# help with a 500 ml macro bottle mix



## thunderjack14 (Nov 28, 2014)

Hello everyone !

I'm switching to dry ferts and need help on the mixing of the 500 ml mixing bottle?

Ok this is what i got on the mixing calculator ( Yet Another Nutrient Calculator) now i need to know if the mix is right because it seems a lot of fertilizer for a 500ml bottle.

I have a 150 gallon tank and want to dose E.I dosing.

KNO3 = 694.3 grams
KH2PO4 = 105.7 grams
K2HPO4 = 135.3 grams

Dose 5ml 2 to 4 times a week is this right ?

Any help would be great thanks everyone.


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## ray-the-pilot (May 14, 2008)

thunderjack14 said:


> Hello everyone !
> 
> I'm switching to dry ferts and need help on the mixing of the 500 ml mixing bottle?
> 
> ...


I don't know where you got your formula from but it is way off. 
You are adding almost a kilo of fert to your tank a week. That is a lot! and there is no way you can dissolve a kilo of anything in 10 - 20 ml of water!
Is it possible that your ferts are in milligrams?


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## nilocg (Sep 14, 2010)

ray-the-pilot said:


> I don't know where you got your formula from but it is way off.
> You are adding almost a kilo of fert to your tank a week. That is a lot! and there is no way you can dissolve a kilo of anything in 10 - 20 ml of water!
> Is it possible that your ferts are in milligrams?


He isn't adding that to the tank each week, he is mixing it into 500ml and dosing 5ml. While the mix might be correct you will never get that dissolved into 500ml. I would redo the calculation with dosing 50ml 2-4x per day.


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## abrooks12376 (Jul 22, 2014)

That's so much nitrate.. you'll kill em all.. is this gla dry ferts?? How stocked is your tank? I don't even use the kno3.. fish poo takes care of that.. how did you reach these values?
Edit- I doubt that much will even dissolve if there's any room left for water, why not mix smaller batches or dose dry?


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## nilocg (Sep 14, 2010)

abrooks12376 said:


> That's so much nitrate.. you'll kill em all.. is this gla dry ferts?? How stocked is your tank? I don't even use the kno3.. fish poo takes care of that.. how did you reach these values?
> Edit- I doubt that much will even dissolve if there's any room left for water, why not mix smaller batches or dose dry?


These values are correct for dosing a 150 gallon tank at 5ml per day, other than the fact that he only needs the kno3 and kh2po4. Im not sure why it matters where the dry ferts came from. I think maybe instead of k2hpo4 he meant to use k2so4 but that is only a guess.

Making a solution for a 10 gallon tank and only dosing 5ml works, it doesnt work for such a large tank. He needs to change the 5ml dose to ~50ml dose when calculating amounts to add and it will work just fine.

Fish poo works for tanks with large number of fish and low light and no co2. Most tanks are going to need an extra source of nitrogen, fish poo normally isnt going to be enough.


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## ray-the-pilot (May 14, 2008)

nilocg said:


> He isn't adding that to the tank each week, he is mixing it into 500ml and dosing 5ml. While the mix might be correct you will never get that dissolved into 500ml. I would redo the calculation with dosing 50ml 2-4x per day.


Ah the light goes on!
I agree, there is no way you can dissolve all that fert in 500 ml. You need to cut the amounts by 1/10 and dissolve them in 500 ml of water. Then if you use 50 ml of the solution 4x per week. 
Per week this will add to your tank:
25 ppm K
10 ppm PO4
30 ppm NO3

The standard EI dose is about:
24 ppm K
8 ppm PO4
34 ppm NO3


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## Tugg (Jul 28, 2013)

Personally, I like to use the line that the dosing bottle already has.

Mine have a 5ml and a 30ml line. When I was dosing EI, I set my concentrations so I could just squeeze to the 30ml then dump it in the tank. It doesn't get any easier than that.


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## abrooks12376 (Jul 22, 2014)

Tugg said:


> Personally, I like to use the line that the dosing bottle already has.
> 
> Mine have a 5ml and a 30ml line. When I was dosing EI, I set my concentrations so I could just squeeze to the 30ml then dump it in the tank. It doesn't get any easier than that.


Yah... im with you.. i dose small tanks though. If I were op and I wanted to only mix once a month I'd be using an old juice bottle and measuring cup


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## nilocg (Sep 14, 2010)

Tugg said:


> Personally, I like to use the line that the dosing bottle already has.
> 
> Mine have a 5ml and a 30ml line. When I was dosing EI, I set my concentrations so I could just squeeze to the 30ml then dump it in the tank. It doesn't get any easier than that.


I agree with that but he will have trouble dissolving the amount of dry fertilizer.


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## Tugg (Jul 28, 2013)

For a 150g tank, the K2SO4 will be a problem as a solution. You almost NEED to dry dose it.

EI's starting point has you putting in 9.49g per dose at that volume. With it's solubility of 120mg/ml that means you need a minimal dose size of just about 80ml. For practicality, you may as well as round up to 125ml and dose with a 1/4 cup measuring spoon.

.... or just dry dose the tank since it's WAY easier at this size.

To dry dose it, measure out the grams for each dose once a week and put it in little film or medicine bottles. Then each day, you just pop a cap and toss in the salt, just like feeding the fish.


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## thunderjack14 (Nov 28, 2014)

Hello everyone !

I think i got it all figured out now for my 500ml mix KNO3 (56.8 grams), KH2PO4 (8.8 grams) K4HPO4(11.2 grams) and dose at 60ml every three days Monday,Wednesday,Friday on a 150 us gallon tank. Mixes much better than my first measurements lol lol .... 

Thanks everyone for your input.

Take care peace !


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