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Re: Tropica Master Grow fertilizer

Michael asks: 
> From: u7211aa at sunmail_lrz-muenchen.de (Michael Irlbeck)
> Date: Tue, 04 Jul 95 14:01:02 EDT
> Subject: Tropica fertilizer
> 
> Hello!
> 
> This one is for Claus Christensen:
> 
> Yesterday I saw some Tropica plant fertilizer sold in a small 
> aquarium store here in Munich. I didn't know that you were also
> selling your own fertilizer. Here's the big question: is it the 
> same fertilizer you are using (for the submerse cultures) in your
> greenhouses in Denmark?
> I know you probably won't be able to tell us the constitution 
> of the fluid, but maybe some features?

Actually I think Tropica was one of the only companies which does
document the ingredients on their fertilizer. I used Tropica Master
Grow (TMG) for about a year and was very pleased with this product. 
I have not since been able to find a supplier here in Vancouver. 
If you know of one, please let me know.

Tropica Master Grow had: K .79% Mg .39% S 1.01% B .004% Cu .006%
Fe .07% Mn .04% Mo .002% Zn .002% HEEDTA, DTPA, E123. There were
no Phosphates or Nitrates. Cost was $30 Cdn / 500 ml and is about
a years supply for a 50 gallon w biweekly water changes of 25%.

Currently I use Floreal and Ferreal by aqualine buschke but I
don't know the concentrations from either of these. Ferreal contains
iron but we don't know the concentration, the compound or even if
it is chelated! :-( Floreal indicates it has K, Na, Mg, Fe-complex
and "useful organic compounds". The cost is $20/500ml but the
dosage is 4 times higher than TMG.

aqualine buschke also have Terrapur cone shaped plant supplements
which are $25 for 20 cones. No description given but I suspect
that they contain laterite or some similar clay. There's no indication
of N, phosphate or potash (K) so I presume it's not really fertilizer.
I think there is a law which states fertilizers must document the
concentrations of these three ingredients.

I was at a garden center looking at supplements there and found
several iron supplements. Most contain at least minimal amounts of
Nitrogen, phosphate and potash. There is a large package labelled
micronized iron which I believe it described as a chelated iron source.
Karen Randall described it as "fine iron filings" and likes it. This
would be a cheap source at least for Fe but it made no mention of
any other ingredients. (presumably none) There was a liquid 
supplement which listed several (all?) of the ingredients of TMG
in addition to relatively smaller concentrations of N, P & K. I'm
considering using that in my slow flow RUGF experiment. The hold
up now is that I couldn't locate a stud to hang my MH 250 watt
fixture from so I'll use some "butterfly" fasteners for gyprock.

BTW, after several days of soaking in a bucket of water, almost all
of the vermiculite has sunk to the bottom except for the larger chunks.
I think they will too if I crush them up. I glued the two riser tubes
from the original UGF to make a long tube which is BTW detacheable
since these risers were just a friction fit over 1" rigid tubing in
the base. Is Vaseline a safe sealant to use in an aquarium? I
shouldn't think so because it is a petroleum product. How about
KY or a silicone based one? (stop giggling y'all!)

 - Steve