Tom Barr said:
K+, Ca, and MG can all be dosed daily if you wish......but doing so offers not advantage vs say dosing them once every 3 days, even weekly or longer in some cases. Mg and K+ are often added to older trace mixes, eg Tropica Master Grow.
Ca, with a GH of 10= water change. I doubt you need to add Ca at all, Mg maybe.........
Check you local water utility's report. They should have both Ca and Mg ranges.
Thanks for the explanation Tom. Silly as it may sound, I still think it is a privilege to be getting good advice directly from you. Thanks again
I checked my water report (and it is
here on post #56). I went straight to Ca and Mg levels. Ca is 56-63mg/l throughout the year, and Mg is 9-10mg/l. Standard deviation is ±1mg/l on the water analysis.
My idea was not to dose Ca and Mg every day, but just to drop Seachem Equilibrium. now I know I will only add Mg and this should suffice.
With the whole adding K to the micros, I am not trying to be stubborn, I just want to get as close as possible with my DIY solution to the products I use. That is the one of the big reasons. I also like the ADA approach. I might drop adding K in the micros later.
I noticed tiny holes on several old leaves of some plants (
Ammania Crassicaulis and Rotalas Green and Rotundifolia. Rotala Colorata is doing fine), and I’ve read that it might be related to my K levels. This is speculation. I know I should be dosing more than enough and this is probably not the cause, but it just pushed me to be sure of my solutions. In this case it gives me a peace of mind to know K is being dosed evenly through the week instead of a blast on day one.
But I do have a lot to learn...
Also, I want to simplify the dosing process, dose 2 things only, macros and micros solutions on alternate days, instead of 5 products on different agendas (Equilibrium, Excel, Macros, Fe EDTA/DTPA, Fe Ascorbate/Citrate/Gluconate).
I guessed the best place to put Ca and Mg would be in the micros solution.
Tom Barr said:
In some set ups with low input and less light,few water changes, non CO2 etc........a standard GH booster might be a good thing.
But I doubt that's the case here.
Definitely not sir!
Tom Barr said:
If......the ppm's for dosing are daily, then yes, cut them in 1/2 or 1/3rd(better).
I dose about 30 ppm as NO3 a week, PO4, about 10ppm. But I do larger water changes and frequent ones on the high light tank, the low light tanks can handle far more neglect.
Both tanks get fed well also for livestock.
No, this is a misunderstanding. It is supposed to be 3x a week.
Nonetheless, I adjusted it to what you suggested (with the exception of K2SO4 usage).
Let me show this in a clear way:
Macros 3x a week - Mon, Wed, Fri | Micros 3x a week - Tue, Thu, Sat | Total being added in a week |
NO3 10 ppm
K 7.67 ppm
PO4 3.3 ppm | K 8 ppm
S 5.92 ppm
Mg 2 ppm
Fe 0.35 ppm
Mn 0.076 ppm
Zn 0.048 ppm
B 0.044 ppm
Cu 0.010 ppm
Mo 0.006 ppm
+0.46 dGH as a result of adding MgSO4 | NO3 30 ppm
K 47 ppm
PO4 10 ppm
Fe 1 ppm |
To support this I do 70% water changes weekly, and I am trying to push as much CO2 as I can. Must say that a 1.4 pH drop is possible, but not with livestock
ighting, as far as I can tell, is as high as I can get without things going crazy. There is also a lot of circulation from the canister (7,5x tank size) and from another pump (surface skimmer).
However, I do have very little live stock, 5 fishes and 15 shrimps. Given the amount of plants, I almost never see the shrimps.
Tom Barr said:
Traces can be cut low without might issue with ADA AS or similar.
The garage tanks show that pretty well.
Speaking of which, I need to go work on those out there.
I use a regular clay substrate from Tetra with some bottom fert mix from Dennerle, around 2 years old. Will switch to ADA AS at some point, after I feel more confident of my abilities.
I am looking forward to seeing the results from your experimentation with traces in the garage tanks!