# Seachem macro 3 pack? Where to get it



## CatG (Apr 10, 2010)

I had seen a place to get a 3 pack of the Seachem macro ferts, that came with the 3 different kinds of macros, and now I can't find it. Does anyone know where I can order it?

Thanks,
Cat


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## T Money $$ (Apr 21, 2009)

Try Drs. Foster and Smith or Bigalsonline.com, they should have it.


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## mrakhnyansky (Nov 25, 2007)

CatG said:


> I had seen a place to get a 3 pack of the Seachem macro ferts, that came with the 3 different kinds of macros, and now I can't find it. Does anyone know where I can order it?
> 
> Thanks,
> Cat


This is waist of money. You buying distilled water with very little of fertilizers. The best way if you buy dry powders from www.aquariumfertilizer.com and make solutions yourself.The recipe they will give you upon request or you can find one on this forum. You'll save a lot of money.


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## CatG (Apr 10, 2010)

Thanks for the advice! I ordered some dry ferts, and now just need to figure out how much to dose. Still need to do some research on that. I ordered magnesium sulfate, potassium nitrate, and monopotassium phosphate. I am also currently using flourish and flourish excel. This won't be too much stuff, will it? I don't want to hurt my plants or the fish.

Thanks again!
Cat


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## mrakhnyansky (Nov 25, 2007)

CatG said:


> Thanks for the advice! I ordered some dry ferts, and now just need to figure out how much to dose. Still need to do some research on that. I ordered magnesium sulfate, potassium nitrate, and monopotassium phosphate. I am also currently using flourish and flourish excel. This won't be too much stuff, will it? I don't want to hurt my plants or the fish.
> 
> Thanks again!
> Cat


Read this link from Tom Barr website:
http://www.barrreport.com/showthread.php/2819-EI-light-for-those-less-techy-folks It will help you with your doses. The only one chemical that Seachem made it best is Seachem Equilibrium. If I were you, I would not play with Magnesium Sulfate by itself. I would use already premix chemical like Equilibrium or Bar's GH Booster in order to keep Calcium - Magnesium Ratio as suggested, Equilibrium also very rich in Potassium Sulfate, so no need to buy it from aquariumfertilizer.com. You'll add it with your water change once a week. The chemicals you need are Potassium Nitrate, Potassium Phosphate and Plantax. The best method to dose is dry chemicals, except Plantax. Plantax should be diluted and 30 ml Excel Should be added to the mixture as preservative from mold. Drop checker for CO2 and you good to go. Just follow Tom Barr recommendations strictly and 50% water change weekly. You'll see it yourself. Seachem very good company, but they are in 20th century, and Estimative Index is 21st century. No one yet provided better method then dry powders method of Barr. Try it !!!


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## Big_Fish (Mar 10, 2010)

Hey cat...

how to mix your own flourish macros, courtesy of Left C:
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/fertilizing/45119-seachem-dosing-calculator-chart.html

- Add 62.2 grams or 11⅛ tsp of KNO3 (potassium nitrate) to 500 mL of distilled water for Flourish Nitrogen Substitute
- Add 3.5 grams or ¾ tsp of KH2PO4 (monopotassium phosphate) to 500 mL of distilled water for Flourish Phosphorus Substitute
- Add 51.0 grams or 8½ tsp of K2SO4 (Potassium sulfate) to 500 mL of distilled water for Flourish Potassium Substitute*

*(This amount approaches the maximum solubility of K2SO4 of 12 grams per 100 mL of distilled water. You will probably need to shake the container each time prior to dosing.)

EDIT.. DITTO on skipping Magnesium Sulfate.


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## Philosophos (Mar 1, 2009)

Of course you can just mix a 65.22g of KNO3, 8.6g of KH2PO4 into a 1L solution (start with less DI than you need, top off at the end) with DI and have no concerns about solubility, dose it at 6ml/L 3x a week and you've got an NPK batch that will give 20ppm NO3, 3ppm PO4, 13.85ppm K+. That's EI macro in a bottle, and zero K2SO4 headache. This dilution works quite nicely for dosing 10-50 gal tanks.

