Question of the Week What's your fertilization standard operating procedure??

[Art]

​

This week, let's get into the details to help everyone out. Please be as specific as possible, as if you were writing a standard operating procedures (SOP).

How do you dose fertilizer into your aquarium??​

I'll start.

Macros: I use @Burr740's 1000ml bag of macro fertilizer and mix it into a 1000ml container of distilled water. I have it in my cabinet ready to go. When I do my weekly ~50% water change, I dose 10ml of the macro formula to the tank. So I front load the fertilizer. This contemplates that my rocks provide some GH/KH.

Micros: I use @Burr740's 1000ml bag of micro fertilizer and mix it into a 1000ml container of distilled water. It is connected to a Neptune DOS auto-doser that drips approximately 3ml daily.

For no apparent reason, I also dose 2 capful of Seachem Excel into the tank after a water change. I've been doing this a long time and probably could stop but it's become part of my weekly water chance routine. Don't change what ain't broken.

So? Let's see some of your SOP details for adding fertilizer. Please try to be specific so people can learn from you.

 

[*Ci*]

I dose dry salts mixed into stock solutions. Macros, gH and kH are front loaded weekly after a 50% water change, micros are squirted in daily.
I order AAA dry ferts from this Canadian retailer: Aquarium Direct

Using the rotalabutterfly nutrient dosing calculator for “EI Low light/weekly” targets, I mix KN03, KH2P04 and K2S04 together into a macro stock solution and CSM+B for micros in another. I use baking soda to bring up my kH and calcium chloride + magnesium sulphate to raise gH. I use sodium thiosulphate to dechlorinate, so that is included in my stock solutions.
To keep things straight for my four tanks (260L, 320L, 10g, 4g) I keep a chart to show how many grams of each salt to mix in solution and how many mL’s go into each tank:



I usually mix up double the amounts and keep them in these gallon dispensers (I have found that despite the .4gr potassium sorbate and 10 ml vinegar, some were developing mold anyway, so I am experimenting with double the amounts of those compounds per 1000ml solution):



The solutions then get poured into these easy-to-measure-out dosing bottles for adding to the tanks after a water change.

 

[Koan]

I'll start.

Can we also include what size tanks these doses are used for?

 

[Burr740]

Can we also include what size tanks these doses are used for?

And water change volume, because it makes a huge difference in what somebody actually has in their water

will do mine shortly...

 

[SkaleyAquatics]

Tanks: 3x 40gal, 1x 180gal
WC Volume: 50% weekly
Water Temperature: While not ferts, ive noticed Temperature plays a role in growth rates. All my planted tanks are between 70-73°F at any given time unless I did a water change then they will drop to the low 60s.

Water storage barrels: 4-55gal plastic drums(220gal total) filled weekly over a 3 day period. Once full I dose Mg and Ca. I use calcium sulfate and magnesium sulfate. I dose Ca to 30ppm and Mg to 6ppm. That gives me a gH of around 5-6. I then run a circulation line for a few days to help fully dissolve the Ca. I don't heat this water and it will get into the low 60s when I do water changes.

Macro's: I dry dose 30 Nitrate, 10 Phosphorus, 40 Potassium, over 3 dozes. So immediately following a water change I do half of my weekly total so: N-15ppm, P-5ppm, K-20ppm. Then a dose on Tuesday & Thursday of: N-7.5ppm, P-2.5ppm, K-10ppm.
I primarily buy my macros from Nilocg. KNo3, Kh2Po4, K3So4 are what I use.

Micro's: I am currently uaing up a 1gal jug of BurrAqua Micro mix. Once that is used up I bought Joe's Micro kit to duplicate his recipe. When you are dosing 300gal of water you run through his premixed packs really quick. As I think I use 500ml in about 3 weeks at his recommended dosage of 2ml per 10gal. The 180 get 36ml M, W, F of the week and the 40s get 8mL on the same days. I use 180mL a week.

These are how I dose regardless if the substrate is inert or aquasoil. My theory on this is I'm able to move plants around without much shock when I need something, especially in the 180 specifically. Obviously I stunt ammania but for the most part I don't struggle to grow anything unless I am lax on my maintenence for a couple weeks.

 

[Ernesto]

How do you dose fertilizer into your aquarium?​

My aquariums run with tap water, kh7/gh9 and unprecise 50% waterchange/week.

With the waterchange i frontload NPK straight out of a commercial bottle + epsom salt with a spoon, for the full week. Commercial Iron/micro + a potassium free Nitrogen fertilizer are dosed daily with a dosing pump.

This is the link to the dosing calculator of my choice, here with the numbers for the living room tank.

The calculator even prints an accumulation chart dependent on your waterchange routine.
I hope the google translated link works for the interested.
Switching the macros to diy salt solutions and urea is a plan for this year.
Happy Easter

 

[Art]

I hope the google translated link works for the interested.

