Anyone tried Easy-Feed Extra from Solufeed?

[jacopo16]

Hello guys, I came across this already mixed liquid fertiliser from solufeed. Any of you have experience with it? It seems quite good and the 5lt option is cheap. Thanks

Easy-Feed Extra

Versatile liquid NPK fertilizer with trace elements and calcium

solufeed.com

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Any of you have experience with it? It seems quite good

No, but it looks absolutely fine.

and the 5lt option is cheap.

Cheaper than "Aquarium" fertilisers, but more expensive than dry salts.

cheers Darrel

 

[jacopo16]

Thank you @dw1305 Daniel! TBH after many years spent in the aquarium world I still don’t know nor ever tried dry salts.. not sure where to start with that

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

I still don’t know nor ever tried dry salts.. not sure where to start with that

Probably here, with a different couple of Solufeed products- <"Solufeed 2:1:4 and Solufeed Sodium Free TEC or Solufeed Coir TEC Combination">.

The advantage of horticultural products is they have to be both <"cost effective and efficiently promote plant growth">, the disadvantage is that they often contain a lot of <"TAN (NH3 / NH4+)">. This product is fine, because it has very little ammonia (NH3) content.

after many years spent in the aquarium world

There aren't really any <"aquarium fertilisers">, or even really liquid fertilisers, they are all just combinations <"of chemical salts dissolved"> in a volume of water. Liquid formulations are always going to be more expensive than dry salts, you have the cost of transporting the water, and the added step of adding the water to the dry salts.

In the case of "aquarium fertilisers" that process of dissolving a small amount of cheap chemicals in a volume of water makes them more <"valuable"> than champagne. It really is alchemy, and about as scientifically valid. Plants can only take up nutrients as ions, charged particles in solution, and every potassium (K) ion is the same as every other potassium ion, there aren't any special, more valuable ones, that have come from Seachem, the 2Hr Aquarist or <"ADA">.

cheers Darrel

 

[john6]

How would you begin to work out the dosage on this product?

 

[jacopo16]

Hi all,

Hey Daniel, I think I’m with you now. When you say dry salts, you refer to Happy’s recipe (for example) which you still need to dilute into water in order to use it as aquarium fert. Do you use happy’s combination using the solufeed products? Thanks Jacopo

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

which you still need to dilute into water in order to use it as aquarium fert.

You would, but if you had a large volume tank? You could add them as <"dry salts straight into the tank">. Most people make up a liquid stock solution, and then dose a volume of that, because it saves time and means you don't have to <"weigh out small amounts"> of dry salts accurately.

The IFC calculator has all of this built in, if you are an Excel user? <"IFC Aquarium Fertilizer Calculator">

Do you use happy’s combination using the solufeed products?

I do, bought from the Solufeed shop front, and before that I was using <"Miracle-Gro">.

cheers Darrel

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

How would you begin to work out the dosage on this product?

You would just choose a nutrient you want to set a level for, and then all the other values would be proportional to that value.

As an example I'll use nitrogen (N) and a 100 litre aquarium.

• 5.06% nitrogen (N), so I'll convert that to a nitrate (NO3) value, by multiplying by 4.43 (<"Nitrate nitrogen (NO3-N) or nitrate (NO3-) – Know the Difference! | Announce | University of Nebraska-Lincoln">), (RMM NO3 / RAM N ~ 62 / 14 ~ 4.43) and that is 22.41% NO3.
• One ml of <"Easy-Feed Extra"> contains 0.224 ml of NO3-.
• There are 1000 ml in a litre and a 1000 mg in a gram and "mg / l" is equivalent to "ppm". (I'm going to assume "Easy-Feed Extra" has a density of 1, it won't it will be a bit higher, but not enough to really make much practical difference. We could do all of this as weights, but you wouldn't practically gain much in terms of accuracy).
• When we add 1 ml of "Easy-Feed Extra" to our 100 litre aquarium we've added (224 / 100) 2.24 ppm of NO3. I'm going to aim for a bit more, so I'm going to add 5 ml and that is 5 * 2.24 ~11.3 ppm NO3 or 2.56 ppm N.

