Making Fertilisers

[doowop]

Hello all,
Well Im new to the forum thing, but i wish id discovered it sooner.

Can anyone help me with this problem.
Ive researched making my own ferts and this is what i have done.

For KNO3.
500ml de-ionised water + 150g dry KNO3.
Its not dissolving though. Ive shook it for a bit.

Also does it need to be stored in the fridge, as I haven't been storing Seachem stuff in fridge and thats seemed fine?

 

[BigIan]

only so much kno3 will disolve in the water,

http/www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_aquacalc.htm

That should help you to fighure out your mixes, i had the same probem so mixed everything into 1 ltr bottles instead of 500ml

 

[Chad14]

Sounds a lot of kno3 150g to 500ml,its normally more like 40g or 4 tbs to 500ml.Add 10ml per 100L of water - this would give you a value of 5ppm

 

[doowop]

I used the calculator on this site, and this mix gave me around 1ppm in 50g tank.
dosage calculator

 

[BigIan]

that calculator dosent account for how much of a chemical a given amount of water can absorb....

download the on in the link it works much better

 

[doowop]

Right Ive tried it on the downloaded version and no red text warning coming up for not being able to dissolve 150g nitrate to 500 ml water.

Ive just given it another vigorous shake but still not dissloved. I think Ill have to add more water but then I wont have the 1ppm dosage anymore.

 

[BigIan]

just add it to 1ltr of water then you get 0,5 ppm doseage so al you do is add twice as much

 

[doowop]

I'll do that, thanks guys.

 

[anodized]

I'll do that, thanks guys.

use hot water (60'C or so) will help it dissolve

 

[anvil63]

No need to refrigerate unless you plan on keeping solutions for years. Keep them capped and they will be fine NO3 and PO4 are really stable. K obiously can't break down. I wouldn't think anything in the trace would as it is mostly elemental minerals.

Carl

 

[JamesC]

It is recommended to refridgerate the chelated trace solution and also add a small amount of normal hydrochloric acid to help prevent the chelator from breaking down. Even Seachem recommend to refridgerate their flourish after it has been opened. Your PO4, NO3, K solutions will be fine for many months.

 

[Themuleous]

Just out of interest where you supposed to get hydrochloric acid?

Sam