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Calcium nitrate - need some advice

dmachado

Member
Joined
2 May 2013
Messages
46
Hello, I have available some calcium nitrate with the formula 5Ca(NO3)2.NH4NO3.10H2O, which seems to be 19% CA, 15,5% nitrogen including 1,1% ammonia.

Does it add ammonia in dangerous levels? I want to combine it with KNO3 to add also calcium to my dosing.

If so, why is it used at petalphile?

Thank you.
 
Hello,
Calcium Nitrate does not contain ammonium. The product you list is Calcium Ammonium Nitrate (hydrated). The molar mass of this compound is about 1081 grams/mole. Ammonium has a molar mass of about 18 grams/mole, so that's just over 1.5%. Therefore 10 grams of the compound will add about 1.5% of 10 grams of NH4, which will be about 0.15 grams (150 mg).

Adding 150mg of NH4+ to 100L of water will yield 150mg/100Kg = 1.5ppm NH4+
This can be bad or not-so-bad depending on a lot of things, such as the pH of the water, total plant mass, temperature and so forth.

There are a lot of options to add calcium to your water and you may not even need to add Calcium if you live in a hard tap water area. You can just add a few teaspoons of coral sand or oyster grit to your filter and then forget about it. I don't see any reason to use this product unless you are getting it much cheaper than more commonly available Calcium sources.

Cheers,
 
Thanks for the explanation, Clive.

A small amount of ammonium may not be very harmful with a big plant mass, but I know toxicity rises fast with higher pH and higher temperatures.

I checked my tap water reports and they show Ca at 36mg/l and Mg <4mg/l, so I am guessing only Mg should be added.

What would be the plants Ca ppm uptake, can you give an idea? Would they be depleting the Ca in a few days? I know it will be related with the plant mass, of course.

Regards.
 
Hi,
Well, again, 36ppm of Ca++ and 4ppm of Mg++ are enormous amounts and these values are enough to last a lifetime. These are micronutrients so you only need microscopic amounts.

The only time you should even think about this is if you are using straight RO without remineralizing (which is a bad policy anyway) or if your local municipal water is too soft and you did not remineralize.

There is no possibility whatsoever of depletion of Calcium (Ca++).
High Ca++ levels in the cytoplasm of the plant would be extremely toxic, therefore, the plant develops some very restrictive Ca++ uptake mechanism to counter the threat.

Ca++ is very mobile within the leaf but it NEVER travels from the leaf. Over the life of the leaf Ca++ never becomes depleted but only ever accumulates. All of this is self regulating, so if plants are in a high Ca++ environment they simply restrict the Ca++ uptake, while if they are in a low Ca++ environment then the uptake restrictions are relaxed and then it's only a matter of time before sufficient levels of Ca++ accumulate.

So, as is typical of advice found in The Matrix, you are trying to solve a problem that does not exist, and in doing so could potentially cause many more problems than you would ever solve.

If I were you I would immediately forget about adding Ca++ and Mg++ (and definitely forget about adding it via ammonium salts) because you already have more Ca++ and Mg++ than you need, which also is absolutely fine. If you are experiencing a problem with plant health and if someone told you that you needed to add Ca++ and Mg++ then you should ignore that particular advice, as the root cause definitely lies elsewhere (most likely with CO2 faults).

Cheers,
 
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