Love how Google translated container volume to "pelvic volume"

 

[Art]

Can we also include what size tanks these doses are used for?

My tank is 37 gallons

 

[Art]

And, by the way, I used to weigh out my dry macros every week and I hated it. It took @Burr740 to suggest pre-mixing them into a standard formula in a container and just dosing X ml of that to make my life SO much easier on water change day.

Sometimes you miss the forest because you're too focused on the trees...

 

[Naturescapes_Rocco]

I switched to front-loading macros after WC and using my chihiros auto dosers to daily dose Fe and micros. Love it!

I do a 50-60% WC on all my tanks every sunday, then add pure RO water back in.

I remineralize all tanks with CaSO4 and MgSO4 to 25ppm Ca and 5-7ppm Mg.

I then remineralize the new 50% fresh water to either 10-2.5-15 NPK, or in my heavily planted 150cm 5-foot tank closer to 20-5-30 via dry salts.

On my smaller tanks, where I'd be measuring milligrams of dry salts, I make a quick macro solution at about 250mL and dose that weekly after the WC.

For micros, the CSM+B micro mix is dosed at 0.06ppm Fe daily, 2 hours before the lights come on. It is AMAZING to front load macros during weekly maintenance, but you don't need to worry about daily micros thanks to the Chihiros auto-doser. Highly recommend this method!

I get all my salts from GLA but once I run out would love to support the members here who offer.

 

[Kwyet]

68G Dutch, CO2, Week Aqua P900 at 60%:

It gets a weekly 50% water change (usually). My tap water is 0-1 dkH and 3-4 dgH. I put around 40 gallons in a large Brute trash can the day before with Prime. I have a container that I mix 290 g of CaSO4 and 184 g of MgSO4. I add 1 2/3 T of that into the bucket to get 8 dgH.
I have ferts in a Chihiros autodoser that dispenses 12 ml of pps-pro macros and 6 ml of pps-pro micros daily as described on the GLA website for a high tech tank with weekly 50% water changes. The formulas for the 500 ml bottles are:

Macros
K2SO4-29.3 g
KNO3-32.6 g
KH2PO4-2.9 g
MgSO4-20.2 g

Micros
EDTA Micromix-28.6 g

I just round to the nearest whole number, because my scale isn’t precise enough to do tenths, etc. Also, I don’t use electrical conductivity to decide about water changes in any of my tanks. I just firmly believe that weekly water changes are healthiest for fish.

This is supposed to limit water column nutrients to the following, although it’s probably a little higher because I do a double dose of macros after the water change (skipping the early morning dose):

14 ppm NO3
1.4 ppm PO4
18.6 ppm K
1.4 ppm Mg
.7 ppm Fe

7G Cube, DIY CO2 about 10 ppm
8G Globe, No CO2 or filter
28G BiOrb, No CO2
14G Blackwater, No CO2
19G, No CO2
20G, No CO2
10G, No CO2
125G, No CO2
60G, No CO2

All of these have low to medium light and get 25-30% weekly water changes (usually). I use the same Brute trash can with Prime and the Calcium and Magnesium mix at the same levels, but I also add 3/4 t potassium bicarbonate to bring it to a dkH of around 3. This is because some of the tanks have shrimp and purchased snails and it’s easier to just mix all the water the same. These are all dosed weekly with pps-pro ferts at the low tech recommendation of 1 ml macros per 10 gallons and 1/2 ml micros per 10 gallons, except I’ve been omitting K2SO4 because of adding potassium to the prepared water, and for certain tanks (the 125 and 60) I’ve also been omitting the KNO3 because Nitrates stay around 15-20 ppm anyway from the fish.

Once I finish the dry salts I already have, I may change to the Burr mixes, since all I ever hear are good things and I would rather support a fellow hobbyist.

 

[BenB]

I had to laugh. I thought, it's been a long time, but I'm pretty sure that's not what you looked like last time I saw you. Then I saw that it was an AI generated pic.

 

[Kwyet]

Why does my post keep showing ppm as a link? It’s weird, sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t, and I haven’t done anything to it to make it do that.

 

[BenB]

Why does my post keep showing ppm as a link? It’s weird, sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t, and I haven’t done anything to it to make it do that.

It is a Scape Crunch definition. Newbies can click on it, and find out what it is. It should do the same if any of us does it? test.... ppm

 

[Kwyet]

It is a Scape Crunch definition. Newbies can click on it, and find out what it is. It should do the same if any of us does it? test.... ppm

Thanks!

 

[BenB]

I use sodium thiosulphate to dechlorinate, so that is included in my stock solutions.

