seems to oxidize things, do you think it can be used ? how much is another story :/ thx
 
Bad idea to use glutaraldehyde.

You can use sodium benzoate instead as advised by @Happi. Do not use ascorbic acid with it as it could form Benzene

DIY all in one fertiliser solution going cloudy

I have been messing around with making my own all-in-one fertiliser mix over the past few months but can't seem to get it right. In my solutions I am using: KNO3 KH2PO4 MgSo4 DTPA Iron 11% Copper sulphate (Unchelated) Manganese sulphate (Unchelated) Boric Acid (Unchelated) Zinc Sulphate...
www.ukaps.org
 
The other posters forgot to notice you don't use chelated compounds. For ordinary salts - sulfates & chlorides - no stabilizer is needed. You can keep their solutions for many months without any decay. Mind you, this is not a theory, it's my routine for years; I don't use chelated salts.
Still, for other reasons, I recommend using FeCl3 instead of FeSO4. The difference is that the former is trivalent and does not form aggregates of Fe(OH)3 in oxidized water.

Using glutaraldehyde as a stabilizer is no nonsense. Par example, Tetra Torumin is using it. Unfortunately, I am unable to predict its interactions with various compounds.
 
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_Maq_ said:
The other posters forgot to notice you don't use chelated compounds. For ordinary salts - sulfates & chlorides - no stabilizer is needed. You can keep their solutions for many months without any decay. Mind you, this is not a theory, it's my routine for years; I don't use chelated salts.
Still, for other reasons, I recommend using FeCl3 instead of FeSO4. The difference is that the former is trivalent and does not form aggregates of Fe(OH)3 in oxidized water.

Using glutaraldehyde as a stabilizer is no nonsense. Par example, Tetra Torumin is using it. Unfortunately, I am unable to predict its interactions with various compounds.
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We are not talking about preventing decay, but about preventing mold and bacterial formation, which can happen in both chelated and non chelated solutions. Just saying.
 
_Maq_ said:
The other posters forgot to notice you don't use chelated compounds. For ordinary salts - sulfates & chlorides - no stabilizer is needed. You can keep their solutions for many months without any decay. Mind you, this is not a theory, it's my routine for years; I don't use chelated salts.
Still, for other reasons, I recommend using FeCl3 instead of FeSO4. The difference is that the former is trivalent and does not form aggregates of Fe(OH)3 in oxidized water.

Using glutaraldehyde as a stabilizer is no nonsense. Par example, Tetra Torumin is using it. Unfortunately, I am unable to predict its interactions with various compounds.
Click to expand...
I use distilled water from water factory ( 0 parts per billion). using salt alone in a bottle with water of course I get white fluffy floating things in a matter of days. Maybe you do things that i don't.
FeSo4 is the one that turns bad quicker but i don't mind i have DTPA iron

I used to disinfect using distilled water which obviously doesn't work well. i tried a recipe with H2o2 and another with bleach yesterday and cleaned them with tons of water to remove most of them, it's the first time I don't see living things in there. No oxidation, no color change, can't tell if something in it changed and we can't see.

I tried to put feSo4 with bleach, that thing oxidize so fast, I'm pretty sure there is not bleach anymore or not enough cause it's crystal clear
 
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eminor said:
I use distilled water from water factory ( 0 parts per billion). using salt alone in a bottle with water of course I get white fluffy floating things in a matter of days. Maybe you do things that i don't.
FeSo4 is the one that turns bad quicker but i don't mind i have DTPA iron

I used to disinfect using distilled water which obviously doesn't work well. i tried a recipe with H2o2 and another with bleach yesterday and cleaned them with tons of water to remove most of them, it's the first time I don't see living things in there. No oxidation, no color change, can't tell if something in it changed and we can't see
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My preferred method is to rinse with boiled water followed by a solution rinse of bleach+water. I then rinse everything with RO water. This reduces significantly the bacterial load and spores but it never eliminates them entirely since our house is not a sterile environment.

I have been trying sodium benzoate since last year and have seen no mold formation in any of my batches.
 
Hanuman said:
My preferred method is to rinse with boiled water followed by a solution rinse of bleach+water. I then rinse everything with RO water. This reduces significantly the bacterial load and spores but it never eliminates them entirely since our house is not a sterile environment.

