Better grow with right fertilizer

[bttay]

I have just started to add 4ppm of PO4 and 4ppm of NO3 and supposely good amount of FE and trace elements. Within 24 hours, I saw more bubbles than ever from the plants when light was turned on and, don't know if it was psychological effect, plants seem healthier and grew faster.

Does anybody have such observation before?

Thanks.

[PeterGwee]

4ppm of PO4 is too much!!!! [:0]

[hwchoy]

lots of P and N! maybe your plants are farting due to indigestion have a sniff at the top of the tank and see. [:]

[bttay]

4ppm PO4 too high?
I know some suggested 0.25ppm. But I read in the PO4 related topic in this forum that some members are having 10-20ppm without problems.

I noticed that some BGA that were starting to grow a day ago had disappeared. I am monitoring for any changes on that...

Thanks.

[Mortadelo]

Despite 4 ppm of PO4 is unnecessarily high it won´t cause problems if the other nutrients are kept in proportionately good levels.

I intentionally increased PO4 to 30 ppm in my tank using a phosphate enema and never had a problem, it´s been months since I added that ammount of phosphate and so far so good. Before that I used to add 0,5 ppm PO4 twice a week, now the tank still contains a lot of phosphate so I have almost forgotten PO4 dosing.

Regards.

[PeterGwee]

If you use the pH/KH method to find your CO2, the large amount of phosphate buffer would render the method void.

[williamng]

What is ppm?? how to measure?

[Mortadelo]

I know PeterGwee, it is not something I do on a regular basis, it was just an experiment to convince me that PO4 does not cause algae. My advice is to leave 1 ppm PO4.



ppm = mg/l

parts per million = miligrams per liter.

[geoffrey]

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On 8/16/2003 1:06:18 AM

I have just started to add 4ppm of PO4 and 4ppm of NO3 and supposely good amount of FE and trace elements. ....

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How long do you intend those fertilisers to last? A week? If it is a week, that NO3 level may not sustain a week with that high PO4 if your tank is already low on NO3 initially. Don't worry about the PO4, just make sure the other fertilisers are in good supply.

[Plantbrain]

4ppm or higher-----

That's _a lot_ of PO4

Generally it's wasetful to add too much nutrients. Why dose more than you have too? Find a decent range, 0.5-1.4 ppm or so and stay within this range between the dosing(Additions) and water changes(Removal) and plant uptake (removal).
Most tanks do well with about 0.2ppm per day added, I'm lazy and don't like dose daily so I enough for 2-3 x a week, or about 0.6ppm or so per dose.

More is not better in many cases.

Regards,
Tom Barr

[bttay]

Geoffery: I intend to change water every 3-4 days. As I have just started on this dosage, I will meassure the amount of NO3, PO4 and Fe to determine the uptake of the plants.

PeterGwee: Yes. I noticed that PO4 and Fe solutions are acidic and NO3 is actually alkaline. There was once I overdosed PO4 (some unmeassurable amount by my test kit) and the pH value was very low (dark red color). Even after 4 water change to lower PO4 to 0.5mg/L, I still have that very low pH and one of my red plants is suffering from losing red pigments and my tetras have developed rotting fins. I have just increased the pH by slowly adding sodium bicarbonate. It is now 5.8.

I know that my pH-KH chart no longer works now

[bttay]

Thanks Tom, I am going to keep the PO4 at 0.5mg/L. I am lazy too to dose everyday. So I will just add 0.5mg/L and leave it for 3 to 4 days until I change water.

[bttay]

Just realized that NO3 in my 14" mini tank shoots up from less than 5mg/l to 10mg/l in 2 days and I can see that BGA is starting to spread. Looks like for small tank, more frequent water change (once in 2 days?) is really a must.

[PeterGwee]

5-10ppm range of NO3 is fine(If the kit is good stuff)....I would rather point the finger at the accuracy of the NO3 test kit(crap?) or lack of CO2 for a start.

BGA is usually from none existant of NO3 as the plant mass likely got larger than the amount of N supplied by your fishes or dosing if any and end up stunting the plants.

[bttay]

There is no short supply of CO2. My plants are doing well.
I use Sera NO3 test kit. I suspect that there could be something wrong with it. Or maybe I did not wash the container properly.

[geoffrey]

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On 8/19/2003 1:21:24 PM

....BGA is usually from none existant of NO3...

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I disagree with that. Low NO3 do not cause BGA. Explosive growth of BGA often leads to low NO3.