Poor man's SeaChem EQ

Greg Watson

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Re: Poor man's SeaChem EQ

Jon Rupprecht said:
Nobody else noticed the brown tinting of the water after useing this???
Is this persistent? Or was it a haze following dosing that subsequently disipated?

Tom Barr said:
Probably from the iron.
The batch I have does not do this.

Regards,
Tom Barr
His and yours both came from the same batch ... because I have only mixed it up once ...

And Tom is right about the Iron ... the Iron ratio is significantly higher than commercially available products ...

Greg
 

Tom Barr

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Re: Poor man's SeaChem EQ

I knew that without even knowing that Greg, if ........you know what I mean:)


Regards,
Tom Barr
 

Jon Rupprecht

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Jan 24, 2005
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Re: Poor man's SeaChem EQ

Greg Watson said:
Is this persistent? Or was it a haze following dosing that subsequently disipated?


Greg

Yes it is persistent. Its not just a haze either. The water looked like light colored tea. It lasted three days untill I did a big water change to get rid of it. I guess I'll just stick to the EQ :confused: Thanks anyway


Jon
 

Greg Watson

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Re: Poor man's SeaChem EQ

Jon Rupprecht said:
Yes it is persistent. Its not just a haze either. The water looked like light colored tea. It lasted three days untill I did a big water change to get rid of it. I guess I'll just stick to the EQ :confused: Thanks anyway


Jon

Well ... Tom suggested it might be the Iron ... but I would have thought that would have disipated quickly ...

My water comes out of the Tap at a nice GH/KH both at about 11 so obviously I don't use it on a daily basis myself ... I mixed it up in a bucket of aquarium water and didn't observe any more of a haze than I normally see when dosing and it quickly disipated ....

After you message, I mixed it up in a bucket of 2 gallons of distilled water (closest I could come to RO water) and still did not see much of a haze and it also quickly disappeared ...

So I am at a loss for what else to check ...

Greg
 

brad

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Re: Poor man's SeaChem EQ

Just got mine today. (thanks Greg :) ) and I was wondering if the iron content will pose any problem if added at the same time as kh2po4.
Thanks,
Brad
 

Greg Watson

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Re: Poor man's SeaChem EQ

brad said:
Just got mine today. (thanks Greg :) ) and I was wondering if the iron content will pose any problem if added at the same time as kh2po4.
Thanks,
Brad
Problem ... no ... it might not pose as much of a benefit though ..

Seriously, there is a residual amount of phosphate in our tanks in most cases when we dose Iron so there is almost always going to be an interaction "problem" so to speak, its just a question of the magnitude which I suspect is ordinarily down in the single digit "percent" range or less ...

And since our micro nutrients are usually the most expensive thing we dose, how do we address that? We adopt a "best practice" ... and currently in our hobby, the "best practice" is recommended to dose iron and phosphate on alternating days to minimize the interaction ...

Greg
 

brad

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Re: Poor man's SeaChem EQ

Cool beans. Thanks Greg. And thanks a million for sending it to me in the first place. I appreciate it.
 

livionakano

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Tom Barr;4628 said:
3:3:1
K2SO4, CaSO4, MgSO4
This will provide a fair amount of K+ relative to Ca/Mg.
Most folks have enough Ca relative to Mg.
What will get folks into trouble is thast these are hydrated forms, Eg

MgSO4 . 7H2O
CaSO4 . 2H2O

Dear folks,

Since I am a subscriber that not live in USA or UK (I am from Brazil), I am looking for preparing myself a PMEQ. I´ve already acquired the ingredients.

And revising this thread, I have a doubt: This proportion (3:3:1) is about mass or volume? If it is about mass (and since I don´t have a precision scale), what would be the proportion of volume between K2SO4, CaSO4 . 2H2O and MgSO4 . 7H2O ?

Thanks for the advice

Livio
 

Tom Barr

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I do not think it is critical if the ratio is mass or atomic etc.
I'd suggest the ratio based more on mass.

You might try a tad more Mg if the tap is low in Mg, etc.

You can modify it to meet your needs and provide a wide range of non limiting conditons to suit your needs if you plan on making it from the basal basic salts.

It's really up to you;)

Regards,
Tom Barr
 

livionakano

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Thanks for the advice
I´ve prepared a pack and as soon as I get started (when I decide to boost my Gh) I bring the results
Regards,
Livio
 

Tom Barr

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It's not a critical thing, just add about 1-2 degrees each week if you use EI.
It's much cheaper and little bit will go a very long way.

If you add a bit more or less, no big deal/issue etc.

K+, Ca, Mg appear to have a fairly wide range as long as they do not run out.

I do not know an upper negative range for K+ or Ca++, nor really for Mg either.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 

EMBX

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Hi Tom

The report of the water company says this about the water:

Calcium (as Ca) - 45 mg/L
Hardness (as CaCO3) - 161mg/L
(9.4 grains/gallon)
Sodium (as Na) - 17 mg/L
Magnesium (as Mg) - 12 mg/L
Alkalinity (as CaCO3) - 79mg/L

How much do you suggest as a GH booster if needed?
If I need it i shall order some GH stuff from Greg, Alan :)

And if I understand correctly I only dose the GH booster after the WC, correct?

Thanks

Evert
 

Tom Barr

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Tap sounds awesome, you need to do nothing for GH.

If you check the tap, and they give numbers like that, you do not need any GH booster.


Regards,
Tom Barr