Fertilizer comparison chart

To: Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
Subject: Fertilizer comparison chart
From: nfrank at nando_net (Neil Frank)
Date: Sat, 23 Mar 96 09:11:15 EST
I prepared the following comparison last year, and thought it
would be a good idea to present it again. I ran out of space, so
I did not include everything that is out there. The table uses
whatever units were available, so the magnitude of
the numbers can't be directly compared. These are NOT final
concentrations in the aquarium, just the relative concentrations
within each product. I invite others to expand the table. It
would be good to add the PMDD.

Dosing information is not provided, and is important to determine
final concentrations in the aquarium, especially when multiple products 
are used, as with Dupla. To me it is apparent that each of the
three dupla products are designed to provide different nutrients.
Drops: Fe. 
Tablets: K, Mn, Mo, B, Cu, Zn. 
Conditioner: Mg.

Also keep in mind that some of the elements in the Dupla
products, like P, are at extremely low concentrations and do not
contribute anything significant to the total nutrient load
when then are introduced at the recommended doses.
Once diluted with aquarium water, they may not even be
measureable. This is not true for Delaware Aquatic Import's
tablets, which definitely contain significant amounts of
Phosphorus (P) and Nitrate (N).

---------------------------------------------------------------
Relative Concentrations of Commercial Aquatic Plant Fertilizers
---------------------------------------------------------------
                                B5 plant     PP Ltd
   Tropica Dupla Dupla Dupla    tissue  DAI  trace
   Master  Daily plant Duplagan culture tab. element
   Grow    drops Tablet cond.   media*       Powder
   (%)     (ppm) (ppm)  (ppm)    (mg)  (ppm) (ppm)
--------------------------------------------------------------
K     .79    -    2490.  10.0     -    17.3     -
P      -    0.7    0.3   1.0      -     7       -
N      -     -      -     -       -    14.4     -
---------------------------------------------------------------
Mg    .39    -    0.3   509.0     -     .15     -
--------------------------------------------------------------
B    .004   2.0   6.7     -     3000    .03    1.3
Cu   .006   0.1   0.2     -       25    .008   0.1
Fe    .07  1180.0 0.3    0.3   40000    .19    7
Mn    .04   1.3   36.8    -    10000    .003   2
Mo   .002    -    0.7     -       25     -     0.06
Zn   .002   0.1   0.6    0.3    2000    .01    0.4    
--------------------------------------------------------------   
Co      -    -      -     -       25      -      -
---------------------------------------------------------------
ETDA   -     -      -     -      Yes      -     42
HEEDTA yes   -      -     -       -       -      -
DTPA   yes   -      -     -       -       -     13
E123   yes  -      -      -       -       -     -
---------------------------------------------------------------

Notes: 
1.   Dupla Tablet is ppm of element from tablet dissolved in
     unknown amount of distilled water (as per G. Booth)

2.   B5 Tissue culture media is concentration of compounds EDTA
     sodium ferric salt, Na2MoO4.2H2O, H3BO3,MnCl2.4H2O,
     ZnSO4.7H2O, CoCl2.6H2O, CuSO4.5H2O (dosage is 30 ml /30 gal
     of water in 75 gal tank, per Shiao Y. Wang)
  
3.   Other elemental concentrations known to exist in the above
     fertilizers(such as Ca, S, Cl, Na, Cr, Si, Pb, V, Al, etc.)
     are not shown.

4.   Cobalt (Co) was not included in the analysis of all
     products.

5.   PP Ltd powder is hydroponic trace element mixture previously
     reported by David Whittacker.
     
     

Neil Frank                 Aquatic Gardeners Association,  Raleigh NC