Phosphate/Copper Levels

[Mr. Zee]

Hello all. Just getting back into this hobby after a 15 year vacation.
I'm setting up a 55 gallon tank with a lot of live plants and a few dawrf
amazon chiclids. (Not sure which ones yet, perhaps Apistogramma cacatuoides
and some cardinals. )

My copper level from the tap is about 0.25 ppm and my phosphate level is
near 1 ppm. Are these two high? Ph fm the tap is 6.2 and KH is 71.6ppm .
I have a RO unit, and I was thinking of using half RO water and half tap.
Is this a good plan?

Perhaps I'm worring too much, but I want to do this right so as not to
1) kill fish and 2) have alge.

Any thoughts/advise to a (re)beginner (!) appreciated. Thanks!

[Elaine T]

Mr. Zee wrote:
> Hello all. Just getting back into this hobby after a 15 year vacation.
> I'm setting up a 55 gallon tank with a lot of live plants and a few dawrf
> amazon chiclids. (Not sure which ones yet, perhaps Apistogramma cacatuoides
> and some cardinals. )
>
> My copper level from the tap is about 0.25 ppm and my phosphate level is
> near 1 ppm. Are these two high? Ph fm the tap is 6.2 and KH is 71.6ppm .
> I have a RO unit, and I was thinking of using half RO water and half tap.
> Is this a good plan?
>
> Perhaps I'm worring too much, but I want to do this right so as not to
> 1) kill fish and 2) have alge.
>
> Any thoughts/advise to a (re)beginner (!) appreciated. Thanks!
>
>
>
>
I came back after only 5 years and quite a bit had changed. I'm having
fun with the new lighting options and fabulous plants available by mail
order over the internet.

Half RO will take you down to about 0.5 ppm phosphate. That's fine for
low algae as long as you have adequate nitrate. According to Tom Barr,
the NPK ratio to shoot for is 8-1-16 so you need 4 ppm nitrate. That's
optimal for plants, which will outcompete the algae. You may have to
add KNO3 to get there if you have a lot of plant growth.

As for the copper, you may want to do something about that. It will
make it difficult to keep snails and shrimp, and build up in the tank
substrate. Good carbon will remove copper from water. You probably
don't want to carbon filter a planted tank, so maybe prefiltering the
tap water overnight with a box filter full of carbon would work?

--
__ Elaine T __
><__'> http://eethomp.com/fish.html <'__><
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com

[Mr. Zee]

Thanks for the input, yes this 'internet thing' is really amazing...I love
seeing all the great plants on it and the pictures of the tanks.

Cany you give me a link to the Tom Barr method? I 'googled' it but can't
find the orginal thread. I really want to have some nice plants in the
tank. Thanks again!
"Elaine T" > wrote in message
...
> Mr. Zee wrote:
>> Hello all. Just getting back into this hobby after a 15 year vacation.
>> I'm setting up a 55 gallon tank with a lot of live plants and a few
>> dawrf amazon chiclids. (Not sure which ones yet, perhaps Apistogramma
>> cacatuoides and some cardinals. )
>>
>> My copper level from the tap is about 0.25 ppm and my phosphate level
>> is near 1 ppm. Are these two high? Ph fm the tap is 6.2 and KH is
>> 71.6ppm . I have a RO unit, and I was thinking of using half RO water
>> and half tap. Is this a good plan?
>>
>> Perhaps I'm worring too much, but I want to do this right so as not
>> to 1) kill fish and 2) have alge.
>>
>> Any thoughts/advise to a (re)beginner (!) appreciated. Thanks!
>>
>>
> I came back after only 5 years and quite a bit had changed. I'm having
> fun with the new lighting options and fabulous plants available by mail
> order over the internet.
>
> Half RO will take you down to about 0.5 ppm phosphate. That's fine for low
> algae as long as you have adequate nitrate. According to Tom Barr, the
> NPK ratio to shoot for is 8-1-16 so you need 4 ppm nitrate. That's
> optimal for plants, which will outcompete the algae. You may have to add
> KNO3 to get there if you have a lot of plant growth.
>
> As for the copper, you may want to do something about that. It will make
> it difficult to keep snails and shrimp, and build up in the tank
> substrate. Good carbon will remove copper from water. You probably don't
> want to carbon filter a planted tank, so maybe prefiltering the tap water
> overnight with a box filter full of carbon would work?
>
> --
> __ Elaine T __
> ><__'> http://eethomp.com/fish.html <'__><
> rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com

[Elaine T]

Mr. Zee wrote:
> Thanks for the input, yes this 'internet thing' is really amazing...I love
> seeing all the great plants on it and the pictures of the tanks.
>
> Cany you give me a link to the Tom Barr method? I 'googled' it but can't
> find the orginal thread. I really want to have some nice plants in the
> tank. Thanks again!

His homepage is http://www.barrreport.com/. You can register for some
free info, and pay for a newsletter. You can get the fertilizers for
this method at www.gregwatson.com. Richard Sexton also posted one of
Thomas Barr's latest plant tank "recipe" posts at
http://aquaria.net/articles/plants/barr-dose/

--
__ Elaine T __
><__'> http://eethomp.com/fish.html <'__><
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com