May I introduce you to my aquarium? A lot of JBL employees have an aquarium at home and this hobby extends into their private life. Every evening my aquarium resembles a “whirlpool“ with a thousand little oxygen bubbles. This is the time I relax and wind down after a long day. This doesn’t only make me feel good but is obviously good for the plants too. And it’s not a lot of effort to maintain either.
Let’s start with the facts:
- aquarium: 300 l, running time 6 months
- lighting: 4 x 54W JBL SOLAR NATUR T5 ULTRA, 24-39 W
- water values: - Fe 0.6 mg/l, K = 20 mg/l, Mg = 6 mg/l, PO4 = 0.6 mg/l, NO3 = 15 mg/l, CO2 = 32 mg/l (90 bubbles/min)
- water change: 50% weekly, pruning, - expenditure of time incl. water change 1.5 h/week
- daily dosage: 15-20 ml JBL PROSCAPE Fe +MICROELEMENTS , 15-20 ml JBL PROSCAPE NPK MACROELEMENTS occasionally JBL PROSCAPE N MACROELEMENTS
Background Knowledge
I’m sure quite a few of the values will seem unusual at first glance, perhaps even far too high. But anyone who has spent time researching aquatic plants fertilisation will quickly understand the reasons for the success.
Unlike in natural waters, fish feeding and the resulting excrement usually means that we have a surplus of fish food in aquariums. It also means that nitrates and phosphates are present in sufficient quantities for the plants, but that CO2 (carbon dioxide), iron (Fe), potassium (K), magnesium (Mg) and further trace elements need to be added. For this reason JBL Ferropol was developed. In a scaped aquarium the situation is different again, because of the low animal stock (and therefore lower food quantities). Here the supply of nitrates (N) and phosphates (P), usually provided by the food and the animal excrements, need to be added with the fertiliser.
Potassium is, furthermore, a fast depleting mineral, so JBL has designed a NPK fertiliser which contains three pre-mixed substances ( JBL PROSCAPE NPK MACROELEMENTS ). With the help of the JBL PROAQUATEST NO3 Nitrate , the JBL PROAQUATEST PO4 Phosphate Sensitive and the JBL PROAQUATEST K Potassium you can check, whether the JBL PROSCAPE NPK MACROELEMENTS fertiliser suits your plants’ consumption. If you find out that the nutrients are being consumed at different speeds, you can start to add them individually, while monitoring them all the time. For this reason JBL provides the components individually: JBL PROSCAPE N MACROELEMENTS , JBL PROSCAPE P MACROELEMENTS , JBL PROSCAPE K MACROELEMENTS and JBL PROSCAPE Mg MACROELEMENTS . A very popular supplement is primary rock powder, which contains a very high natural trace element content ( JBL PROSCAPE VOLCANO POWDER ).
Further details can be found at: ProScape
