# Fertilator and Equilibrium / Barr GH Builder Question



## fish7days (Jul 30, 2005)

Using the fertilator it is easy to input KNO3, KH2PO4 and Flourish to see what the combined values are BUT Tom recommended I use 2 tsp of Barr GH Builder or Equilibrium after water changes. I'm not too sure of the exact content of Barr GH Builder so I'm having trouble translating it to the components in order to input in the Fertilator. I am trying to see how much Ca, Mg and K 2 teaspoons will give me.

Any insight appreciated.

Thx

André


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## Raul-7 (Feb 4, 2004)

Why not use Equilibrium, it does the same thing - add Mg, Ca, K and trace amounts of Fe.


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## turbomkt (Mar 31, 2004)

In fact, I think Tom did his best to make the GH booster as close to Seachem EQ's percentages. Dosing should be almost identical.


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## fish7days (Jul 30, 2005)

By using either of the two, what will the concentrations of Ca Mg and K be, in ppm, derived only from the addition of the product, if I add 2 teaspoons to 50 gal of water? In other words, how do I get the Fertilator to calculate that for me?

André


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## turbomkt (Mar 31, 2004)

seachem's website said:


> *Guaranteed Analysis (Amounts per 1 g)*
> Soluble Potassium (K20) 23.0%
> Calcium (Ca) 8.06%
> Magnesium (Mg) 2.41%
> ...


Here's what it is from Seachem's web site. If you add 1g to one liter of water, multiply the % by 10 to get ppm. So...

Soluble Potassium (K20) 230 ppm 
Calcium (Ca) 80.6 ppm 
Magnesium (Mg) 24.1 ppm 
Soluble Iron (Fe) 1.1 ppm 
Soluble Manganese (Mn) .6 ppm

For each 10 gallons of water, 37.85 grams should get about the same numbers (iirc). Please don't take my numbers here as gospel, os it's been a long time since chemistry classes


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## fish7days (Jul 30, 2005)

So for instance: 

To get the ppm value of K for 50 gal and 2 teaspoons, (assuming it is 10g) will be:

(230/(50*3.78))*10 = 12 ppm ?

I think I have it correct?

Thx

André


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## fish7days (Jul 30, 2005)

The smiley jumped in there from two ) ) cute...


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## turbomkt (Mar 31, 2004)

Like I said...it's been a while since I did chemistry (14 years ).

But it sounds about right. Also, it came from the 8 and ) as such: 8)


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## turbomkt (Mar 31, 2004)

BTW, I don't know how "K2O" affects it, so it is probably wrong .



Seachem said:


> Elemental potassium is present at a concentration of 195,000 ppm (19.5%). Archaic fertilizer laws force us to list potassium in terms of equivalence to a material that is not present (K2O) rather than the more scientificaly sound method of simple e lemental equivalence.


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## turbomkt (Mar 31, 2004)

OK...I read the stuff from Seachem a little closer (quoted above) and K should be 19.5% or 10.6 ppm in your example.


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## plantbrain (Jan 23, 2004)

turbomkt said:


> In fact, I think Tom did his best to make the GH booster as close to Seachem EQ's percentages. Dosing should be almost identical.


It's not the same, less K2SO4, more MgSO4 than SeaChem(I think).
Greg made it up based off something I said a few months ago and put my name attached to it.

It would be better to ask him.
It does dissolve much better, is much finer powder, and does not cake and turn into a rock like SeaChem EQ, that is a big issues for a few folks.

Regards, 
Tom Barr

www.BarrReport.com


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## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

Here's a calculator that I posted on a related thread...

http://www.fishfriend.com/fertfriend.html

Does all the calculations for mg/l of each element in several different commercial fert mixes, including Equilibrium.


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## fish7days (Jul 30, 2005)

Thanks everyone !!

I appreciate your help.

André


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