Which enema should I buy?

[sguthrie]

Okay, so I checked out some Fleet® Enema, and it said that the active ingredient is mineral oil. I decided to check with the folks here before buying something I wouldn't use (the don't have U-Return at Kroger).

On CVS.com, I saw that the active ingredient in the enema for kids is:

Per 59 mL Delivered Dose: Monobasic Sodium Phosphate 9.5 g; Dibasic Sodium Phosphate 3.5 g; Sodium Content 2.2 g

Is that the one I should use at the recommended 3 or 4 drops after a water change?

 

[djlen]

Get the regular strength Fleet Enema which doses 19g Monobasic Sodium Phosphate, 7g Dibasic Sodium Phosphate.
The Sodium dosage that you saw was amount of Sodium per dose. Not an issue. The first two ingredients are what to look for.
The amount of drops to start with depend on the volume of water you are dosing. How large is the tank?
The optimum P level is considered to be in the .5 - 1.5ppm area, depending on plant mass, lighting, and dosages of K, N and Traces.

Len

 

[sguthrie]

It's a 50 gallon, roughly 47 or so; 135W CF lights (2.78 WPG); Lightly planted at the moment, but I'm working on that, tryin' to get my propagation on.

 

[TPIRman]

I'm sorry to go off topic, but I had to commemorate the greatest subject line in the history of the Aquatic Plants forum.

Returning to the realm of helpfulness, Steve Pituch has put together a dense but excellent page for calculating fert dosages.

And not to advertise another forum, but the Fertilator at Aquatic Plant Central might come in handy here, too.

HTH.

 

[djlen]

Or you can download Chuck Cadd's Desktop Calculator here:
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/articles.htm
It will give you different dosage amounts for many nutrients.
It does give a rate for dosing P in a dry form, but not for dosing liquid or Fleets.
I will tell you that I dose 14 drops(Fleets) after water change for a reading of 1.5ppm, in my 55s.
I would suggest however that you start with 8 drops, and test for content and increase if necessary to reach your desired level.
Keep in mind that the tank I'm dosing about is heavily planted....more like jungle-like, and uses that much PO4. A lighter plant mass and different lighting situation may not need as much PO4.
Plant as densely as possible in a newly set up tank.

BTW, the twe links above are also excellent sources of help and info. and the Fertilator would be a good cross-reference for Chuck's Calculator, IMO.

Len

 

[superjohnny]

Why don't you just eat a nice bowl of cereal or a bran muffin for breakfast instead?

<sorry, somebody had to do it >

 

[djlen]

I like Oatmeal with raisins..........

Len