I am going to the milky way!

[Biollante]

Hi Gilles, All,

Bigflusher and Tug are correct.

• In a single replacement reaction the Potassium sulfate and Calcium nitrate
• are precipitating Calcium sulfate.

I am with Tom Barr entirely on this specific ratios rubbish.

I think you are working to hard.

Biollante

[Gilles]

I made one without the K2SO4 and it works like a charm. 0 precipitation. Will see how this one goes.

p.s. spent the last 6 hours fixing my CO2. Major re-plumbing down under, but it is finished. No more atomizers, welcome back AM1000 (the third one i bought...)

[Aquadream]

I made one without the K2SO4 and it works like a charm. 0 precipitation. Will see how this one goes.

p.s. spent the last 6 hours fixing my CO2. Major re-plumbing down under, but it is finished. No more atomizers, welcome back AM1000 (the third one i bought...)

I have been using this special N fertilizer recipe for few months by now. In my case it does work somewhat better than just KNO3, but I am not sure why. my observation is that this recipe works better in aquariums with very soft water KH 1-2, GH 2-3. In water with higher KH and GH it does not have so much effect.
My small theory is that everyday supply of small amounts of Ca++ and Mg++ could benefit some plant species. I tested that theory with K+. If I supply the weekly amount of K+ at once in the beginning of the week by the end of the week I get K+ deficiency symptoms. If I supply smaller amounts of K+ every day then I do not get any K+ related problems. In both cases I am talking about the same weekly amount of K+ of 30ppm.
My guess is that the other cations would be more accessible if supplied every day or at least few times per week to prevent possible participation into insoluble or inaccessible compounds.

[Tom Barr]

I made one without the K2SO4 and it works like a charm. 0 precipitation. Will see how this one goes.

p.s. spent the last 6 hours fixing my CO2. Major re-plumbing down under, but it is finished. No more atomizers, welcome back AM1000 (the third one i bought...)

Wise move, this was the root of the problem.
Now to tweak and make sure it's running correctly. Do this slowly and watch.

My 70 Gal has developed a leak somewhere in the CO2, which was leading to the HC acting weird.

[Tom Barr]

I have been using this special N fertilizer recipe for few months by now. In my case it does work somewhat better than just KNO3, but I am not sure why. my observation is that this recipe works better in aquariums with very soft water KH 1-2, GH 2-3. In water with higher KH and GH it does not have so much effect.
My small theory is that everyday supply of small amounts of Ca++ and Mg++ could benefit some plant species. I tested that theory with K+. If I supply the weekly amount of K+ at once in the beginning of the week by the end of the week I get K+ deficiency symptoms. If I supply smaller amounts of K+ every day then I do not get any K+ related problems. In both cases I am talking about the same weekly amount of K+ of 30ppm.
My guess is that the other cations would be more accessible if supplied every day or at least few times per week to prevent possible participation into insoluble or inaccessible compounds.

Well of course it will work better where folks do not use Gh booster.
Which as far as I can tell, has been the case with many that have used it.
Whether the Ca and Mg come from sulfate or NO3 really do not matter and K+ is independent as long as it is not limiting.

You still have SO4 from K2SO4
You still have Ca, Mg and NO3.

Whether it's dry form makes a difference or not is baloney.
Same for the ratios.

Once in the water.....they are dissolved.

I do not buy this............

You can add GH booster and should see the same effect, if not, then it is something else that was overlooked.
Unless the salts are not dissolving and there is some sort of "magic", this should be true.

If you go from say 30ppm down to say 5ppm, vs simply staying at 30ppm to 20ppm, then that might be why.......
I dose 2-3x a week, I do not try and push weekly dosing.

With higher rates of growth, it seems 2-3x a week is the min for dosing, EI does/suggest this, but some go daily also with EI.


If you dose daily vs 1x a week, of course you will see improvement.

I have no issue with special N, but it's simply adding a GH booster to the N vs GH booster alone(which should be added if you use very soft water and in many cases even if not).
I honestly cannot see how there's any difference other than Liebig's law going on here, the salt fertilizers ALL DISSOLVE into the same things once in the water.

As long as the absolute levels do not fall to limiting values or where the plants have to adapt enzymatically due to wide flux of ppm's in the water(1x a week say vs 2-3x a week), this should and does not make any difference.
I've moved ferts around and over wider ranges than most hobbyists, I can see no evidence to support any of this. My tanks/plants can only getting through scaping and general care, not adding light/CO2 or some special fertilizer ratio/routine.

For maintaining stable ppm's , this works over a much wider range in the upper ranges vs the lower ranges, so if you like to add barely enough, or keep the dosing very lean to lean, then you might see some enzymatic effects and adaptations, but that is due to limiting and running things lean, not due to a special magic.
As you approach a limitation......you have to start dosing more carefully and daily etc. Every growth curve, dosing method, Liebig's law predicts this.

I have soft water, GH of 2 and KH of 1. I dose 2x a week mostly except for Traces, which has some Mg. I dose K2SO4/CaSO4/MgSO4 as Gh booster 2x a week.
I use KH2PO4 and KNO3 otherwise. Now if they went with the Urea/NH4 aspect, then that would make a difference...........as NH4+ NO4 vs NO3 might make some difference, there is some support for that, but curiously....the folks using this dosing have abandoned that, and only are using NO3 alone.
They were just limited prior to using this and did not use GH booster is all. They need to go back and see if the GH booster does the same effect, and it better..........otherwise they made a mistake somewhere.

