Thanks Elaine,
Had a look at the seachem website and Equilibium appears to have what I
need, great idea. The only down side is I want to move to discus, but most
discus here in Australia are bred in 'normal' water, not the soft, acidic
type so I should be fine.
Unfortunately, due to all that has gone on in the world recently, we cannot
bring some chemicals into australia, so gregwatson is a no go for me...
:-( The main fert I am having a problem obtaining is KNO3... I can only
get it from the rural area's of australia (about a 2 hour drive) and in 25kg
bags. it is cheap (AU$45.00), but it's going to be a bit of a pain, but
maybe I can sell some of it off (if anyone in Australia is interested??).
I think that you were right with the Dupla... I have a feeling the drops
were calculated for a beginning dose... I will go today to purchase the
trace mix and 'roll my own' fert... Give that a go for a couple of weeks
and see how I go...
Thanks for all your help.
Justin.
"Elaine T" wrote in message
m...
Justin wrote:
Thanks for the response Elaine!
I looked at the BarrReport web-page and the article that you mentioned...
It was slightly confusing I must say... But what I basically got from it
was that you put in the amount of ferts that your plants would take up as
a maximum and then accompany this with large water changes... i have
also boosted my CO2. I think I may need to pull back a bit on the K2SO4
though, unless I am putting in matching amounts of Nitrogen or PO4 ( that
is to bring it up to the NPK ratio)... Is that right?
K won't hurt your tank unless you really overdo it. However, it is better
to balance the NPK ratio. The nice thing about putting in nitrogen and
phosphate if your fish load is light is that the plants really green up
and look nice.
I am going to purchase the Trace mix and make PMDD... The only problem I
had with the trace mix I found was that the calcium was in a carbonate
form... Is this ok to use? Or should I hunt around for one that has
calcium as citrate or another form?
Tom recommends Seachem Equilibrium for Ca++ and Mg++ if your water is soft
or you're using RO. You'll be mostly Seachem Equilibrium, trace & iron
mix, KN03, and a touch of K2P04. Seachem Equilibrium provides potash too,
so you don't need to dose with K2S04 if you use it. Do you know about
gregwatson.com for PMDD supplies? Plantex CSM+B at the regular iron is
working well for me.
--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com