Against the advise given.

[Matt Nace]

Well at another furom, I asked what people thought of a liquid fertilizer for plants/lawn. I gave the respected numbers, and they said not.

Then someone else posted with a very simaliar product he used. So I am going to try it anyway.
If anyone here want to talk me out of it..go for it. Only one response there made me think not too..but it wasn't good enough for me.I need facts why not to use it  or from past expierence using it.
  I have to go this route, because plant ferts can get exspensive . I treat 3 tanks with it. So for the non-fully planted ones, I want to find a cheap alternative.
 Cloth mentioned pond fert, but none of the store around me carry anything(of course)
Here are the specs on the product.
"Renews yellow leaves"
Schultz IRON green
" water soluble Iron with Nitrogen for fast green-up of lawns and gardens"
"Helps correct yellowing foliage and nutrient deficiency in all plants, flowers trees and lawn"
8-0-0
8% Urea Nitrogen( I dont know what Urea is)
1% magnesium
5% Sulfur( I dont know what this does for plants)
6% Iron(fe)

Now that is a lot of iron, so I am going to try it at 1 1/2 tsp for 30 gallons. The instructions say 1 capful per gallon of water, or 2 caps for longer pieriods in between . I am not going by that though.The cap is rather big.

Any comments are welcome.
:-/

 

[drzeus]

Just to add my tuppence worth - I know absolutely nothing about keeping aquatic plants, but i have seen fertilizers especially for them.  the biological processes and rates involved in soil fertilizers breaking down are a bit different to that of water.  The urea you mention is actually something you find in pee, so you could pee in your tank much more cheaply!  ;D  Only kidding !  Its quite good for gardens because it doesnt disappear too rapidly from the soil.  Trouble is that in your tank it could very easily break down to ammonium - at the rate you suggest you could be OK but i would keep a very close watch on the NH3/4 levels

 

[Matt Nace]

Alot of Nitrogen comes from Ammonical Nitrogen in some ferts which the plant would use.

If you say Urea would breal into ammonium, that is much safer than ammonia. My PH is above 7, so is
ammonium possable?

Thanks for the info.

 

[Matt Nace]

I emailed Schultz about their product. He replyied quite quickly and didn't reccomend it.

Here is his reply.  

"Thank you for writing. This product would not be appropriate for use in an aquatic environment. The iron would quickly oxidize and be unavailable to the plants, and could harm the fish. I would stick with the plant food spikes and tabs for your aquatic plants.
Urea is simply another form in which nitrogen can be supplied to plants. It is typically a slower release form, requiring soil bacteria to break it down into nitrate nitrogen form that plants can use. That is another reason it would not be appropriate. In the anaerobic environment, it is doubtful this breakdown would occur with any efficiency.
Thanks, though, for your interest in Schultz products.
Robert
Schultz Company"

Only problem I see is that plant spikes use Urea nirtogen, and they breakdown fine. But this may be because this is liquid, and the spikes are solids.

Anyway, I suppose I can buy in bulk so the price eventually mkes the bulk price a good deal. In bulk I mean by the gallon , instead of in ounces(ml)

 

[drzeus]

like you say whether your ammonium goes to ammonia is dependent on your pH too if its way over 7 you could have trouble.  But then again it depends how efficiently your microbes are whipping it into NO3.  I guess if you have a healthy well-active tank they should cope with it OK as the fish are producing NH-N anyway.  You don't need to be particularly concerned about the anaerobics he mentions as you will only have pockets of these areas, after all you have an aerated aquarium, not a stagnant pond!  So your excess NH-N should end up as NO3.
If you find something with chelated iron in it that should be the best most-easily- available-to-plants form to get.  Not much help really :-( IMHO I'd go with a "proper" aq. fert (or terrestrial version with same specs) and keep an eye on water params, part pH.  Best of luck
(I love Ottos - I wanted an SAE but couldnt find any here - so i have an Oto arnoldii instead who rules the roost! And loves Algae wafers)

 

[Matt Nace]

You know it aerated, the spare tank has a UGF on it. No pockets in there. In fact, it is amazing how well the plants are doing on no nutrients added and UGF filter. Maybe cause they came from my 30 planted where they were treated like royalty.