MichaelJ
Member
Hello,
I am switching over to dry dosing NPK in my two low-tech tanks and trying to figure out what compounds to use. I am actually not going to dry dose Potassium (K) as I am using Potassium salt in my house hold water softener so my Tap / RO mix contains a lot of K already. So for Nitrate I want to avoid Potassium Nitrate KNO3 as I don't need the K (I know it probably wont hurt, I just don't see any reason to add more if I can avoid it). Alternatively I could use Calcium Nitrate, but then I add to my GH which I also do not want. However, I recently switch over to DIY for Ca/Mg (using Calcium Chloride and Magnesium Sulfate) instead of Seachem Equilibrium. I wonder if I could switch out the Calcium Chloride with Calcium Nitrate? I am targeting a GH of 5-6 (my softened tap is “0” GH) for my WC water. If so, I will have to figure out how much Nitrate I will end up with if I would do that.
For phosphate it seems like there are two relevent options: Monopotassium phosphate and Dipotassium phosphate. The Dipotassium is supposedly more soluble. I guess it won't matter which I choose? As far as I can tell, I wont be able to avoid the K part of the Phosphate dosing anyway.
To simplify matters further, I am going to mix it all in with my weekly WC water with some basic trace as well, and probably skip my current mid-week dosing.
Cheers,
Michael
I am switching over to dry dosing NPK in my two low-tech tanks and trying to figure out what compounds to use. I am actually not going to dry dose Potassium (K) as I am using Potassium salt in my house hold water softener so my Tap / RO mix contains a lot of K already. So for Nitrate I want to avoid Potassium Nitrate KNO3 as I don't need the K (I know it probably wont hurt, I just don't see any reason to add more if I can avoid it). Alternatively I could use Calcium Nitrate, but then I add to my GH which I also do not want. However, I recently switch over to DIY for Ca/Mg (using Calcium Chloride and Magnesium Sulfate) instead of Seachem Equilibrium. I wonder if I could switch out the Calcium Chloride with Calcium Nitrate? I am targeting a GH of 5-6 (my softened tap is “0” GH) for my WC water. If so, I will have to figure out how much Nitrate I will end up with if I would do that.
For phosphate it seems like there are two relevent options: Monopotassium phosphate and Dipotassium phosphate. The Dipotassium is supposedly more soluble. I guess it won't matter which I choose? As far as I can tell, I wont be able to avoid the K part of the Phosphate dosing anyway.
To simplify matters further, I am going to mix it all in with my weekly WC water with some basic trace as well, and probably skip my current mid-week dosing.
Cheers,
Michael
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