Miracle Grow

karimwassef

karimwassef

Active member
Other than organic Nitrogen, does anyone know what's in Miracle Grow?

Any experience adding it to a reef/FOWLR/macro tank?

I can imagine the tsunami of remarks :)

But constructively ... What are the ingredients and the scientific evidence of the impact?
 
The ingredients list urea, potash, and a bit of zinc, among other things. I wouldn't use it in a tank, personally, although some people have used it for growing phytoplankton. Sodium nitrate would be safer, and is available in food grade form.
 
I was able to find food grade sodium nitrate from other sources via Google. I wouldn't use anything that had other ingredients, and I'm not sure what makes that product pink. Sodium nitrite does seem to be easier to find. I'm not sure that I'd use it. Nitrite usually isn't very toxic, but an overdose could be a problem.
 
I know a few people use MG for phyto tanks. Of course it is something I would not want to put into a tank that isn't plant-driven.
 
freshwater planted tanks have had some success. the problem is urea though. its ammonia that converts to nitrogen when broken down by soil microbes. missing those in a reef tank means you will just be dosing ammonia.
 
Most info for plant fertilizer is the ratio of n: p:k
The rest, well... the percentages on that label don't even add up to 50%
I'd want to know what the other half is before I put it in my tank :)
ETA: also .07% copper sounds like a bad idea.

I'm curious about the forms of N too. Soil is fuuull of nitrifiying bacteria, I wonder why fertilizer would distinguish between Ns like the label does? I don't see why it would matter if the N was ammonia or urea or nitrite. In my garden I put peas by the corn to fix nitrogen. I think it's pretty similar to some of our tank processes, like soil based cyanobacter like to grow on pea roots or something. They convert it to a form that corn needs.
 
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I looked it up. Its basically about ph. When plants uptake charged Ns they release compounds to compensate in order to maintain internal ph. So a combo of Ns with diff charges can keep the soil ph from getting out of whack.

But also, the way plants can store N for lean times means that they will take up more than they need and the forms can be balanced to prevent ammonium toxicity, and produce N-heavy plants which look lush and survive transplant better.

http://www.greenhouse.cornell.edu/crops/factsheets/nitrogen_form.pdf
 
That's what I'm thinking. Even though there's a trace of copper - if it's added in a very large volume, it's diluted enough that it shouldn't hurt anything.

I'll set up a small test tank.
 
Sure. But I run really big systems. So I experiment with off the shelf stuff. The N in MG is about 1/100th the price and when you need to buy gallons- it can add up.
 
In freshwater aquaria we are always battling algae against the higher plants. People who used miracle grow always had lots of hair algae. The trick was to limit phosphorous, as the higher plants had the ability to store it in their tissues better than lower algae. The commercial system was put out by Dupla, but the homemade version was PMDD (Poor Man's Dupla Drops). If you search the web you will find a lot of information. It centered around a solution of only the hydroponic trace elements like: http://www.ecogrow.com/ecogrow-nutrients-eco-trace-elements-c-4_11_314.html

In marine aquaria, we have no higher plants, ultimately we only have algae although there are probably metabolic differences between macro and micro algae. Still, phosphorous is a no-no and miracle grow has plenty!
 
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