Re: PMDD in the UK

[Clint Brearley <clint_brearley at telstra_com>]

Ian wrote

> I?ve found a few trace mixes, but would like some advice on the 
> best one. They are:
> 
>        CTE05     TEM50     SEQ05
> Fe      3.3 %     3.3%      8.3%
> Cu      1.7%      0.25%*     -
> Mn      1.7%      3.0%*     10.3%*
> B       0.88%*     -         -
> Zn      0.88%     1.0%*      -
> Mo      0.023%*   0.005%*    -
> Mg        -       4.2%*     6.6%*
> 
> * = not chelated
> 
> How do these three look, and will I need to beef them up with 
> anything else?

I recently put together some PMDD in Australia and also couldn't find 
any traces with exactly the same composition. Most had less iron and 
more copper, which IMO are the main issues. What I ended up doing is 
adding much less traces than was suggested (~1/2 tsp/500mL - due to my 
paranoia about adding too much copper) and adding additional pure 
chelated iron (~1 tsp/500mL I think?). This gave a final iron conc. of 
~1.4 g/L. This is just what I did and it works okay, but I've only been 
growing plants for about 1.5 yrs so don't take my word for it. I think 
it would be hard to have growth limited by traces other than iron if 
you're adding "some" traces and doing weekly partial water changes. 
Might be more of an issue for higher light tanks?? Just guessing here, 
I don't really know too much about that stuff. Anyway, TEM50 looks okay 
plus some extra chelated iron. My traces have Boron so I don't know if 
you'll need to add this too. I hope this is of some help.

Clint Brearley
Melbourne, Australia


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