Organic nutrients??

[Allisyn Wood]

So, as most (or all) of you, I would like to keep my AP garden as organic as possible. This discussion is about the nutrients we add to keep everything on the up and up.

Maxicrop: organic
Maxicrop with iron: not organic

Please fill in the rest and add as you can. Feel free to throw in alternatives that work for you. I'm going to experiment with marble chips to raise my pH which is 6.0 on a good day in a system that's over a year old.


Chelated iron:
Potassium Bicarbonate:
Hydrated lime:
calcium carbonate:

[Allisyn Wood]

Some seriously needed rain! I got a strip test yesterday but I think it's defective as 5 different tests all came back with no reading. However, turns out my alkalinity is very hard. Not sure what that means now, or in the future, but that's where it's at. Headed to our sprawling metropolis of Jacksonville to try to pick up a digital pH reader from the hydro store this weekend. Waiting patiently for my potassium bicarbonate...

[Vlad Jovanovic]

By "turns out my alkalinity is very hard" Do you mean that you carbonate hardness (KH test) is very high in your tap water? Which would be good for you (right now, and perhaps in the future). 

Were those 5 different tests all in one source water, or did you try say, testing your tap water as well, and got a 'no reading' too? At any rate, those little test strips generally really suck, and are all but useless. They don't seem to be real accurate (at least the ones I had aren't...Hatch Co. Aquacheck pH test strips from Aquatic Ecosystems...I never got a 'no reading' though).

 

 

[Allisyn Wood]

Yeah, I didn't really want to get them, but that was the lowest test in my town... I really don't know what it means by alkalinity. Just ppm according to the test kit.

By no reading, they all came back yellow, which wasn't on the test color comparison chart, so I'm assuming that's a non-read. I know my tap and pool water pH should have come back at 8ish... Just a crappy kit. I knew better. I tested two separate tanks, old tap, fresh tap and pool water.

[Vlad Jovanovic]

Sheesh...and I thought my test strips were crappy...

hmm...it just says "alkalinity"? Maybe that's synonymous with carbonate alkalinity or carbonate hardness (KH) over there in Florida?...it doesn't say any more anywhere, like on the little piece of paper inside the box? At any rate, I'm thinking that they mean your water is (KH) hard. So, by topping up with that source water, you are buffering up the system a bit...which is good right now. (Which was the conclusion you yourself came to about your top up water :)

[Allisyn Wood]

Update: Got a proper pH test.  It was low, about 5.5.  I've been adding the potassium bicarbonate that arrived and I've also put a pile of marble chips in with the fish.  I expect it to take up to 5 days to get the pH to about 6.8.  Water is clear.  Food is eaten.  Nitrates are about 60.  Nitrites are 0.  Ammonia is between .25 and .5.  I'll keep a close watch on it. 

Thanks again for all the help.

[Vlad Jovanovic]

Well it's good that your back on track.  And just in time too! It might be good to slow down or stop feeding entirely for a day or two.