So we have 5.06% N (or 22.4% NO3) and to work out phosphorus (P) level that we supply with our 5 ml of "Easy-Feed Extra" all we need to do is:

• Divide the nitrogen content (5.06%) by the phosphorus content (0.74%) = 6.84 and then divide 2.56 by 6.84 = 0.374 ppm P
• If we want to convert this value to phosphate (PO4---) we need to multiply by ~3, the full calculation is here: <"percentage for dry fertilizers">.

Potassium (K) is then:

• 3.03 (%K) / 5.06 (%N) = 0.65 and
• 0.65 * 2.56 (ppm N added) = 1.67 ppm K.

You could then carry on through all the other nutrients, but you don't really need to do any more than work out a value for one nutrient (any of N : P : K) and you can be pretty sure that that will "work" because this is a horticultural product and has to work, unlike a lot of the "tat" sold as aquarium fertiliser.

cheers Darrel

 

[jacopo16]

I do, bought from the Solufeed shop front, and before that I was using <"Miracle-Gro">.

Hello Darrel, in the main Happi’s post I’ve seen many recipes some tnc complete like and some different. Which one do you use? And which one specifically you recommend?
Thanks again for your help in this matter, very kind of you
Cheers, Jacopo

 

[Cazza]

I use Happi's TNC Complete substitute mix and the plants LOVE it! Works out so much cheaper as well.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Which one do you use? And which one specifically you recommend?

I used the ratio in the initial post, but I'm pretty <"ad hoc"> with dosing, I just use the <"Duckweed Index">.

Thanks again for your help in this matter, very kind of you

@Happi (and @Zeus. & @Hanuman with the IFC) did all the work.

I use Happi's TNC Complete substitute mix and the plants LOVE it! Works out so much cheaper as well.

I think that is a good option.

Cheers Darrel

 

[jacopo16]

I use Happi's TNC Complete substitute mix and the plants LOVE it! Works out so much cheaper as well.

Thank you!
You’re talking about one of those two recipes right? From Happi:
Recipe #1
1000 ml, 20 ml per 60 liters
10 ml White Vinegar
0.5 gram potassium sorbate
4 gram TEC - Sodium Free
44.66 gram KNO3
3.63 gram KH2PO4
5.15 gram K2SO4

N 2.063
P 0.275
K 6.875
Fe 0.11 (EDTA Fe)
Mn 0.027
B 0.012
Zn 0.015
CU 0.003
Mo 0.002

Recipe #2
1000 ml, 20 ml per 60 liters
10 ml White Vinegar
0.5 gram potassium sorbate
5.07 gram Sodium FreeCoir TEC
44.66 gram KNO3
3.63 gram KH2PO4
5.15 gram K2SO4

N 2.063
P 0.275
K 6.875
Fe 0.11 (DTPA Fe)
Mn 0.047
B 0.0062
Zn 0.0346
Cu 0.0038
Mo 0.0028

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
If you want a simple option you can use this one:

The recipe below is based on 50-gallon (189.27 liter) aquarium and you can adjust the dosing to your own tank if needed.

500 ml solution, 20 ml per 50 gallon

Step #1
start with 450 ml Distilled water

Step #2
Add 0.25 gram potassium sorbate and mix till fully dissolve

Step #3 (Pick one from the list below, White Vinegar is Preferred) and mix till fully dissolve
Add 0.25 gram sodium benzoate
Add 0.5 gram Ascorbic acid
Add 5-10 ml White Vinegar

Step #4
Add 31.545 gram Solufeed 2:1:4 and mix till fully dissolve
Add 5.721 gram Solufeed Sodium Free TEC and mix till fully dissolve
Click to expand...

You can either dose it three times a week to replicate EI, once a week, or use it with the <"Duckweed Index"> etc.

cheers Darrel