# ADA to Greg Watson



## turtlehead (Nov 27, 2004)

So I'm currently using ADA ferts but I want to switch to Greg Watson's NKP I still have the old ADA fert bottles which are 500ml and one push is 1ml. What should I buy from Greg Watson and how much do I mix of each?


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## Wö£fëñxXx1 (Feb 10, 2005)

You need NPK, TE.
You been here long enough to know where the link to the fertilator is, if you want to do all the math, even though it is 10x easier to dose dry powder....
John has a dosing guide just above that works perfect.


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## xcooperx (Jun 24, 2006)

why your changing to GW ferts john??


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## turtlehead (Nov 27, 2004)

No money


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## John N. (Dec 11, 2005)

You may want to visit Chuck Gladd's Calculator to make your stock solutions with Greg Watson Ferts.

The NPKs products from Greg Watson are:

KN03 (N)
KH2PO4 (P)
K2S04 (K)

-John N.


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## turtlehead (Nov 27, 2004)

Well I want to have the solution already mixed in the bottles so that all I need to do is squirt everyday and refill when it's empty.


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## dennis (Mar 1, 2004)

Well, what do you want to add? Do you have any idea what is in the ADA stuff? Are you trying to copy that or go some other direction? I think it would be easier to help if we had a little more direction about what you want. Its like saying, I want to make a pizza, how much and what kind of toppings do I go buy?


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## John S (Jan 18, 2005)

HOW big of tank do you have ?? then from there we can figure out how much to mix in those bottles. pm me if you want i and i will walk you thru it.


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## turtlehead (Nov 27, 2004)

I have a 40g and 10g. I want to make a Macro solution in a 500ml to dose for both tanks daily. Is this possible? So sorry, total newb at this stuff


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## John S (Jan 18, 2005)

8 tablespoons of kno3 each ml is about 1.14 ppm,7.75 tablespoons of kh2po4 each ml = about 1.08 ppm those two are mixed in 500 ml bottles each. as for k2so4 i would add that dry to the tank 1 teaspoon = about 18.71 ppm all those are base on about 38 gal of water thats in the tank i took 2 gal off couse of the substrate and other stuff in the tank.


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## dennis (Mar 1, 2004)

Yes, of course it is possible. No problems there. You will have to dose either traces or P separately though as Fe and P make a fairly insoluble product. You also need to keep in mind the various solubilities ( how much will dissolve at room temperature) of the chemicals. For example. You can dissolve up to 12g/100ml of K2SO4 but up to 35g/100ml of KNO3. In the case of the K2SO4 the issue is the amount of K so adding 11g of that and say one gram of KNO3, will pose problems. You should not have to worry about that but I figured to point it out. 

OK, so let me give an example. It does nt have to be this complicated or math involved since you can easily use the Fertilator or Chuck Gadd's calculator and play around until the amounts you mix equal the amount you want to add. However, just for fun, say you want to add 4mg/l NO3, 1mg/l PO4 and 3mg/l of K per dose. If you wanted to have a 1ml dose for the 10 gallon ( and 4 squirts for the 40), quick math tells us...(we'll use NO3 only for this example) a 10 gallon aquarium is about 8.5gallons in all actuality and there are 3.78liters in a gallon so your tank has 31.88liters. If you want to add a total of 4mg/l NO3 to that tank, you are really adding 4*32.88=127.5mg of NO3. So, every time you dose that aquarium you are really adding 127.5mg of NO3. I know that KNO3 is only 61% NO3 so 127.5/0.61= 209 mgKNO3 as added for each dose of 4mg/lNO3.

So, lets pretend you want a 1ml dose for the 10 gallon. You therefor need to add 209*100 (ml in the solution)= 20900mg or 20.9g of KNO3. Remember from before that KNO3 will dissolve up to 35g/100ml so that should work out fine. No issues there.

Now, using the same train of thought for PO4 (from KH2PO4) we find that to add 1mg/l PO4 to the 10 gallon we need to add 5.45g KH2PO4 to 100ml for a 1ml dose to add 1mg/l. I know that the solubility of KH2PO4 is something like 22g/100ml so you have no problems there either.

