NO3 Dosage - Hell, is it normal?!?

[geoffrey]

Well, I'm not going to make any conclusion to suggest whether you should or should not continue to use test kits. What I will do is post what I did and what I saw.

8/5 (Thu)
- see what I did on top.
9/5 (Fri)
- Measured with old kit = 0ppm; new kit twice = 10ppm?? (should be more)
- Dosed 15ppm and wait for 15mins to allow the fert to diffuse.
- Measured with new kit = 10ppm again!!
- BBA, new growth seem to have stopped.

[Allen_1971]

geoffrey... could you elaborate on your bioload? If its as heavy as you say, I can't imagine needing to dose so much NO3... So either your test is wrong or something else is happening. Did you also test your NO2? Just in case theres some reducing process going on?

[vinz]

----------------
On 5/9/2003 2:28:19 PM

Well, I'm not going to make any conclusion to suggest whether you should or should not continue to use test kits. What I will do is post what I did and what I saw.

8/5 (Thu)
- see what I did on top.
9/5 (Fri)
- Measured with old kit = 0ppm; new kit twice = 10ppm?? (should be more)
- Dosed 15ppm and wait for 15mins to allow the fert to diffuse.
- Measured with new kit = 10ppm again!!
- BBA, new growth seem to have stopped.
----------------

Geoff, meaning your BBA show no more new growth or BBA and new growth of plants hae stopped. I assume the former.

[geoffrey]

Allen,
I have 8 Congos, 6 Rams, 5 Sepae, 2 SAE, 6 Otos, 5 pencils and Yamatoes all in a 2.5 : )
No, haven't measured NO2. Don't have a kit for that either. Well, I did wash my filter very thoroughly 2 weeks ago. Remove lotsa of snails in the sump/filter media and topped up coral.

NO3 to NO2. Read that in Diana's but forget how that can happen. Will look up again to see if I have those conditions for it to happen.

Vinz,
My experience is, if BBA persist, over a night I will see them in new places but not today. I did quite a hacking yesterday (not for the purpose of removing BBA, just regular trimming). Now that you mentioned, Swords seem to have slowed. Usually I would see a new shoot by the time the earlier one matures but not this round.

I want to think I ran my NO3 too low but was measuring it otherwise, but my previous dosing of 20~30ppm/week of NO3 should suffice. With what I have put in the last two days, I think I will just watch it thru the weekend until Tue then reset all the nutrients after a 50%, maybe 80%, water change.

[PeterGwee]

Geoffrey...you mention you added new coral chips to the filter after washing it. Did you do a pH/KH test after that to verify that your CO2 has stay in the optimal range?

[geoffrey]

Nope. Ok, ok, I will check my CO2 tomorrow. But then again, if its low, it would be limiting the uptake of NO3 instead of accelerating it.

Mmmm, unless my BBA is cause by low CO2, like what you said and the only thing wrong with my NO3 is the reading from faulty test kit. This make sense but do you think it possible?

[PeterGwee]

What do you think? Dump in 15ppm worth of KNO3 and no increase detected? Speaks too well of its accuracy....
Think of it...all nutrients in place as "detected" by the test kits but yet stunt growth and algae?

[geoffrey]

Got to get my fat bum out of the chair to check, in fact good time to do so cos lights just went out. pH = 6.5 and kH = 6 so CO2 >30ppm. You got the exact?

[PeterGwee]

pH test pen or test kit? I do have doubts over pH test kits due to the range problem...imagine resolution of 6.0-6.5-7..not ideal as accuracy affects CO2 results quite drastically....

Wao...I think something is wrong with your measurement or test kit..you have 56ppm of CO2..I think all your fish would have gone belly up by then.

More more accuracy on KH, take sample of 10ml if the instruction ask for 5ml of tank water...count the number of drops needed and then divide by 2...much better resolution and accuracy. You need that man...Now, I am convince CO2 is your problem because you have skewed readings...duh..

[geoffrey]

You're right, both are titration kit. My fishes are fine and I know its hell of a high at 6.5 but that is what I get all the time, consistantly "night" and "day". Give and take around 6.8 and that would give about 30ppm. This is what I do all the time, argaration, useless there is one with a better resolution.

[PeterGwee]

A test pen or pH monitor would yield the kinda resolution you need for determining your CO2 level...Tom Barr had nag and nag on CO2 as being problems along with NO3..imagine you aga aga on your CO2 and do so much test on NO3...do yourself a favour and get a pH test pen..worth the money and save you more time. Just calibrate, dip the bugger inside and wait for the reading...[] Low CO2 or inconsistent levels of CO2 is almost always the cause of BBA...

[geoffrey]

I just PM you.

[PeterGwee]

Geoffrey..no title..cannot see?

[geoffrey]

Try again.