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Stable Micro Solution

FishWorks

Member
Joined
18 Dec 2016
Messages
82
Location
Philippines
Hey everyone,

So I have done some research on how to properly dose micronutrients.
I have come to mixing 10L distilled water with 10grams of ascorbic acid, then mixing in the micronutrient crystals, one by one to full dissolution.
I believe the ascorbic acid lowers the PH solution to maintain stability so the trace elements are readily available to plants when dosing.
With rotala butterfly calculator, my nutrients concentrations have led me to dose about 20mL of the micro solution, 3x per week.
This goes into a 400L tank, currently on EI method.

Is this dosage acceptable? or should I increase nutrient concentration and a dose smaller fluid amount like 10mL?
I ask because, shouldn't I be trying to minimize the fluid dose since I will be adding more of ascorbic acid when I dose 20mL than say 10mL.
I know that the 20mL dose is less than 1% of the tank volume, possibly insignificant, but I am quite poor in chemistry.
 
I have come to mixing 10L distilled water with 10grams of ascorbic acid, then mixing in the micronutrient crystals, one by one to full dissolution.

which is the same dose of ascorbic acid as James Planted tank advises, with E202 Potassium Sorbate 0.4 grams per litre. Which is also the same combined dosed we added to the IFC Calculator -Based on what James found worked well.

Is this dosage acceptable?

Depends which Micro fert your using and how much your adding per litre ;)

I would be temped to not make 10litres at a time unless you plan to store most of it in a fridge or freezer, commercial ferts are made in near lab conditions so very few 'if' any thing else gets in, when we make it we have to accept we introduce many spores/bacteria etc so making large volumes without cooling in a dark place is asking for trouble, acidifying them helps but there are limits.

The amount of E300 Ascorbic Acid and E202 Potassium Sorbate you add to the tank when dosing is irrelevant as it is so diluted by the tank volume, regular WCS will also counter any effect of the E300 Ascorbic Acid and E202 Potassium Sorbate in your fert mix. We have the solubility of most micro salts ferts at 75grams per litre based on 13.2% EDTA in the IFC Calculator
 
which is the same dose of ascorbic acid as James Planted tank advises, with E202 Potassium Sorbate 0.4 grams per litre. Which is also the same combined dosed we added to the IFC Calculator -Based on what James found worked well.



Depends which Micro fert your using and how much your adding per litre ;)

I would be temped to not make 10litres at a time unless you plan to store most of it in a fridge or freezer, commercial ferts are made in near lab conditions so very few 'if' any thing else gets in, when we make it we have to accept we introduce many spores/bacteria etc so making large volumes without cooling in a dark place is asking for trouble, acidifying them helps but there are limits.

The amount of E300 Ascorbic Acid and E202 Potassium Sorbate you add to the tank when dosing is irrelevant as it is so diluted by the tank volume, regular WCS will also counter any effect of the E300 Ascorbic Acid and E202 Potassium Sorbate in your fert mix. We have the solubility of most micro salts ferts at 75grams per litre based on 13.2% EDTA in the IFC Calculator

Thanks Zeus,

For my micros, I am dosing slightly reduced EI concentrations with 0.45ppm Fe as my proxy.
The reason I decided to make 10L is so that I could add enough Molybdenum and be only within about 0.89% error for dosing.
Rather than the 10mL, so what is a good size to make? like 1L?

Can you recommend a scale that is accurate enough that I can make a smaller micronutrient solution?
Right now, I am using the AWS Gemini-20. It says it reads up to 20g in .001g increments. It also says error should be within +/- 0.005g.

When I apply my milligram scale for Molybdenum, Rotala Calculator says I add 0.560g to the 10L, instead I add 0.565g, this brings me to 0.89% error.
In contrast, If I should add 0.056g to 1L, instead I add 0.061g, this brings me within 8.93% error
 
Last edited:
1.0 litre max IMO but with acidifying it it should be ok to last 6-12 months
1628434282215.png

You need to make a stock solution for the Molybdenum which will increase accuracy no end with little effort. The IFC Calculator does serial dilutions, so just play around with the mass you have and how many ml of water you add it too to get your target ppm Mo
1628434620015.png

There is a magic button in Excel you you can select two cells and it will adjust one till the other gives the correct answer Data- What if- goal seek
so if you have 10g of Ammonium Molybdate Tetrahydrate ((NH4)6Mo7O24.4(H2O)) it gives
1628435130608.png

so just add it too 906ml of water then add 20ml to your DIY trace solution, IFC Calculator does all the maths

Rotala is good, the IFC calculator is just the next generation IMO with cruise control and auto wipers etc ;)
 
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