How bad is the smell of that? My Seachem Prime is probably the same thing. It doesn't smell so great either. We mix it up for dialysis patients where I work. I don't remember smelling bad, but it probably is.

I use sodium thiosulphate to dechlorinate, so that is included in my stock solutions.
To keep things straight for my four tanks (280L, 320L, 10g, 4g) I keep a chart to show how many grams of each salt to mix in solution and how many mL’s go into each tank:

Did you meant 260L above?

I like how your table is laid out for all your different dosing needs.

 

[Jeff Miotke]

I dose dry salts mixed into stock solutions. Macros, gH and kH are front loaded weekly after a 50% water change, micros are squirted in daily.
I order AAA dry ferts from this Canadian retailer: Aquarium Direct

Using the rotalabutterfly nutrient dosing calculator for “EI Low light/weekly” targets, I mix KN03, KH2P04 and K2S04 together into a macro stock solution and CSM+B for micros in another. I use baking soda to bring up my kH and calcium chloride + magnesium sulphate to raise gH. I use sodium thiosulphate to dechlorinate, so that is included in my stock solutions.
To keep things straight for my four tanks (280L, 320L, 10g, 4g) I keep a chart to show how many grams of each salt to mix in solution and how many mL’s go into each tank:

View attachment 7952

I usually mix up double the amounts and keep them in these gallon dispensers (I have found that despite the .4gr potassium sorbate and 10 ml vinegar, some were developing mold anyway, so I am experimenting with double the amounts of those compounds per 1000ml solution):

View attachment 7953

The solutions then get poured into these easy-to-measure-out dosing bottles for adding to the tanks after a water change.

View attachment 7954

Excellent! This makes me happy.

 

[*Ci*]

How bad is the smell of that? My Seachem Prime is probably the same thing. It doesn't smell so great either. We mix it up for dialysis patients where I work. I don't remember smelling bad, but it probably is.


Did you meant 260L above?

I like how your table is laid out for all your different dosing needs.

Sodium Thiosulphate - no colour and no odour whatsoever. I buy bulk crystals and use it for pond water changes, as well.
And yes, thanks, a typo. My tank is 260 litres (68g)

 

[Phish Tank]

I dose a tweaked PPS Pro in my 55 gallon medium energy tank using dosing pumps. It doses every other day, macros one day, micros the next. I use CO2, but do less than 1.0 ph drop.

My solution mixes are from GLA dry salts, micros has both DTPA and and EDTA chelates. The current tweak from PPS Pro is I cut my Nitrates in half to account for fish waste.

My water changes tend to be every 10 to 14 days, 50%. I use tap, my tap water is pretty soft. After finding some anubias and AR leaves coming in shriveled and hooked, I recently discovered that the calcium level in my tap water is roughly 10ppm. So the hardness in my tap is weighted towards magnesium. So I’ve started adding enough calcium chloride to my refill water to get the calcium to 30. I also add enough baking soda to bring my kh up a bit to 3 (I think my snails shells appreciate it). My final hardness is 8. I premix a glass of water with the calcium chloride and baking soda, and add it to the tank slowly as I refill the water. Since PPS Pro includes magnesium sulfate I don’t add that to the refill water. I’ll usually squirt in a few pumps of a bottle of aquarium coop easy green after I restart the pumps.

My dechlorinator is Sodium Thiosulphate and a bit of prime, I put those in the python hose end that I connect to the tap, and it mixes a bit with the refill water before it reaches the tank.

I’m considering these changes to my process:

Front loading macros: this makes more and more sense to me. I think it will also help me when I have a period where I’m away from my tank for a bit

Less magnesium in my macros: I think this tends to throw off the Ca:Mg ratio as the Mg accumulates, especially if I have a period without a water change.

Upping potassium: my tank has a bunch of java ferns and anubias. I just found my very first anubia flower yesterday, so that makes me very happy

 

[HarryL]

I dose following the PPS Pro method, front loading the macros after water change, and daily dose the micros. Good plant coverage in the tank, have a dozen shrimp that will probably turn into hundreds in a couple months, a bunch of snails, and 8 ember tetras.

The tank is 25 gallons, I do 5 gallons of water change every Sunday. Tap water is moderately hard, about 12 dGH and 8dKH. I looked up the local water report, there’s about 30ppm of calcium and 10ppm of magnesium.

Dry ferts came from NilocG.
Weekly
7ppm N
0.7ppm PO4
9.31ppm K
0.7ppm Mg
0.35ppm Fe(and other trace minerals)

So in measurement, that’s 17.5mL of Macros added every Sunday, and 1.25mL of micros everyday.

I don’t do any individual element tests because I don’t have the kits, and I don’t test tds as suggested by PPS. Might consider doing a bigger water change every x amount of time to help reset things but I don’t know how useful that actually is.