Hi,

When Tom posted the first pictures of his 300g tank he stated that he uses the following.

>>>2 dosing pumps for traces and macros with a month's supply<<<

I was curious as to how this is done. It seems to me that the traces and the macros (I'm assuming the macros have been mixed into a liquid solution) would separate before they were dosed. Or does the dosing pumps agitate the solution before the solution is pumped into the tank or sump?

If anyone has any information on how to automatically fertilize your tank for a week or more at a time could you please give me some ideas as how you do this.

Bill

This topic is just in the nick of time. My vacation is in 5 weeks and I have to come up with a solution to keep my tank fed. I just ordered the SP-3000 dosing pump by AquaMedic, a digital timer, and 1/4" silicon tubing. The dosing pump pumps at a constant 50 ml/min. so the digital timer will be set to come on for 1 minute per day to dose 50 ml of my fertilizer solution.

So I will calculate the amounts that will give 1 ppm PO4, 3 ppm NO3, 3 ppm K in a 50 ml dose and make about 40 doses or a 2L of solution. This should be enough for while I'm on vacation and for testing a week before, and some to remain in the container so it doesn't run dry. I'll use up the remaining when I return. I'll also add the appropriate concentration of traces to get a good daily dose. I may also add a submersible pump to come on at the same time to mix it, though with a weaker solution than I normally prepare, I don't expect anything to precipitate or settle out.

I know planted tanks can be left without any additions for a couple of weeks with no problems. But since I'm using pendant MH, I'm really driving the growth rate of plants, so I want to keep up my fertilization regimen.

I'm hoping all goes well because I have another two week vacation planned for September.

I always thought that mixing traces (or more specifically Fe) in a mix with PO4 risked the Fe precipitating out as Iron Phosphate... Is this not the case?

I'd like to know because I'm also planning on automating my fert dosing and my plan currently includes two dosing pumps, one for macros and the other for traces...

I was thinking of trying something like this:

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...4&N=2004+62741

If you don't go to the site, this is a roto feeder, it has small compartments to dump in food or whatever and then dumps them in as programmed up to four times a day.

Has anyone ever tried this before?

Bill

I don't know. You would think this would be the case in our tanks as well, but I haven't read anything about it. I could always use an Eheim liquidoser for the traces.

As for the rotofeeder, I suppose you were thinking about adding your ferts in dry form? Could work. You would have to test it and find out.

If I mix my macros into a solution does this separate over time?

Bill

Depends upon the concentration ...

In general, at the concentration levels we typically use, yet ... it tends to percipitate out or settle out to the bottom ...

Greg

I mix the macros together, and keep the traces separate.
So I have two dosing pumps as describe by Gillman.

If you have a central filtration system ona multi tank system, then the dosing pumps and CO2, monitoring equipment etc are well worth it.

I use a 4L jug

You can dilute the amount of nutrients down to whatever concentration you want, I typically dilute the traces at 60:40 ratio of Trace: DI water for my routine.

I dose the traces daily and macros as well but with 12 hour splits so they are dosed 12 hours apart.

Few timers will dose every other day for 1-10 minutes etc and there's no issue dosing daily with automatic dosing:-)!!!!

Plus with a 12 hour split there's no mixing.

You can hook up a solenoid to switch reserviors using one single dosing pump and Tee.

Ahhh.........

Regards,
Tom Barr