I have been trying sodium benzoate since last year and have seen no mold formation in any of my batches.
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Would be easier to buy sodium benzoate, btw i found interesting topic about using excel in diy micros

here
 
Hanuman said:
My preferred method is to rinse with boiled water followed by a solution rinse of bleach+water. I then rinse everything with RO water. This reduces significantly the bacterial load and spores but it never eliminates them entirely since our house is not a sterile environment.

I have been trying sodium benzoate since last year and have seen no mold formation in any of my batches.
Click to expand...

In beer brewing we use a 'no-rinse' sterliliser (you may use something similar for your kombucha brewing?) that is safe for human consumption, but kills all bacteria and mould spores etc in the fermentor and equipment etc. The reason for its use is because tap water (and by extension RO water) still contains sufficient bacteria to infect the resulting brew. I have wondered if it could be used for rinsing to the containers before mixing up longer term solutions? (I guess the Ro or DI water would need to be boiled first too)
 
Wookii said:
In beer brewing we use a 'no-rinse' sterliliser (you may use something similar for your kombucha brewing?) that is safe for human consumption, but kills all bacteria and mould spores etc in the fermentor and equipment etc. The reason for its use is because tap water (and by extension RO water) still contains sufficient bacteria to infect the resulting brew. I have wondered if it could be used for rinsing to the containers before mixing up longer term solutions? (I guess the Ro or DI water would need to be boiled first too)
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Yes it's called Star San. It's a food grade disinfectant. I thought about using that at some point for my ferts but thought there was really no point considering how expensive star san is. It goes for 2.5 euros for 30ml here.... Also since star san is not something you rinse I would not be confortable living that with the ferts. Not sure what kind of interaction it could have with the traces.
You can't really expect 100% disinfection anyway no matter the method, so as long at 99.5% of bacteria are gone with hot water and bleach, it's good for me.
 
eminor said:
using salt alone in a bottle with water of course I get white fluffy floating things in a matter of days. Maybe you do things that i don't.
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Impurities. There's no other explanation.
Let's think of it. Bacteria need as many elements as other living creatures. No organism can survive with merely iron + sulfate + water + CO2. Moreover, fungi (mold, yeasts, etc.) are heterotrophs, i.e. they need organic matter to proliferate.
 
_Maq_ said:
Impurities. There's no other explanation.
Let's think of it. Bacteria need as many elements as other living creatures. No organism can survive with merely iron + sulfate + water + CO2. Moreover, fungi (mold, yeasts, etc.) are heterotrophs, i.e. they need organic matter to proliferate.
Click to expand...
That makes sense. FeSo4 i have is 95% pure, so it's the things in the last 5% that create that disaster ? since we can't get 100% pure I think, I need to add preservative right?

also, the fact that as @Hanuman said it's hard to get perfect in a no sterile environment.

Macro is easier to manage
 
I had mold grow in a bottle of all in one solution. As suggested by someone on here I added a small amount of citric to the last batch and so far it’s staying clear. Plants and inmates haven’t shown any adverse reactions. Having said that I don’t seem to need to add very much to get good plant growth anyway.
 
Aqua sobriquet said:
I had mold grow in a bottle of all in one solution. As suggested by someone on here I added a small amount of citric to the last batch and so far it’s staying clear. Plants and inmates haven’t shown any adverse reactions. Having said that I don’t seem to need to add very much to get good plant growth anyway.
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I use acid in all my solutions now, citric acid now was ascorbic acid before. I suppose industrial make them in a sterile environment and use chemistry-grade salt. Because i've seen tropica fert in full sun without any mold or oxidation
 
@eminor you can add few drops 3 to 5 ml of HCL in your FeSO4/micro solution if oxidization is a problem and then add some sodium benzoate to preserve the solution.
 
Happi said:
@eminor you can add few drops 3 to 5 ml of HCL in your FeSO4/micro solution if oxidization is a problem and then add some sodium benzoate to preserve the solution.
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I suppose that with the strength of that acid i won't have any problem, need to get full protection before doing that, a drop in the wrong place and it's too late
 
FeSO4 in 95 % purity - I'd rather say with 5 % dirt - will never make a clear solution, I'm afraid.
 
_Maq_ said:
FeSO4 in 95 % purity - I'd rather say with 5 % dirt - will never make a clear solution, I'm afraid.
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With ascorbic acid the feso4 is 100% clear for few days, i believe that if i add preservative i can keep it like that

Hanuman said:
You can buy a dillute version of HLC so that it is more manageable.
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In France, you can only buy 23% HCL, is it still to strong?
 
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