# [Wet Thumb Forum]-Trying to make my own PMDD! Some help?



## Jaap (Jun 24, 2005)

Hello people,

I have read about PMDD and I am now ready to make my own. The thing is I have the stuff to do my mixture but they are not as suggested on the net. I intend to be dosing for a planted aquarium with no fish at all so if someone could suggest different amounts of the mixing elements please do so! Here is what I have:

1. K2SO4 This is just fine
2. KNO3 This is just fine
3. Microplex for chelated trace mix but contains the following
N 10% (5% ammonium + 5% nitrite)
Fe 1%
Zn 2.5%
Mn 1%
Cu 0.1%
Co 0.02%
Mo 0.005%
The trace elements are in the EDTA form (don't know what is means)
4. MgSO4 but as salt, not in the hydrated form. How do I convert it into the hydrated form?
5. I have no Boric Acid!

So from the above what do you suggest?

Also by 1 tablespoon is it meant a full topped up tablespoon or a level tablespoon?


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## imported_russell (Sep 14, 2004)

jaap, EDTA is just the way that they make your iron more readily consumed by plants. iron likes to stay in the form Fe3, but plants usually like Fe2. the EDTA just keeps the iron Fe2. oh, and by teaspoon and tablespoon they mean measuring spoons level at the top hot heaping.

one thing i see that you are missing, unless i misread somthing is po4. most people use KH2Po4. this adds phosphate to your tank. it is a key macronutrient. here is a post where i helped someone with their ferts. since i'm not fimilior with your trace solution, you may have to get help with it from someone else. hope this helps:

i have a 30 gallon tank with 3 watts per gallon lighting. i have a high plantload also, so my plants use up a lot of nutrients. if your lighting isn't this high, or if you don't have a whole ton of plants, you might want to scale down your dosing.

here are my exact mixtures:

17g KH2PO4 in 140mL distilled water.
(add 2.5mL to tank when dosing a 30 gallon)
26g KNO3 in 140mL distilled water.
(add 7mL to tank when dosing a 30 gallon)

http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_aquacalc.htm if you don't already have this calculator, then download it at the bottom of the page. you can use it to convert grams to teaspoons, and it also does all kinds of cool stuff for aquariums.
now, i'm sure that your bottles are different sizes than mine, but you can just cross multiply to get the right mixes. also, don't be afraid to ask for math help, i know that we are all from different backgrounds, and some of this stuff is very confusing to some people.

ok, my dosing schedule is:

-sunday: do 50% wc and dose tank back to normal levels. (but since you don't know your normal levels, you will just not dose anything on sunday)
-monday: add no3 and po4 mixtures
-tuesday: add recommended amounts of trace elements (flurish in your case)
-wednesday: same as monday
-thrusday: same as tuesday
-friday: same as monday
-saturday: same as tuesday

so basically one day you do a 50% wc, then the rest of the week you alternate days of dosing micros(flurish) and macros (po4 and no3).

as you know, nobody is perfect, so if you can't keep to this strict of a schedule, just do a wc when you can, then dose alternating days until you can do another wc.

now this is the part that tom messes up and confuses people with. the levels i gave you are the maximum your tank should need. you will dose like this for 1 month, then you will decrease it a little, then dose for another month. so basically, you gradually decrease your doses SLOWLY OVER A LONG TIME, until you see a negative effect in the tank, then you know what level your tank needs to be at. you keep it at the level just above where your plants start looking bad.

i know you will probably have questions, because i am not that good at explaining things, so feel free to ask anything!


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## Jaap (Jun 24, 2005)

KNO3 is used to add nitrogen and K2SO4 is used to add potassium together with the potassium added by the KNO3?
Is the sulphur in K2SO4 harmfull when correct dosage is used?


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## Jane of Upton (Jul 28, 2005)

OK, tiny input - 

Boric Acid is often sold as a crawling insect killer (roaches, ants, silverfish, etc.). If they walk through it, it eats away at their chitin exoskelaton (calcium) and they dehydrate until dead. So if you're on a quest, you might find it in unexpected places. If desperate, your local pharmacist should have it, its not prescription, but something they don't stock on the shelves, or supply on request only.

Hope this helps!
-Jane


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## Jaap (Jun 24, 2005)

Using the estimative index approach how much of chalated trace elements should I dose in a 30g tank and how often a week?


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## imported_russell (Sep 14, 2004)

in my 30 gallon (heavily planted) tank, i dose as such:

7 grams csm+b in 140 mL h2O.

i add 7mL to the tank every other day.

csm+b can be purchased from http://www.gregwatson.com

and a grams to teaspoon conversion can be found in the link on my previous post.

hope this helps


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## Jaap (Jun 24, 2005)

> Originally posted by russell:
> in my 30 gallon (heavily planted) tank, i dose as such:
> 
> 7 grams csm+b in 140 mL h2O.
> ...


So how do I prepare the mixture? 2 tablespoons in 500 ml water? Then add 5 ml to the tank?

Please note that my chelated trace mix is called "Microplex" and it is in the liquid form. The ingrediens of "Microplex" are:
N 10% (5% ammonium + 5% nitrite)
Fe 1%
Zn 2.5%
Mn 1%
Cu 0.1%
Co 0.02%
Mo 0.005%


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## imported_russell (Sep 14, 2004)

> So how do I prepare the mixture? 2 tablespoons in 500 ml water? Then add 5 ml to the tank?
> 
> Please note that my chelated trace mix is called "Microplex" and it is in the liquid form. The ingrediens of "Microplex" are:
> N 10% (5% ammonium + 5% nitrite)
> ...


you base your dosing "usually" on Fe. so csm+b is 7% Fe. microplex is only 1%Fe, so it's hard to say how much to add. my suspecion would be to add 7 times the amount, but that sounds like a lot, so you should probably ask someone with experience with microplex to help you with that.


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## Kelah (Jun 15, 2005)

Sorry for barging in. I can't help it. Where do you get all these monopotassium phosphate, potassium sulphate and other compounds? In plant nursery or shopping complexes?


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## imported_russell (Sep 14, 2004)

http://www.gregwatson.com is where i got all of my stuff.


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## Kelah (Jun 15, 2005)

There's no way I'm going to ship a white powder from the US to this part of the world. Do chemical labratories in schools or colleges have these powder compounds? They do experiments using this chemical powders I think. Maybe I can ask them which supplier they got it from.


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## imported_russell (Sep 14, 2004)

here are the common names of the chemicals:

kh2po4 = potassium phosphate
kno3 = potassium nitrate
k2so4 = potassium sulfate
mgso4 = magneesium sulfate
caco3 = calcium carbonate

you may know this already, but if you didn't, this should make it easier to find.


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## imported_buz2au (Aug 8, 2005)

got mine from a hydroponic shop


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