Trying to dose it directly will lead to issues, because the weight is so marginal for the dose and accuracy of weight is paramount it's easier to weigh a larger dose and prepare a solution that you can then decant a volume of liquid that would give you the ppm needed. I used 100ml bottles with the salt weighing enough to give me a solution that is dosed at 10ml - 5L for my target dose (1ml - 500ml is how much I use for traces that I make up and store).
I could weigh out smaller amounts but I want accuracy and the scales become less accurate the lower the weight goes (the scale is 0.01g resolution with an accuracy of +/- 0.01g so larger amounts better accuracy).
I do but I haven't kept it up to date, you can access it through the link in my sig, I lost enthusiasm when the tank went bang.
🙂
Yeah I thought as much - I was pleased to see Zorfox's fert calculator had it in the list and had a look at what amount (in wight) equated to different PPMs. It made me think of getting some Tanitas to really get it spot on.
I know how you feel about updates.... I'd like to give them more regularly but I have things come up where I miss a dose, and it just makes things worse but, I have made some observations still:
The below is a bit [TL;DR] - sorry. Skip to bottom for short version....
The week I documented here earlier was no ferts at all. Things looked good but at day three I felt things were going downhill. I knew I couldn't do without full spectrum fertilising but I wanted to see what true deficiencies looked like and I understand that at least a little better now from that week. So I went back to EI on micros and macros (7.5ppm NO3 1.3ppm PO4 day 1.3.5) and a close to EI micro dose day 2.4.6 using profito. Probably for about 0.3ppm Fe as a proxy. Well, that was a bad week to say the least. Water quality was again, terrible.... looked like milk. This is more than likely the suffering plants creating this problem. I thought it was algae bloom first but soon dismissed that. Also pretty sure it wasn't the Fe precipitating because I find in my tanks after a dose of iron it clouds a little but has a kind of blue tinge to it rather than being pure white, and, it soon clears in those tanks. In my high tech it doesn't. It also appeared on day 1 before any iron had been added.
I'm really convinced adding KNO3 as per EI causes me problems, or just adding any NO3 at all (although not when from urea). Cloudy water, K deficiency symptoms and degrading older leaves.... stunted growth, discolouration and the plants just sit in this stasis doing nothing.
Adding urea at around 0.5ppm and omitting KNO3 every day shows positive and noticeable effects like older leaves staying healthier for longer, yet still ultimately dying. Little growth spurts can be observed but they are short lived. I think I can use urea as the only form of N. I think maybe if the plants use the urea before it gets converted to N, like if I dose it at peak time of plant absorption that would limit the amount of N lingering at the end of the day as my plants really either don't like to consume nitrogen, or elevated levels make them not want it. Either way the NO3 just seems to be on the up and up throughout the week with EI except the times when I don't add KNO3, even the smallest amount.
Now - not adding PO4 = bad. Like REALLY bad. I think this has been the issue all along. But "you were adding 0.65ppm a day! That should be at least adequate?" I hear you say..... well yes, but with the 7.5ppm NO3 going in with it, I was showing PO4 deficiency symptoms (obviously induced) like darker old growth, green spot on glass and crypts, old leaves falling off despite maximum CO2 and flow. New growth (if any) was usually a normal shape but very small. I noticed leaves were pinker in hue with reddish veins. Stems between nodes especially on r. rotundifolia were deep purple. Anthocyanin production overload? Could it be linked to low P? I dunno - all I know is when I add P it's like switching on a growth switch.... but only when I don't add any NO3 as KNO3.
I used to suspect K but have put that one to bed now. I'm confident elevated levels of K causes no issues for me at least. In fact, I noticed that elevated levels of K seemed to alleviate the symptoms. Keeping the plants just holding on and not dying, but not growing either.
Traces - I think there are still issues with standard dosing them at recommended quantities in my tank for some strange reason (the softer water?). Obviously I again need "some", not least since I've been making up the water as discussed originally in this thread. Unlike tap water there is nothing being introduced that I don't know about. So I've decided to cut back hugely on them. I'm talking 1/20 the dose.
To recap, I am still doing the water recipe from X3n1th - I love it. I'm even making my own carbonated water. It is arduous and not for everyone for sure - but I enjoy the process and the peace of mind of what's exactly in my water. I believe this is a great help when you're trying to narrow an imbalance or deficiency of something. You can literally rule out a handful of nutrients in one swoop and concentrate on the others. I will therefore be doing this from now on, but maybe going to 2-3 week water changes, or, weekly partial (instead of 50%) water changes.
