Making Daily Doses of Ferts in Ice Cube Form

[Charles Crews]

Ok, I had an idea and wanted to see if there were any potential downsides to what I was thinking about doing.

Would it be possible to take my daily EI dry fert dose, and pour it into an ice cube tray with a bit of water. The idea is to be able to go out of town and have my roommate continue EI dosing without the headache of explaining what is what or having them royally screw something up. I know that Plantex CSM can't be mixed at the same time as the other ferts, but other than that is everything ok to be frozen and dropped in daily?

 

[Gbark]

I dont see why not

I dose daily with solutions. Micros is Tropica and Macros i make from ferts. You could then fill two ice trays with the dose from each solution and top up with DI/RO water.

Good idea

 

[Gbark]

Would it be possible to take my daily EI dry fert dose, and pour it into an ice cube tray with a bit of water.

Just read this bit again,

It would be easier to make solutions from your dry ferts, then using a dosing calculator work out how many mls of each solution you would need for your tank based on solution strength.

So if you need 10mls of solution daily, measure 10ml into each icecube section and top up with DI/RO

 

[charlie]

My system for such absence is to portion out the daily dry salts in pill boxes, works like a charm.
http://well.ca/products/pharmasystems-mediplanner2-weekly_6031.html

 

[Philosophos]

I mix my own liquid stock solutions all the time; it's way more convenient to do up a couple big batches, than to dry dose. Simple dosing instructions can be labeled right on the front of the bottle.
1L Macros:
65.22g KNO3, 6.44g KH2PO4, 36ml 14.5% HCl.

Micros:
9.19g CSM+B, 91.28g MgSO4.7H2O, +extra iron if ya like (let me know what you have, if you do), 30ml 14.5% HCl

Use DI/RO H2O for mixing. It's simplest (in terms of avoiding precipitates) to just dissolve each salt into a portion of the water, using a warm water bath, and let sit overnight. Combine the next day. The HCl is available at any home depot as pool acid. If you don't have a scale, there are dry measure equivalence charts all over the net.

The dosing works out to 1ml/6L of column, 3x per week for each, to get full EI-level dosing. Speaking roughly, 1tbsp for every 20 gal, 3x per week. Lazy vacation dosing can suffice at 2-3tbsp 1x per week, for every 20 gal. As usual, don't go dosing micros and macros on the same day.

I've mixed the micros and macros at double the strength before... takes more heating and more time, but completely worth it if you're doing larger tanks.

 

[ArnieArnie]

You could also buy a handpump (normally for soap). Measure the average output. Then make your mix stock solutions according to the output. I made a macro solution this way for my father so he only had to pump once a day, 3x per week.

But I also like the ice cube idea! At least it will stay fresh

 

[Charles Crews]

Thanks for the replies guys, I was mainly concerned that it might hurt the ferts to be frozen. I certainly doesn't seem that way.

 

[Biollante]

Potion Cups Anyone?

Hi,

Do the cubes actually freeze?

An alternative, something we did in the olden days.:gw

Measure out each days feeding and dosing in pleated portion cups.

You can even mark them by the day.

Biollante

 

[Tom Barr]

There are various sized bottles and dispensers for liquids as well as the pump style in different volumes per pump.

 

[Charles Crews]

Hi,

Do the cubes actually freeze?

An alternative, something we did in the olden days.:gw

Measure out each days feeding and dosing in pleated portion cups.

You can even mark them by the day.

Biollante

Yea they freeze fine and surprisingly enough they sink as well. It been really good so far, everyday when the lights come on I just pop an ice cube out of the tray and drop it in. I figure I have to goto the freezer to get bloodworms and beef heart for the discus anyway might as well go there for the ferts.

 

[Charles Crews]

There are various sized bottles and dispensers for liquids as well as the pump style in different volumes per pump.

Tom is there any issue freezing Plantex CSM? I have made ice cube versions of all but this since (it's my understanding that) it can't be combined with KH2P04.

