Dosing Potassium and Magnesium

[Aeonflame]

Ive decided to use dry ferts as a substitute for the commercially prepared options which I don't have. Ive bought potash and epsom salts as my source for K and Mg respectively. Now. the thing is, I'm a bit confused about the dosage.. my head is reeling with ppm measurements (maybe I did too much reading on it)

Basically Id like to know how much of each to add to a liter or gallon of water, and then how much of that solution to dose per gallon. Just a simple practical recipe

[dmagerl]

You should wander over to Tom Barr's site and learn about the EI dosing regimen. There's a lot of info there.

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The EI method is counter intuitive to most advice you read about algae. That being that excess nitrates & phosphates promote algae growth. I've been doing EI dosing for a couple months now and maintaining phosphates at <4ppm and nitrates at <20ppm, and outside of the bloom of algae I had before adapting the regimen, algae has been pretty much under control. The older plant leaves are still coated with pre-dosed algae but all the new growth has been algae free. Oh, and the plants are growing like gangbusters.

[Lady Hobbs]

Algenco had to spell it all out for me like you would a 4 yr old before I could understand it. I no longer remember how since I don't use the dry anymore so someone will come along with the right answers for you. Some don't even mix it with water but just dry dose the tank.

Here's Rex's guide to mixing the ferts.
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[rich311k]

I add a 1/4 of a teaspoon of potassium to my 75 twice a week. I dont do magnesium. I dont worry about the ppm since, one potassium will not hurt anything and two, I change 50-75% of the water every Sunday.

Search for Chuck Gadd's site or fantasyreef.com both have dosing calculators as do other sites.

[tanks4thememories]

Just thought I would mention.
I have been looking into these ([Only Registered Users Can See Links.]). I'm gonna try a few out eventually. Pretty interesting.

[Aeonflame]

Im thinking of making some substrate ferts. My idea is to make topsoil pellets, with dry ferts rolled into it, then roll those into clay pellets. They would be buried around plant roots. Of course, you'd have to be careful not to disturb them.

[Lady Hobbs]

I did that with Laterite. Mixed some water into it, rolled it into small balls and baked them in the oven.

[fins_n_fur]

:hmm3grin2orange: I did that with Laterite. Mixed some water into it, rolled it into small balls and baked them in the oven.
And how were they as cookies? :hmm3grin2orange: Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Although I'm loathe to point you outside of this forum, this article ([Only Registered Users Can See Links.]) might help you with both dry and liquid mixtures that you mix up in advance and dose accordingly. The Barr Report is also another good resource, although Tom goes overboard at times.