Now for K... this is the tough one because it actually does not dissolve at very high concentrations. I can use the Fertilator and by trial and error using the "Find percent solution of nutrient in water" option I learn that it takes about 18g of K2SO4 in 100ml H2O to get 2.5mg/l K dosing with 1ml. That is way over our solubility of that chemical so we can't do it. In all honesty, I can figure out that I am already adding 2.5mg/l K with my KNO3. Yo also add 0.5mg/l K from the KH2PO4 so you're already adding 3mg/l K in total. In general, I think that is enough

But, your using ADA stuff and are used to the ADA ferts so you will probably want less NO3 and more K, maybe less PO4 also. In reality, I have no idea what is in the ADA stuff. I am not sure if anyone does know the concentrations..... Another question that ties into this, how often do you dose? How often do you do WC's? Do you seem to have any nutrient defeciencies?

Its really up to you to decide how much fert you need to add because most tanks are a little different. Also, a consistent approach is key, IMO. Long story short, You want to order from Greg Watson KNO3, KH2PO4 and probably K2SO4. I would stick with Flourish for traces. What are you using now for trace?

If you play around with that option of the Fertilator, you'll easily be able to come up with concentrations that work for you. You may need to do more than one pump for the 10 gallon if you want more K but less NO3.... you get the idea.


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## turtlehead (Nov 27, 2004)

I'll still be using the ADA trace it's just the Iron and NKP I want to change. Thanks Dennis for the insightful post haha.


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## Salt (Apr 5, 2005)

The levels of NPK are unknown in ADA products. Someone once asked them what the levels were, and they refused to answer.

This is just me, but I always like to point out that there really is no such thing as a "Greg Watson" brand so to speak. He sells agricultural products manufactured by Plant Products USA. So _really_ it's "ADA to Plant Products".


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## Left C (Jun 14, 2005)

dennis said:


> ...Now for K... this is the tough one because it actually does not dissolve at very high concentrations. I can use the Fertilator and by trial and error using the "Find percent solution of nutrient in water" option I learn that it takes about 18g of K2SO4 in 100ml H2O to get 2.5mg/l K dosing with 1ml. That is way over our solubility of that chemical so we can't do it. In all honesty, I can figure out that I am already adding 2.5mg/l K with my KNO3. Yo also add 0.5mg/l K from the KH2PO4 so you're already adding 3mg/l K in total. In general, I think that is enough...


Hi Dennis,

This is what I use to make a K2SO4 solution because, like you said, it does not dissolve in H2O at very high concentrations:

I added 84.3g to 1000mL of distilled water. That means that 1mL of this solution per 4g of aquarium water = 2.5ppm of K.

You could mix 42.15g to 500mL or 21.08g to 250mL for the same concentration. If your scales only go to one decimal place; that's fine for K2SO4. Just round off your amounts to one decimal place.

I use this solution for one small tank.


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

I dose all of my ferts in liquid form. I used Chuck's calculator to find the amounts I needed. Here is what I mix up and the approximate doage amount for my 75g tank (66g actual volume):

102 grams of KNO3 in 500ml ~ 0.5ppm per ml dosed
35 grams of KH2PO4 in 500ml ~ 0.2ppm per ml dosed
2tbsp of Plantex CSM+B in 500ml

I don't add any additional K other than what is in the KNO3 and KH2PO4 so I don't have a solution for that but Chuck's calculator should have the calculations you need for dosing K


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## apistaeasy (Jul 16, 2004)

Sorry to hi-jack, but does anyone know how many grams are in 1 tsp of CSM+B?


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## Squawkbert (Jan 3, 2007)

About 2.6g/tsp (I used fertilator - 50 gal, 1 tsp CSM+B=0.9Fe, guessed 2.5g, got 0.86Fe (good guess!), tried 2.6, nailed 0.9Fe.


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## Edward (May 25, 2004)

Salt said:


> This is just me, but I always like to point out that there really is no such thing as a "Greg Watson" brand so to speak. He sells agricultural products manufactured by Plant Products USA. So _really_ it's "ADA to Plant Products".


Agreed


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