HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I got some aquarium fertiliser to fertilise the plants in my crabitat. The problem is the mixing...

The directions say 5mL to 250L water. This is pretty inconvenient, since I just need a little to water the plants with.

I assume there's a way to dilute it in a certain amount of water, and then use that dilution to dilute it down to the appropriate amount...

Or do I just, say, put a drop (1mL) in a 2L bottle of water (dechlorinated of course) or something? Would the extra strength matter if I'm just using it in planted plants, not general water?

Typically you don’t want to dose above the label’s directions since over-fertilizing can injure the plants.

If your product is really that concentrated it may not be the best choice for your purposes.


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A mathematically inclined friend pointed out that i can put 5mL into 2.5L, then take 25mL of that and put it into 2.5L to get the correct concentration.

That's a much more manageable amount.

I haven’t checked the math but that works, too


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IMO, I wouldn't use that. I would use organic fertilizers like organic worm castings. Whatever you use on your plants your hermits are exposed to - if they munch it it could be toxic to them. Worm castings comes in liquid forms. There is also a company called Fox Farm that makes liquid bat guano too. I would think something like that would be better than chemicals.

Aquarium fertilizer is made to be taken up by all parts of the plant, like a bath. It isn't going to have any affect on terrestrial plants, especially not in such small amounts. Maybe look into organic terrarium fertilizers for amphibian enclosures? Those should also be crab safe, so long as they are not super high in trace metals.