As I am adding K+ as Gh booster, and as KNO3(much more than Special N), and as KH2PO4(also a lot more than many of the dosing folks that use special N), I have little issue, as long as the levels do not fall below 10-20ppm, I'm good.
How does one get K+ deficiency at 10-20ppm?

I can see say 5ppm or less etc......so then daily becomes important perhaps.........but at say 20-30ppm...........there is little difference between 20 and 30ppm.

[Biollante]

Hi,

The fact is that CaSO₄ is not particularly soluble in water.

A couple of grams of Barr’s GH Booster in 300-ml of water really does not dissolve.

The reason we get away with it is we are dropping a few grams into dozens or hundreds of liters of water. Even so, it takes a while to get into the water column and a good percentage ends up in the sediment.

Calcium even when dosed as something soluble such as CaCl ₂ or Ca(NO₃)₂ tends to end up in the sediment fairly quickly, in part due to its affinity for sulfate, which most aquariums have in excess.

Biollante

[yme]

to give my 2 cents:

I do think that something like spezial N can be a good thing. I didn't do the math, but by using full EI the conductivity of my tank gets easy into 700-800 uS. Also, using KNO3 my K levels are rising during the week and are around 20-50 mg/l. By replacing K for Mg and Ca one can add less salts in total (less conductivity) and still have the necessary elements in sufficient amounts.

greets,

yme

[Biollante]

to give my 2 cents:

I do think that something like spezial N can be a good thing. I didn't do the math, but by using full EI the conductivity of my tank gets easy into 700-800 uS. Also, using KNO3 my K levels are rising during the week and are around 20-50 mg/l. By replacing K for Mg and Ca one can add less salts in total (less conductivity) and still have the necessary elements in sufficient amounts.
greets, yme

Hi,

I did a little quick arithmetic and it appears that this does reduce TDS by maybe 130-ppm (^_203-µS/_cm).

I am not sure what this means for plant growth, but it is interesting.

Biollante

[Tom Barr]

to give my 2 cents:

I do think that something like spezial N can be a good thing. I didn't do the math, but by using full EI the conductivity of my tank gets easy into 700-800 uS. Also, using KNO3 my K levels are rising during the week and are around 20-50 mg/l. By replacing K for Mg and Ca one can add less salts in total (less conductivity) and still have the necessary elements in sufficient amounts.

greets,

yme

My Conductivity stays around 300uS..........and goes up about 200uS after dosing, so it starts around 100Us, a tad less etc,...........then I add the ferts.

My K+ is about 30-50ppm a week.

You can see the 120 gal tank, the 180, the 60's, the 90, the 350, the 1600, the 20, the 70's, the 20's.
I do not have any issues I can relate to it.

Hydroponic solutions are much higher conductivity and this is what is used to grow plants at Tropica.
Salinity stress(which is what you are implying by suggesting Conductivity) really does not occur till it is much higher and then............much more due to Na+, than K+.
I'd like to hear what negative effects K+ does and over a specific ppm range, I've not heard anything specific about the benefits of the before and or after effects.

Still, it is EASY to test and see if such claims hold water.
If it is only the K+, we can add more of that and see while maintaining the other ions.

But you need to have the plants growing and doing well before hand, then add moire K+ or add less of something else etc.
SO4's really have little to do with it till they become limiting, which is near impossible in FW tanks.
Tap water is loaded with SO4. Unless you use a lot of RO, you likely have plenty of that one.

Many people really larded on K+ during the PMDD days, people were telling others to add more K+ for nearly any issue. It was nuts.
I suggested that you did not need to add K2SO4 to PMDD since you got more than enough from KNO3 alone.

Which is also true.

So a GH booster could be modified to have just CaSO4/MgSO4 or a mix of MgCl2/CaCl2 or sub Ca(NO3)2 and Mg(NO3)2.
But it has little to do with Nitrogen. It's really an issue of folks not adding enough GH, not K+.

I use Ca(NO3)2 and Mg(NO3)2 for my reef tanks. K+ is a non issue there but Ca and Mg are much more important.
For freshwater tanks, good stable K+/Ca/Mg, might be a key for some people and the special N might get them to do that, but in and of themselves, I've not found some special dosing that effective, unless....something was limiting.
You add enough ferts........and that's enough, if you miss a day, no big deal, as long as you are somewhat consistent etc. I've not found them that important as long as you add some (over a wide range).

[Tom Barr]

Hi,

I did a little quick arithmetic and it appears that this does reduce TDS by maybe 130-ppm (^_203-µS/_cm).

I am not sure what this means for plant growth, but it is interesting.

Biollante

Well, you can modify that further if you want.

And RO water can be used more/less etc, to pick/chose some TDS/Conductivity range.

If your plants lose a lot of leaves because say.........your CO2 tank ran out............this will increase the Conductivity quite a bit, 300-400 uS last time this happened on my 180.
So poor growth, issues entirely unrelated to dosing ferts can cause increases also. Tap water, evaporation, water change frequencies etc.

The change in Conductivity was rapid also.

Plants are pretty good at maintaining turgor and osmotic potential against changes in their external environment.
I do not think subtle differences in uS are going to cost the plant much energy differences in terms of homeostasis, 100-200ppm are not that big a factor

Parts per thousand, now you are talking salinity issues for aquatic plants. Even nastier ones like Na+........