How often should liquid fertilizer be applied?

[sharkweek178]

How often should plants be fertilized with liquid fertilizer? More specifically, is it better to do smaller doses more often or less frequent larger doses?
For example, say I want to dose 3 ml of liquid fertilizer a week. Would it be better to do all 3 ml in one shot, or 1 ml three times a week?

 

[MaloK]

There's no "Smaller dose, less frequent"

This is beta stuff, but it is amazing Nutrients Calculator

 

[Back in the fold]

Don’t use that stuff . The fish do a good enough job fertilizing .

 

[connorlindeman]

I've heard that is better to do smaller doses more frequent, because some of the properties of the fertilizers diminish over time. Not sure how accurate that is though...

 

[StevenF]

from my own experience makin my own fertilizer, it depends on the ingredients in the fertilizer. Seachem comprehensive has the following micro ingredients:
iron gluconate
manganese sulfate
Boric acid
Zinc sulfate
Copper sulfate
sodium molybdate

These sulfate ingredients react with KH which is common in tap water.Aftger the reaction the micro nutrients are insoluble and no longer accessible by plants. So sulfate fertilizers with the above ingredients work better dosed frequently in small doses..

Other fertilizers use chelated nutrients such as zinc EDTA, Copper EDTA Maganese EDTA, and These ingredients can be dosed once after a weekly water change. However for many of these fertilizers also have iron EDTA. Unfortunately iron EDTA is only stable in water with a PH below 6.5. So people often does these fertilizer once ever other day because the iron doesn't last long. iron gluconate is similar that it doesn't last long in the water. The Best iron for use aquarium fertilizers iron DTPA is stable to at a PH of 8 or less. But currently there are very few fertilizers with it.

 

[StevenF]

This is beta stuff, but it is amazing Nutrients Calculator

It was beta about 10 about a decade ago but I haven't seen any changes sinc e I started using it about 5 years ago. It's a good tool to have bookmarked in your browser.