# How my own micro & macro ferts work



## kekon (Aug 1, 2005)

Due to many issues with plants (stunted growth, burned tips etc.) i decided to make my all ferts by myself including micro fertilizer. The water i use is pure RO reconstituted with popular salts. The micro fert was made using cheap chelators available in shops selling fertilizers for terrestial plants. I was advised to dose high amounts of Fe which... speeded up growth and my plants got very rich colors. However, there is some stunting on Umbrosum and Alternatera but is much less severe than in the past.


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## Satirica (Feb 13, 2005)

Kekon, are you going to share the recipe to your secret sauce (i.e. micro mix) with us???


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## kekon (Aug 1, 2005)

Sure, there is NO secret 
At first i must say that all the micros ared dosed ONLY to changed water and only Fe and Mn are dosed daily. This routine ensures that all the micros are not depleted after WC. 
I dose the following levels to changed water (50% water change). All values in ppm:

Fe: 0.3
Mn: 0.15 EDTA
Zn: 0.02 EDTA 
B: 0.02..0.04 (i'm not sure what level is optimal yet) H3BO3
Cu: 0.025 EDTA
Mo: 0.005 (ammonium molybdate)
Ti: 0.005 (it's not neccesary) (TiCl3)
Ni: 0.002 (it will probably work without nickel as well) (NiCl2 * 6H2O)
C6H8O6: a pinch  (vit. C prevents the solution from oxidizing)

RO water after reconstituting:

Ca: 25 (CaCO3)
Mg: 5 (MgSO4)
Na: 2 (NaHCO3)
Cl: 5 (CaCl2)
SO4: 40
K: 10 (K2SO4)

Daily doses: 

Fe: 0.05
Mn: 0.027
Mo: 0.00002
PO4: 0.15..0.25
NO3: 1 ppm (the dose is not estabilished yet but i've been adding 1..1.5 ppm daily so far)


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## Freemann (Mar 19, 2004)

Very beautiful tank kekon 
Your reds are super!!!
Was it easy to find seperate chelated traces in shops there here it is almost impossible, even trace mix was difficult to find.
What was your thinking behind adding Mo, Ti, Ni in the trace mix and no Mb or Co?
What do you think was the advantage on making your own trace mix instead of buying a ready made one?
What is the reading of you tank in total NO3 by adding 1 ppm NO3?


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## kekon (Aug 1, 2005)

> Very beautiful tank kekon
> Your reds are super!!!


I did as you said - i dosed much more Fe and i obtained rich colors 



> Was it easy to find seperate chelated traces in shops there here it is almost impossible, even trace mix was difficult to find.


Yes, it's quite easy to buy separate chelators. There is a shop in my town selling many interesting things: chelators, fertilizers, biostimulators, salts (such as K2SO4, KNO3 etc). However the chelators aren't good quality as they are not preared for use in planted tanks. For example, Fe EDTA chelator i use quickly oxidizes and i have to dose higher amounts of it. There is a possibility to buy DTPA or HEEDTA ones through the internet and will try to get them.



> What was your thinking behind adding Mo, Ti, Ni in the trace mix and no Mb or Co?


Titanium works as biostimulator so i decided to add it but i'm not sure if it works properly. The problem is that the source of titanium - TiCl3 - must be dissolved in acidic solution otherwise it precipitates. When added to the tank a small "mist" appears in the water for a while which means that it dosen't dissolve completely. There is a special commercial titanium solution available but the shop that sells one sells 5L bottles only (they will have 200 ml bottles in the future).

I added nickel because of urea i tried in my tank (nickel is needed by urease enzyme). I came to the conlcusion that urea is very poorly absorbed by aquatic plants so i suspended the idea. Nickel is also used for iron utilization but it seems it works well withou nickel so adding it is not needed in my opinion.
Molybdenum must me in the trace mix as it's importany micronutrient.
Cobalt is needed by one aquatic plant only - Azolla - so i will no longer will add it to my trace mix.



> What is the reading of you tank in total NO3 by adding 1 ppm NO3?


Now it's about 2..3 ppm and it seems to be enough for most plants.


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## Freemann (Mar 19, 2004)

So what do you think is the advantage of preparing your own trace mix?
Also I was wondering have you considered the possibility that there is another reason for this redening of your plants apart of the iron increase? For example nitrate deficiency? You see problem is that by doing multiple alteration in you fertilizing regime (or even one for that matter) you run a high risk for attributing one effect to a wrong cause for example the increase of one nutrient could bottom out another one and in this case to have an indirect effect, as a speculation Fe abudance in your case could push the availability of NO3 which already is very low to the limits due to increased growth and this express itself in the form of increased redness. I personally never get this redness in this plants if I am "high" on NO3 and add a ton of Fe, I do get some shift towards red but not reds of this degree.
Just some thoughts


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## kekon (Aug 1, 2005)

> So what do you think is the advantage of preparing your own trace mix?


The main advantage is that i can easily balance all the elements the way i want. Besides, it's much cheaper. There are also commercial liquid fertilizers for hydroponics and they can be used in planted tanks provided they are added to changed water only (one must supplement additional iron and maganese with it if one wishes to dose it on daily basis). 
A year ago i bought 5L of fertilizer for a price of 500 ml TMG bottle. It has the following concentration:

Fe: 1.3%
Mn: 0.5%
B: 0.2%
Zn: 0.1%
Cu: 0.01%
Mo: 0.03%

Using TMG i had Zn and B deficiency. In order to eliminate them i had to pour 250% ore more TMG which is expensive for me. In Poland 500 ml TMG bottle costs about $25. Obviously making my own trace mix is for patient folks and i don't recommend to do it 



> Also I was wondering have you considered the possibility that there is another reason for this redening of your plants apart of the iron increase? For example nitrate deficiency?


Yes, it does happen due to low NO3 as well but the main reason is heavy iron dosage because decreasing Fe doses clearly makes my plants to get paler colors. Having higher NO3 (10 ppm) i also got rich red colors on alternatera and aromatica. As i've mentioned in other posts the main reason of going into low NO3 was terrible stunting on Umbrosum and Alternatera Reinecki. Only lowering NO3 and K has helped. Any attempt to raise NO3 above 5ppm results in stunted and burned tips. I was told many times that to overcome the problem was to raise NO3 and CO2 but it always worked the opposite way ! The more NO3 and K - the more horrible stunted and burned tips i had in my tank.


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## kekon (Aug 1, 2005)

Latest news:

Too much boron (i had 0.04 ppm in the tank) caused very slow growth and bent some leaves. I must lower it to 0.02 ppm. Anyway, i'm closer to TMG concentration but zinc must be 3x times higher.


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