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Excellent to see the speed at which this feedback was taken on board, good job guys :)

They're suffering quite a lot of pitting since I've moved house, inverts in my tank are generally not doing well (see this thread for details) so while I never needed it before, it appears to help a little now. They don't get many greens but they do have a varied diet along with my fish so I...

And then the inevitable add on question, is there a cheaper alternative?! *edit* Suddenly realised that people might not have a clue what I was talking about - see here.

I don't measure properly any more, I just add a bit that looks about right! (I know it's awful but that's how I do cooking and it seems to work ok!) I seem to remember that James once converted weights of the preservatives into teaspoon values.

Not that I'm aware of as most people like to tweak the recipe to their own needs.

Mine's the trace colour too, I think it depends on what colour traces you have. It seems to be fine.

You could make a pretty packet buying all the powders in bulk then bagging up the right quantities for the basic TPN+ recipe and selling them as a 'just add water' mix! If only I had the time to actually do it!

I've been using this solution for a few months now and I haven't got any noticable deficiencies so I'm guessing the roots can get at the nutrients. I'll also say that I make batches of 1.5l and don't have any settling or change in colour etc. My plants are growing beautifully. I don't, I use...

I'll agree with Clive as usual. Don't wait to start dosing, as soon as you have light and CO2 then the plants will want fertiliser. On a 275l any name brand product is going to be expensive so I would recommend getting dry fertilisers and mixing your own. If you can't remember what day of...

TPN+ is reported to be quite low in PO4, so for the price I wouldn't bother. Most people who've had really good success with it also have high PO4 in their tap water. I make my own version of higher PO4 TPN+ using the recipe on James page I increase the PO4 content to compensate for the fact...

That's basically what I check for, if there's anything floating or sinking in it!

I make 1.5l batches and dose about 10-15ml a day, seems to keep fine in the cupboard under my tank until it runs out.

Hi Tom, good to have your input on this. I think the idea of a dosing calculator is just to give people a starting point. I don't intend to tell anyone that they should do it the same way I do but when you're starting out it can be a little daunting. If you can use something like this to at...

Just thought I'd add my 2p. I agree with Clive that there's no point having the "ml/10 liter" and "ml/5 USG" cells, they're just confusing. The Ascorbic acid and pot Sorbate figures should be linked to the traces value as well as the amount of water... I think the easiest way to do this would...

They're right there's nothing to get your head around, but I can never remember what I'm meant to be dosing on what day of the week! James has kindly calculated a recipe for TPN+ so you can make it yourself to keep costs down. I would say it's even easier than baking a cake...

I make it in batches of 1.5l and I don't use distilled water. I filter and boil the water first though (don't forget to allow it to cool otherwise if you're mixing in a pop bottle it can get messy!). Seems to last in the bottom of my cupboard happily enough with no settling or things...

http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/deficiencies.htm I would guess it's more likely a lack of nitrogen and you may need to look at a fert which includes this, try TPN+ or you could use dry ferts and follow EI or a similar routine.

Ok, TPN is just the trace elements (the fertilisers that you only need a little of, iron, copper etc.) so increasing it is unlikely to increase growth. However if you are using the original lights(T8s or J5s?) then you're probably doing a low light tank so with the bio-load you may find you...

Yes but when you dose with the dry ferts you add each nutrient separately and can therefore have more control to tailor the amounts to your tank/water parameters. For instance, the people who've had really good results using TPN+ often live in areas where the water contains high phosphate...

Well if you want some bog standard MTS then I can post you some as a starter colony. Just PM me your address and I'll try and get them in the post before Thurs.

I think I've read somewhere that TPN+ has relatively low phosphate levels compared to other dosing methods. I've made my own batch of DIY TPN+ using James' formula but I've doubled the amount of potassium phosphate to see if it makes any difference. While I still have some GSA and hair algae...

Why not get the garden's direct chelated trace mix instead of going to AE, they're very similar and it would save on postage. should be fine as is Magnesium sulphate, (epsom salts) ebay's probably cheapest for these.

