Greg Watson questions

Zen4t5

Zen4t5

AC Members
Jun 2, 2006
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Northern NJ
Ok I have a 20G Long that is pretty heavily planted. I want to move to dry ferts, but I am a little confused on what I need. I know I need the PMDD Pre-Mix. What else do I need and how much to dose of each? What kind of schedule for dry ferts? What mistakes with dry ferts should I avoid? If anyone has exp or info on it would be apprciated. Thank you in advance for your responses.
 
i have a 20 long ... i still use PlantGRO for traces but other then that I use one tsp of potassium a week and 1/8th nitrate a day ...

Make sure you mix the dry ferts into water before adding it to your water >.>

I don't think it'd be good if a fish ate a thing of nitrate or something.
 
Here ya go, this is off an APC sticky:


Plantex CSM+B
Potassium Nitrate KN03
Monopotassium Phosphate KH2P04
Potassium Sulphate K2S04 (optional)


10- 20 Gallon Aquariums
+/- 1/8 tsp KN03 (N) 3x a week
+/- 1/32 tsp KH2P04 (P) 3x a week
+/- 1/32 tsp (2ml) Trace Elements 3x a week
50% weekly water change

displayimage.php

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So just be sure to order 3x as much KNO3 as you go through it 3x as fast; Dry ferts and EI dosing is AMAZING; just be sure you have C02, and high lighting. Try not to miss any days, and do NOT forget to do water changes, with this type of fert regime that water can get real toxic real fast if you don’t keep it clean....
You’ll like the results, My plants grow WAY to fast, I have to pull out ½ the biomass every 3 weeks or the fish cant swim because of all the foliage, they get stuck against the glass and the leaves! BTW anyone living in Victoria BC Canada who wants some plants PM me; I usually just toss them in the garbage or give them away to the LFS, last week I pulled ~8lbs.
-walk
 
Here ya go, this is off an APC sticky:


Plantex CSM+B
Potassium Nitrate KN03
Monopotassium Phosphate KH2P04
Potassium Sulphate K2S04 (optional)


10- 20 Gallon Aquariums
+/- 1/8 tsp KN03 (N) 3x a week
+/- 1/32 tsp KH2P04 (P) 3x a week
+/- 1/32 tsp (2ml) Trace Elements 3x a week
50% weekly water change
Click to expand...

I really didn't want to do the EI method. It is a little more high maintanence than I wanted. I want healthy growing plants, but I don't want a jungle every week. It also sounds a little risky if I miss a water change. Are there any other scheduling and dosing methods out there? I assume that the dry ferts above is all I need. If I don't use the EI method is the dosing above too much. Thanks for the quick responses.
 
Those are the ferts you'll need listed above from gregwatson.

You won't necessaryly get a jungle of plant growth by dosing fertilizers. Rapid growth is more of result of high light, where then plants will need CO2 and fertilizers to substain that growth. Anyways you can follow the basic gist of the suggested dosing schedule for a 20 gallon, but you don't necessarly have to dose 3x a week. You can do it 2x a week and maybe a water change every 2 weeks.

-John N.
 
If you want to slow the growth down:

Be smart from the start, use less light, 2w/gal is plenty to grow anything.
Chose slower growing less weedy non stem plants.
Crypts and ferns are great, add hardscape materials like driftwood, rocks etc, things that do not grow/need trimmed.

These are simple solutions that allow you to have nice healthy growth and layouts.

If you like the really nice scapes with lots of carefully trimmed stem plants, then you need to plan on trimming and more work.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 
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