# powder vs liquid ferts



## paul236313 (Jul 23, 2004)

i like to know if there is any benefits using liquid vs powder or vise versa i can see the powder seams to be alot cheaper then using liquid products like seachem any comments


----------



## cS (Jan 27, 2004)

As far as the plants are concerned, there really isn't any significant difference between adding fertilizers in liquid or dry form. After all, dry fertilizers become liquid fertilizer once added to our tank. Ha ha ha.

To the aquarist however, cost and ease of use are two major issues. Dry chemicals are usually much more inexpensive. Personally, I prefer dry chemicals because I find it MUCH easier to dose using a teaspoon set than to mix it all up in bottles and dose in milliliters. But some folks swear by liquid form (whether they purchased the fertilizers premixed or they make stock solutions from dry chemicals) because they want to know precisely how much of each nutrient is being added.


----------



## ShaneSmith (Feb 15, 2004)

I really like using dry ferts. Its cheaper, easier to dose, and easier to figure out proper dosing. The last one is debatable but there are still two good reasons.


----------



## gpodio (Feb 4, 2004)

I mix my own liquid ferts from powdered forms, I make stock solutions where I know how many ml per gallon are needed for a certain increase in ppm. I find it easy to dose them and makes filling the liquid dosers easy and precise. It also helps when keeping small tanks such as 2.5 gallons where a watered down solution is easier to dose rather than counting drops or very small amounts of powders. But both work and I don't think it makes much difference to plants and such. Traces may possibly have a longer shelf life if kept in powder form, I wouldn't know as I usually only prepare 250ml at any one time.

Giancarlo Podio


----------



## aquaverde (Feb 9, 2004)

Did you use dry measure or a scale to determine the amount of chemical to add to solution?


----------



## gpodio (Feb 4, 2004)

I used dry measure, don't really need to be 100% accurate. I used Chucks calculator to make the initial batches of liquids.

Giancarlo Podio


----------



## Corigan (Mar 15, 2004)

gpodio said:


> I used dry measure, don't really need to be 100% accurate. I used Chucks calculator to make the initial batches of liquids.


Same exact reasons and method I use. I make up stock solutions from dry powder form. I just use chuck's calculator and know how much of each solution adds how much ppm to each tank. Real easy to use one bottle of KNO3, one of plantex+csm, etc. for all my tanks. I also run a daily dosing schedule where I dose macros on one day and micros on the next. Having stock solutions makes it real easy to maintain this type of dosing schedule.

Matt


----------