 

[Philosophos]

PO4 wrecks the solubility of all the SO4 bound compounds in CSM+B, by binding with them. I speak from direct experience, as I tested this so I could say that I know from direct experience.

Freeze 2 different kinds of icecubes. It's not like you can mistake one sort for the other.

Also, MgSO4 is included as something not to mix with PO4 compounds... make sure you put that in with the CSM+B.

 

[Charles Crews]

Wait... So are you saying that I can't mix KN03, K2S04, and KH2P04?

Because it was my understanding that you couldn't mix KH2P04 with Plantex CSM+B, but you were fine mixing KHP04 with the others.

 

[Biollante]

If You Are Not Part Of The Solution You Must Be Precipitate (Getting Old)

Hi,

Actually yes, you can mix all the Potassium compounds Potassium compounds are always soluble.



It is the CSM+B you do not want to mix with any Phosphate, since CSM+B contains Magnesium and in aqueous solution will have a double replacement reactions as aqueous ionic compounds swap their ions.


The result is Magnesium phosphate falls out of solution. For most practical purposes Mg[SUB]3[/SUB](PO[SUB]4[/SUB])[SUB]2 [/SUB]isinsoluble (something like 0.00026-grams per 100-grams of water).


Biollante

 

[Biollante]

You Can Mix All The K Compounds to Your Hearts Desire--Even SO4

Hi,

I have a couple of email requests for clarification of my “Potassium compounds are always soluble” comment.”

The rule as I understand it

• all Group 1 and ammonium (NH[SUB]4[/SUB][SUP]+[/SUP]) compounds are water-soluble.
• K+ is a Group 1 element; therefore, its compounds must be water-soluble.

Further to that

• All Phosphates are insoluble except Group 1 and NH[SUB]4[/SUB][SUP]+[/SUP] compounds,
• so once again all Potassium phosphates must be soluble.

Potassium sulfates and any of the Potassium phosphates can be mixed without any problem, in addition to the aforementioned rules

• All sulfates (SO[SUB]4[/SUB][SUP]2-[/SUP]) are soluble, except for Ca[SUP]2+[/SUP], Hg[SUB]2[/SUB][SUP]2+[/SUP] and Ag[SUP]+[/SUP] that are slightly soluble and Pb[SUP]2+[/SUP], Ba[SUP]2+[/SUP], and Sr[SUP]2+[/SUP] that are insoluble.

Biollante

 

[pejerrey]

I have 6 lil vials for macros and 6 lil vials for micros, I dose pps-pro daily and I bring levels up to EI after WC with dry ferts directly into the tank.

This works for me, if I'm away I can ask somebody to poor one of each or if I forget the daily dose is not going to make such big impact.
Why pps-pro? well, I started with that but I thought it was too lean and then I went to EI levels. Didn't wanna throw it out, so I came up with this to use the solutions and I liked that the graph from http://calc.petalphile.com/ had less spikes. (although this supposedly doesn't affect anything, it makes me feel that I'm been easier with the critters).

 

[Tom Barr]

All water column dosing methods dose the same things, so adding more or less matters little.

Demand if different for every tank.
But, I've long shown........that the excess non limiting levels are not detrimental.

My question for the OP: why not use a pill box and dose the ferts dry?
Same as adding water but you just do it for the last stage, vs making a pre mix up.

I use liquids for automated dosing pumps.
I use one for the trace and one for the macros.
I also started adding Excel to these instead of water and set my dosing mls to excel dosing, then adjust the grams of ferts to suit roughly EI/7 days etc for daily vs 2-3x a week dosing.

This stuff is easy and can be changed to suit, it's not "critical".
Nor is it that different from PMDD.

Which pre dates every macro/micro dosing scheme.

 

[Tug]

True

What? Should we now add them to our drinks?
If so, at least leave out the Excel.

No thank you.