You can add 2-3x more KH2PO4 if you like; sure knocks GSA dead.

If you find contamination happening, Toss in 10ml of 14.5% HCl (pool acid from home depot) or about 40ml of excel into the DI water ahead of time and wait 5 minutes before adding the other compounds.

For micros it's just 9.19g of CSM+B in 1L dosed the same way for .3ppm Fe. You can enrich with other iron chelates, but this takes care of the micros otherwise. Same deal for the excel/HCl, only it's mandatory to add (unless you like ferts in your fridge).

Conversions for any of this can be found with fertilator if you want to use teaspoons. I very heavily encourage buying a scale for all of $20-30 so that you're open to the wide world of calibration solutions and many other things. You can DIY more than you'd think with a scale.

As for the MgSO4, call me evil but I tuck it in with my micros (add/dissolve 101.2g in the micros before anything else goes in, will give 5ppm Mg dosed) because my Ca levels are high enough through tap. This is the case for a whole lot of people.

There are better ways to mix than any of this IMO, but they're less maker friendly and less tested. I'm going to be playing with some less used methods/compounds and sharing in the future. These stock solutions in this post though are common as dirt combos, effective, relatively hard to screw up, and used very widely.


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## Big_Fish (Mar 10, 2010)

I was HOPING you were gonna chime in, Dan...  
I wasn't positive about putting em together in the same bottle.


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## Philosophos (Mar 1, 2009)

Thanks Big Fish.

I guess I should say some basics about stock solution compatibility so that everyone can catch issues early while experimenting. If all the salts being added to a solution (everything we use is a salt outside the chelates) have the same cation or anion; that is all K+ based, all SO4, etc. then you've got a 100% shot at a stable mix. Look at CSM+B's ingredients; tons of SO4's and some chelate. The PO4 in KH2PO4 works in a macro mix because it only has more K+ to bind with. If it were in with any number of other compounds, it would create precipitates.

After that, look at solubility tables and what you're involving/have involved. You don't need to know the intimate details of ligands, valency, etc. to be able to catch early warnings of precipitates, or make an educated guess as to what the precipitate forming in your experiment is.


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## Big_Fish (Mar 10, 2010)

Philosophos said:


> dose it at 6ml/L 3x a week and you've got an NPK batch that will give 20ppm NO3, 3ppm PO4, 13.85ppm K+.


dose at 6ML per Liter?  that works out to ~ 695ML.....


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## CatG (Apr 10, 2010)

Thanks for all the info and advice! This stuff is all new to me, so I don't quite understand it all yet, but am hoping it will start to make more sense as I get further into it.

Thanks again,
Cat


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## Philosophos (Mar 1, 2009)

Big_Fish said:


> dose at 6ML per Liter?  that works out to ~ 695ML.....


Oops! other way around; 1ml for every 6L. 19.3ml


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## mrakhnyansky (Nov 25, 2007)

CatG said:


> Thanks for all the info and advice! This stuff is all new to me, so I don't quite understand it all yet, but am hoping it will start to make more sense as I get further into it.
> 
> Thanks again,
> Cat


Yes, you right let these guys to have conversation, but for you it is important, that you follow Tom Barr's website instructions. You will be pretty familiar with this method soon, since whoever switched to it, never went back to wasting money on distilled water with little fertilizers.One important aspect you need to know is about your water. You need to know your KH and GH. You can get this info on municipal website, where they posting quality report of drinking water. When you'll add magnesium or calcium, you need to know how much to add. don't listen to old science. never add baking soda to your tank, never play with KH- it is detrimental for plants and some fish.never use alkali or acid buffers. GH(these are calcium, magnesium, potassium sulfates, not carbonates) needs to be adjusted to 4-6 degree,but never KH( carbonate hardness).Calcium, magnesium and potassium sulfates are nutrients for plants. Happy fish-keeping!


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