So here is the recipe I am using for the water
GH: 6 KH: 6.6 - POTASSIUM
CaCO3 - 6g in 75L = 32.04ppm Ca
4.47 dKH
4.47 dGH
MgCO3 - 0.75g in 75L = 2.88ppm Mg
0.66 dGH
0.83 dKH
KHCO3 – 2.67g in 75L = 1 dKH
14 K
MgCl2 - 0.93g in 75L = 0.35 dGH
1.5ppm Mg
4.37 Cl
MgSo4 - 2.8g in 75L = 0.6 dGH
3.12 Mg
4.05 S
dGH 6.08
dKH 6.65
Ca 32.04ppm
Mg 7.5ppm
S 4.05ppm
K 14ppm
Cl 4.37ppm
Ratio: 4.3/1
That's a good clean start to a week I think. Everything I need for the basic water chemistry, not too much, nor too little. I've not seen definitive numbers for optimal S and Cl for example. Something makes me think S in it's concentration and consumption rate is probably on a par with Mg. Whether equal amounts of S and Mg hold any benefits I don't know but I'd like to try.... I can do this quite easily now with this new water method. A true sulfur deficiency is something else I want to see first hand. This too is possible for me now.
I thought about what you do with front loading the macros. I did want to try that until I became wary of the KNO3 so scrapped that idea, albeit not totally. I get the 7ppm K (in tank total) from the WC water and have this last water change (17th) added about 6g of GH booster to bring hardness up a little more to about 8gh, plus the K it contains (what, 5-8 ppm?). The day after the WC and adding the booster, the water was crystal clear. I've never seen it so transparent. I can actually look down the length of the tank and not physically see anything in between. I'm sure this is something to do with the GH booster. I've noted it in other tanks a couple of times.... anyway, it was about this time I would start an EI week and slowly watch the tank deteriorate and watch my water cloud up etc plus black beard, cladro, green spot, a few specs of cyano on the sand line. Pfff, I'm not playing that game anymore.
And so my week continued as follows
17th 0.5ppm PO4 0.5ppm urea
18th same
19th same
20th same
21st same + 0.25ppm Fe (EDTA/DTPA) dosed 3 hours apart
22nd 2ppm PO4
On those days the plant health was like this
17 so so
18 some noticeable growth
19 same again
20 no change
21 quite a few leaves fell off my stellatus in one sitting - was quite strange
22 having done an NO3 test the night of the 21st (I know, I know... not calibrated either) it seemed high so I thought no urea today, just PO4 and not 0.5ppm, but 2ppm in one dose. That was this morning at 6am, I went out and came back just before lights off and there's been an explosion of growth. The leaves are noticeably much more massive than I've seen for a long long time. Rotala stems are losing that purple stem burn they had, sprouting new sprouts at each node, cardamine leaves looking like great progress, crypts, are always great but they look especially nice at the moment. Stauro, sunset, HC are not looking great but not dead. Stellatus is looking good at the top despite losing all lower leaves so quickly. The surface of the water and my skimmer was smothered with its leaves in the morning. Wisteria is looking bushier and old growth colour is holding well.
Tomorrow's dose (23rd) I think I will give it another little 1ppm of PO4 but no urea or iron etc. I have a hunch that what I need to be doing is adding 1ppm a day PO4 to maintain a level of 3-4ppm while keeping NO3 at around 10-15ppm dosing just urea to get a little N and letting the fish/feeding provide the rest.
I'm not saying NO3 is my problem. It's essential, but me adding more as KNO3 seems to cause me headaches and poor plant health.
Over xmas and the new year I'll be running this new regime while trying to integrate that super small dose of micros and maybe a tad supplementary iron (in the region of 0.02ppm per dose increasing slowly). In the last two days I've seen growth I used to see when I first started and everything was peachy. I hope that this is it finally!
I'll take and post pics tomorrow.
SHORT VERSION:
What I think I should be doing
Don't dose KNO3
Smidge of Fe every couple days
Drop of traces (not sure where yet)
PO4 EVERY DAY
K front loaded
Urea daily but - sparing. 0.3-0.5ppm