Oooh, now there's an easy way :) I've got a similar set for dosing things like EasyCarbo but I can't remember what the smallest size is, will have to check when I get home. I figured it'd suffer from the same break down as TPN+ so I am indeed keeping it out of the light. Cheers for all your...

Cheers James, Guess I'll just have to trust him with a measuring spoon ;)

I'm going away on holiday and am leaving my house mate in charge of my tank. :shock: I want to make it as idiot-proof as possible. Currently I'm dosing ~5ml of DIY TPN+ and 2.5ml EasyCarbo a day. I have an old TPN+ bottle that doses 10ml in a go. Would it be possible to make an all in one...

Well I made a litre batch over the weekend. I thought I'd be really clever and make a solution of Ascorbic acid and potassium sorbate to help measure the little quantities... however the limit on how much you can suspend in a solution is quite low :( I started off with 20g ascorbic acid and...

Well I seem to be getting on ok with the TPN+, I've been using it for a couple of months and have actually reduced my photo-period because everything is growing so fast! I was going to make up 10l of the solution but I think I'll make less, I'll mix the ascobic acid and pot sorbate in larger...

No Worries Ascorbic Acid (Look for the 'pure grade' 100g listing, it should be about £4, if it's not there then I'm sure they'll list it if you ask) Potassium Sorbate Magnesium Sulphate Everything else I got form AE :)

Ok, well I've got about a 2 x 5ml doses of true TPN+ left so maybe not that way. But at 5ml a day, that means the 500ml recipe on James' page should last me 100days ~15weeks which would mean I need to change the KH2PO4 from 2.2g to 15g! My weekly dose would then be 3.5g Potassium Nitrate 1g...

I'm going to be making a batch of James' DIY TPN+ this weekend. Now the current view on TPN+ is that it's a good all round fertiliser but that it works best for people who have high phosphates in their tap water. I looked at the water report for my area (PDF) but couldn't see any mention of...

You can buy water conditioner/de-chlorinator which means you don't need to stand it overnight, just add it to either the water in the bucket, or if you follow Ceg's idea of hoses, the tank before you start pumping water in. I use Nutrafin AquaPlus, but if you've got a bigger tank and want a...

ok, well we don't know exactly what's in it so we can't really say if it's harmful to humans. This thread says that at the concentations that we use it at it can stop trout eggs from hatching, they don't quote a source though. Depending on how similar the 'polymerized isomer ... trademarked as...

*Thankful that she only has a 70l tank so she never has to investigate the price of such ridiculous quantities!* :o :shock:

Ah but Steve, you're making a big assumption there; you're assuming that the final concentrations they recommend are the same. For all we know EasyCarbo could be twice as strong as Flourish Excel but Easy Life may have a different recommended aiming value, maybe they are actually based on...

Other than price is there a substantial difference between these 2 products? Are they the same strength and based on the same ingredients? I can't seem to find out anywhere on the web. The reason I ask is that I don't want to be drawn in by false economy, EasyCarbo may be cheaper but if it's...

Know that feeling, I always forget if I'm on a dose day or not otherwise!I could probably manage a Mon-Weds-Fri routine but that's about as complicated as it gets!

Ok, well I might use filtered water if only to get rid of the chlorine etc. (our tap water tastes of TCP if left over night... nice! :shock: ) I'll keep an eye out in tescos next time I go, I must admit the thought of buying water really doesn't agree with me but I might just check anyway...

Ok I was just timewasting and pricing up some bits and pieces to make JamesC's all-in-one solution when I had a thought. Is it absolutely necessary to use distilled water? I fill my tank with plain dechlorinated tap water so I'm not too worried about what 'extras' it'll add to the mix. What I...

I did some calcs on how much I would save over a year and decided that although dry ferts were substantially cheaper I didn't want to splash out at the beginning when I was still only 'testing the water' with planted tanks. I'm currently dosing 2.5ml/day TPN+ on my 70l tank with 30-45w light...