How we make this site
The rules every page follows, and what we do when a source is missing.
Sources come first
Every non-obvious factual claim carries a numbered citation to a source listed at the bottom of the page, with the date it was accessed. We prefer primary sources: grower and manufacturer pages, labels and safety data sheets; PubChem and IUPAC data for chemistry; the World Checklist of Vascular Plants for names and ranges; peer-reviewed papers; and government, university and extension pages. Hobby forums are cited only for one thing: a dosing method's own author describing that method, and the page says so.
Some practical questions, such as how growers tell algae types apart or how a blackout is done, are not covered by any primary source we could find. For those we cite the guides that retailers publish, chiefly the Aquasabi aquascaping wiki, and on a few points Wikipedia, and we name them in the text or the source list so you can weigh them accordingly.
Each cited address is checked to load before publication, and plant-database pages are checked for real content, not just a working address. Some databases (Plants of the World Online and GBIF, for example) block automated checks; for those we confirm the record through the database's public data service instead.
Missing values stay missing
If a grower or manufacturer does not publish a value, the page says "not published by the source" or leaves the field blank. We do not estimate missing ratings, average figures from different sellers, or fill gaps with typical values. When two sources disagree, the page shows both.
No invented experience
We do not keep test tanks for the site and do not report personal results, reviews or testimonials. There are no named authors on the site because there is no individual expert behind it; the publisher is PlantedMath.
Calculators
Calculator logic is plain TypeScript with automated tests. The tests check molar masses against PubChem, reproduce a method's published numbers from its published recipe (for example, PPS-Pro's stated daily dose from its bottle recipe), and check round trips such as grams → ppm → grams. Each calculator page prints its formula and states where it stops being valid.
AI-assisted drafting and review
Pages are drafted with AI assistance working from the cited sources. Every page records whether the editor has reviewed it, and that status is shown on the page. Pages are published in batches; a page's date is the day it actually went live, never earlier.
Corrections
Send corrections to contact@plantedmath.garden with a source. A corrected page shows an updated date.