# Dosing Fleet Enema?



## Aulonochromis (Jan 14, 2005)

Those of you that use Fleet as a source of P, how much do you dose? I've been putting 15 drops in a 100 gallon. I did some figuring using Chuck's nutrient calculator and according to that I should be dosing 4ML. I came to this amount by entering 16 grams for KH2Po4 in 130Ml of water (it says 16 grams monosodium phosphate and 6 grams dibasicsodium phosphate on the 130ML bottle). I was feeling lucky so I dumped 4ML in the tank. did I just OD the hell out of it?  

I've been getting some spot algae on my background and some older leaves, and I hear this is caused by low P.


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## grungefreek (Oct 9, 2003)

I use it, but im in Australia and ours is more concentrated. Do a forum search and the dose people used is talked about a few times.

Grunge


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## wantplantsnotwork (Nov 28, 2004)

I use 15 drops on a water change in my 90.

I test for it using the Lamotte kit, and keep it around 1.5-2 ppm.


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## pineapple (Jan 22, 2004)

How about 4ml on water change in a 30 US gallon?

Andrew Cribb


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## ThomE (Aug 26, 2004)

grungefreek said:


> I use it, but im in Australia and ours is more concentrated.


Grunge,

Are you suggesting that Australian's needs a stronger ... um, nah. I'll let it go :hihi:

Thom


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## Aulonochromis (Jan 14, 2005)

Lol. Reminds me of a Foster's commercial.


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## TINNGG (Mar 9, 2005)

<giggle> <snort> I took a nice empty squirt bottle (wiltons candy melt accessory), filled with water, and added some of the enema. I test occasionally. I give the tank a squirt weekly. The first time I just used it straight from the bottle and 3 drops raised the test to 5ppm (75 gallon tank). That's why I dilute it


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## Urkevitz (Jan 12, 2004)

I put 70 drops in at water change, and then 30-40 drops every other day on my 75 gallon.


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## ringram (Jan 19, 2005)

I have a 20g, so I dose a few drops (I don't really measure ---> I just make sure I don't put too much). I'd say 4-6 drops 2x a week. The phosphates waver between 1-2ppm , so whatever I'm doing, it seems to be working.


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## pineapple (Jan 22, 2004)

Drop size is?

20 drops = 1 ml.

Andrew Cribb


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## jart (Jan 17, 2003)

Aulonochromis said:


> Those of you that use Fleet as a source of P, how much do you dose? I've been putting 15 drops in a 100 gallon. I did some figuring using Chuck's nutrient calculator and according to that I should be dosing 4ML. I came to this amount by entering 16 grams for KH2Po4 in 130Ml of water (it says 16 grams monosodium phosphate and 6 grams dibasicsodium phosphate on the 130ML bottle).


This gets a little confusing, my friends. To start with there may be 16 grams of monosodium phosphate *per 100 mL*. But only 69% of the monosodium phosphate is actually phosphate. 

Similarily, there is 6 g of dibasic sodium phosphate *per 100 mL*; only 59% of this is phosphate. 

Your tank is 100 gallons which is 377 L.

Fleet enema contains 131.36 mg/mL. Aulonochromis wishes to add 4 mL of Fleet, which would equal 525.44 mg.

Now his total volume is 377 L.

Divide 525.44 mg by 377 L = 1.39 mg/L which is 1.39 ppm.

If you wish to use Chuck's page to verify this, I would like to quote Rolo, who posted: "In the Calc: put in 47 for grams of 'phosphate in KH2PO4', select mix stock solution, and put 250 for mL of solution. That is the concentration of Fleet Enema. Ignore the solubility note on the side." Enter 100 gallons. You will find that the calculator will say that each mL added will increase phosphate by 0.35 ppm. Aulonochromis wants to try 4 mL, so this should add 0.35 x 4 = 1.4 ppm. 

Simple, ain't it? :icon_roll 

BTW you can certainly use drops if you wish, but the volume per drop is somewhat dependant on the dropper one uses. It may be more accurate to use a diabetic syringe. But certainly if you are testing for phosphates and using a consistently sized dropper, this should be fine.

References:
1) http://users.ev1.net/~spituch/Chemicals/chemicals.html#Phosphate from Fleet Enema
2) http://fins.actwin.com/aquatic-plants/month.200401/msg00113.html
3) http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=10323


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## Aulonochromis (Jan 14, 2005)

jart said:


> Simple, ain't it? :icon_roll


For a rocket scientist. 
 

I plan on ordering some ferts from Greg Watson soon, I'll definitely be sure to get some phosphate with my order.


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## LindaC (Nov 26, 2005)

I just went and tried using Chucks calculator to figure out how many drops I would add to my 29 gallon tank and came up with 3.26 teaspoons of Fleet, is this correct?


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## jart (Jan 17, 2003)

LindaC said:


> I just went and tried using Chucks calculator to figure out how many drops I would add to my 29 gallon tank and came up with 3.26 teaspoons of Fleet, is this correct?


No it is not. It's a little confusing, isn't it?

You need to ignore the "teaspoons" and tablespoons" fields. Just enter the 47 grams of "phosphate in KH2PO4". This is to set up the calculator for the amount of phosphate in the enema. 

Then enter your tank volume, even though it is less than 29 gallons, you could enter 29 gallons; you are going to be testing anyway.

NOW what you get is the result of:
"Each ML of this solution that you add to your tank will add: 1.2 ppm phosphate". This is what you are after. So if you add one mL to your tank you will add 1.2 ppm phosphate. If you add 2 mL you would get 2.4 ppm phosphate, 1.5 mL you would get 1.8 ppm etc.

To double check:

Your tank is 29 gallons which is 110 L.

Fleet enema contains 131.36 mg phosphate/mL. Suppose you choose to add 1 mL. So obviously the 1 mL contains 131.36 mg of phosphate.

Divide 131.36 mg (amount added) by 110 L (your tank size) = 1.19 mg/L which is 1.19 ppm.

I know this may be confusing but really you only have to do the calculation once for your tank. Then you will know the effect that the enema will have on your phosphate.


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