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Re: Plant Food



> From: crom at cris_com (Crom)
> 
> I'm setting up a tank using the methods described in Jim Kelly's
> article "How to Grow Beautiful Aquarium Plants on a Student Budget"
> 
> What I'm using is
> Miracle-Gro 6-12-6 plant food spikes.  Here's the breakdown:
> 
> Total Nitrogen(N):  6%
> 	Water Soluble Organic Nitrogen:  3.08%
> 	Urea Nitrogen:  0.75%
> 	Water Insoluble Nitrogen:  2.17%
> Available Phosphoric Acid(P2O5):  12%
> Soluble Potash(K2O):  6%
> Magnesium(Mg), water soluble:  0.50%
> Boron(B):  0.02%
> Copper(Cu)(Chelated):  0.05%
> Iron(Fe)(Chelated):  0.15%
> Manganese(Mn), water soluble:  0.05%
> Zinc(Zn)(Chelated):  0.05%
> 
> Each of the spikes is about 1g.  The aquarium is a 20H (24"x12" base).
> I broke 5 of the spikes into quarters, and pushed them at somewhat
> regular intervals way down into the substrate layer. =20

For heavy feeders like Crypts or Echinodorus, I'd give each one
a stick for themselves. Wells since Crypts are often growing close
together, maybe a half stick for the large ones and a quarter for
smaller ones. It really makes em grow!

> Tell me what the plant food spikes are missing?  They looked pretty
> good to my inexperienced eye...

Looks pretty good indeed. You might want to add chelated iron although
your soil substrate should supply a fair amount of Fe.

I've used Jobe's Plant Stix but yours also seems to have a lot
of micronutrients. What's your water like? Does it have calcium?

Steve