How much Potassium Silicate / Silica you use?

I have a question in regards to how much potassium silicate / silica is required for my reservoir.

My reservoir size = 12gallons

I'm mimicking Dyna-Gros Pro-Tekt silica solution requirements.
-----
EDIT: Took out half-assed measurements to avoid confusion.

Seems if you add 148g of potassium silicate per liter of water, it comes out to 7.8%.
-----
Also. It seems the main purpose of silica supplementation is to aid in cell/stem/stalk strength. So it would seem I should drop silica use entirely around the 4-5th week of flowering correct?

I don't want to pay for watered down nutes. That's why I posted the above. Otherwise I would have just bought it already.

Thanks.

unless i missed it, where are you factoring in what % of your dry mix is K and Si?

I use about 1.25ML- 1.5ML per gallon of Pro Tekt in my reservoir. Roughly 25 ML - 30 ML for a 20 gallon reservoir.

rkymtnman said:

unless i missed it, where are you factoring in what % of your dry mix is K and Si?

Click to expand...

I haven't done that yet (still need to source a vendor). Was just curious if anyone even uses straight potassium silicate. Seems most use a liquid version of silca.
Was just trying to get the measurements of actual silica that would be needed per my 12gal res based on what Pro-Tekt calls for.

Smerc said:

I haven't done that yet (still need to source a vendor). Was just curious if anyone even uses straight potassium silicate. Seems most use a liquid version of silca.
Was just trying to get the measurements of actual silica that would be needed per my 12gal res based on what Pro-Tekt calls for.

Click to expand...

find a nute calculator, enter the mLs of pro tekt that DG recommends, put in 8% Si and it will give yo a ppm value. then just change to x grams at y % Si for your dry mix to get same ppms.

I would start at a third of the suggested amount and see what it does whit your pH.
it will go up....

ANC said:

I would start at a third of the suggested amount and see what it does whit your pH.
it will go up....

Click to expand...

From what I'm reading, you add it first and then pH everything back down again.
Then add your remaining nutrients and re pH if needed.
Seems like a pain in the ass.

Well, I found a recipe for Pro-Tekt. Maybe I should had googled a bit deeper.
Some vendors that sell potassium silicate also offer a pro-tekt recipe for the 7.8% solution.

Another vendor states ".50g" per gallon of RO water gives 35ppm (K) Potassium and 33ppm (Si) Silica which is around what Botanicare Silicas outputs per gallon.

So I'm just gonna go w/ 6g per 12gal.

I use Armor Si at a rate of about 1mL per gallon for full grown plants. For younger plants, I only begin to apply once I see the first set of true leaves. Then I'll begin to slowly add it in, from about .25mL-.5mL per gallon until the plant is full grown. Then I'll up it on to 1mL/gallon for each plant and leave it there for the rest of the grow. It doesn't take a lot of this stuff for good results.

Smerc said:

...
Their solution is 36oz which contains around 8% silicate / silica (what their website states).
36oz x 8% = 2.88oz of silicate / silica.
2.88oz x 28g = 81g<volume to weight conversion?
So it seems there's around 81g of silicate / silica in their 36oz bottle.

Click to expand...

Isn't this math flawed? How do you go from a fluid measurement to a weight measurement ? The 8% measurement of silicate would be by volume, not weight. Your 2.88oz is a volume, not a weight. If you knew the weight of a the silicate you could then figure the weight of that volume.

I use botanicare silica blast. Add it first, then cal/Mag, then everything else, then pH the total solution. IDK if it'd work with pure salts or if you'd get a reaction.

You will also need to know what the 8% relates to, Si or SiO2. Nute companies have a habit of using oxide equivalents and sometimes, just to make it interesting, mixing elemental and oxide values on the same label

This is what's in Silica Blast, off thier SDS sheet:

Potassium silicate, anhydrous ≥3 - ≤5%
Sodium trisilicate ≥1 - ≤3 %

I can't find Sodium trisilicate listed for agricultural use anywhere...

I use Potsil. Between 0.25 and 0.5ml per litre in a DWC setup.

Just be aware it raises PH so add it before you balance.