None of my local nurseries and gardening suppliers sell potassium nitrate
for my PMDD fertiliser. Can anyone give me any advice where to get it from.
Is it okay if I make up the mixture without it. If so what can I use in
place of it apart from adding more fish?

"Tasslehoff" wrote in message
u...
None of my local nurseries and gardening suppliers sell potassium nitrate
for my PMDD fertiliser. Can anyone give me any advice where to get it
from.

I bought mine from Chem Supply (www.chem-supply.com.au). It's about $30 for
500g of Lab Reagent. That'll keep you going for a good few years. While
you're ordering it, you might as well buy some potassium sulphate as well.

Is it okay if I make up the mixture without it.

Yes it is. I dose trace and macro separately, and have no problems.
Indeed, that's a good idea especially for the first few months, while you
get a handle on how much your particular tank needs. Your goal (for a
moderately planted, moderately lit, CO2 enriched tank) should be something
like 5-10ppm NO3, and 0.1ppm Fe.

If so what can I use in place of it apart from adding more fish?

Many of the commercially available aquarium fertilisers are suitable.

Regards,

Suzy

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Suzy Jackson http://www.suzyj.net

Alrighty now I'm set. Ta.

"Suzy Jackson" wrote in message
...
"Tasslehoff" wrote in message
u...
Thanks Suzy, they put me on to Crown Scientific, their Melbourne based
distributor. Now all I need is the chelated trace mix.

You can get a suitable trace element mix at Big W, in the gardening
section.
It's made by a company called Manutec. You want to use "trace element
mix"
and "iron chelate".

The trace elements have the following constituents:

Calcium: 10%
Sulphur: 6.3%
Magnesium: 3.6%
Manganese: 2.9%
Iron Chelate: 2.7%
Copper: 1.2%
Zinc: 1.0%
Boron: 0.09%
Molybdenum: 0.004%

The iron chelate is just 13% Iron Chelate. By mixing them gram for gram,
you get:

Iron Chelate: 7.9%
Calcium: 5%
Sulphur: 3.8%
Magnesium: 1.8%
Manganese: 1.5%
Copper: 0.6%
Zinc: 0.5%
Boron: 0.05%
Molybdenum: 0.002%

You end up with a reasonably close mix to that recommended in the Sears
Conlin paper with this.

Regards,

Suzy
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Suzy Jackson http://www.suzyj.net