Dosing nitrate and phosphate

I've tested my tank and nitrate and phosphate are almost
imeasurable.Plant growth is just not what I'd like so I've decided
to dose those two compounds.I can't find any greenlight stump
remover so I'm going to try Seachem's new nitrate and phosphate
additives. Has anybody tried these yet?

On Fri, 26 Sep 2003 15:20:36 UTC, Blarneytoad
wrote:

I've tested my tank and nitrate and phosphate are almost
imeasurable.Plant growth is just not what I'd like so I've decided
to dose those two compounds.I can't find any greenlight stump
remover so I'm going to try Seachem's new nitrate and phosphate
additives. Has anybody tried these yet?

Perhpas I'm years out of date, but I'd think twice before adding
phosphate. See
http://www.cam.org/~tomlins/algae.html
which describes actual experiments (so rare in this business!) and
concludes that keeping phosphate down to virtually nothing is the way to
starve algae while growing healthy plants. Higher (vascular) plants
appear to be extremely good at using low levels of phosphate.

By the way, what tests are you using? I've bought a couple of phsophate
kits and found that they just couldn't detect phosphate! Probably
outlived their shelf life or something. Anyway, I could make a phosphate
solution in the range they were supposed to measure, or way above it, and
they wouldn't register. The expensive kit that I use now (Lamotte) always
detects a solution of 1 mg / l or whatever.

(However, I think the Lamotte low-level phosphate kit stinks. Its color
samples are entirely different from the colors the test generates. This
is not good enough for fifty bucks or so. I now run double tests
routinely, one being a calibration with a known PO4 concentration. Does
anybody know of a *good* PO4 test at any price?)

Anyway, why not try adding just nitrate first? I currently add a small
amount of nitrate daily, to keep up the level that's recommended on the
web page I listed. (0.5 cc of 10% KNO3 today, but still trying to get it
to a consistent level.) If your plants don't pick up, and your lighting
is good, and you're sure you have enough iron and potassium and other
things, then try phosphate.


--

http://www.dandrake.com/

In the days after September 11, Yahoo searches for Nostradamus
outnumbered those for Osama bin Laden and Sex, combined.

On Sat, 27 Sep 2003 00:32:42 GMT, "Dan Drake" wrote:

On Fri, 26 Sep 2003 15:20:36 UTC, Blarneytoad
wrote:

I've tested my tank and nitrate and phosphate are almost
imeasurable.Plant growth is just not what I'd like so I've decided
to dose those two compounds.I can't find any greenlight stump
remover so I'm going to try Seachem's new nitrate and phosphate
additives. Has anybody tried these yet?

Perhpas I'm years out of date, but I'd think twice before adding
phosphate. See
http://www.cam.org/~tomlins/algae.html
which describes actual experiments (so rare in this business!) and
concludes that keeping phosphate down to virtually nothing is the way to
starve algae while growing healthy plants. Higher (vascular) plants
appear to be extremely good at using low levels of phosphate.

By the way, what tests are you using? I've bought a couple of phsophate
kits and found that they just couldn't detect phosphate! Probably
outlived their shelf life or something. Anyway, I could make a phosphate
solution in the range they were supposed to measure, or way above it, and
they wouldn't register. The expensive kit that I use now (Lamotte) always
detects a solution of 1 mg / l or whatever.

(However, I think the Lamotte low-level phosphate kit stinks. Its color
samples are entirely different from the colors the test generates. This
is not good enough for fifty bucks or so. I now run double tests
routinely, one being a calibration with a known PO4 concentration. Does
anybody know of a *good* PO4 test at any price?)

Anyway, why not try adding just nitrate first? I currently add a small
amount of nitrate daily, to keep up the level that's recommended on the
web page I listed. (0.5 cc of 10% KNO3 today, but still trying to get it
to a consistent level.) If your plants don't pick up, and your lighting
is good, and you're sure you have enough iron and potassium and other
things, then try phosphate.


I forgot to ad that I'm using Seachem Iron,Potassium and Trace
products and have been for awhile. The phosphate kit I used is
an Aquarium Systems SeaTest kit. I will take your advice and
start with NO3 though. The tank is a 55g with full CO2, 350watts
MH lighting,cable heating,10g trickle filter,and has been set up
like that for close to 10 years.Thanks for the heads up and the
info.

Blarneytoad wrote:


I forgot to ad that I'm using Seachem Iron,Potassium and Trace
products and have been for awhile.

Seachem makes two products:

Flourish: What we on this list call "trace element fertilizer." Lots of us use
this product successfully.

Flourish Trace: A small subset of Floursish that Seachem claims get used up the
fastest. This is NOT a complete trace element product.

On Tue, 30 Sep 2003 13:48:01 -0700, Dave Millman
wrote:

Blarneytoad wrote:


I forgot to ad that I'm using Seachem Iron,Potassium and Trace
products and have been for awhile.

Seachem makes two products:

Flourish: What we on this list call "trace element fertilizer." Lots of us use
this product successfully.

Flourish Trace: A small subset of Floursish that Seachem claims get used up the
fastest. This is NOT a complete trace element product.

Thanks for clarifying that ...it's a little confusing determining
which is which based on looking at on-line catalogs that don't
carry the Trace product.Guess I should try some of that maybe.
Are you familiar with the 2 new products that I mentioned? Nitrate
and Phosphate?

Blarneytoad wrote:

Flourish: What we on this list call "trace element fertilizer." Lots of us use
this product successfully.

Flourish Trace: A small subset of Floursish that Seachem claims get used up the
fastest. This is NOT a complete trace element product.

Thanks for clarifying that ...it's a little confusing determining
which is which based on looking at on-line catalogs that don't
carry the Trace product.Guess I should try some of that maybe.

Not many people seem to use Flourish Trace. Many, many, many people use Flourish as
their trace element fertilizer.


Are you familiar with the 2 new products that I mentioned? Nitrate
and Phosphate?

According to people on this list, they work. So do Potassium nitrate (KN03) and
Potassium monophosphate (KH2PO4) from hydroponics supply houses, if you don't mind
getting your hands dirty with mildly harmful chemicals.

dump all the commercial junk and start using PMDD solutions. much cheaper,
lasts much longer and has everything (almost) your plants need. check out
The Krib for PMDD info:

http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Fertilizer/pmdd-tim.html



"Blarneytoad" wrote in message
...
I've tested my tank and nitrate and phosphate are almost
imeasurable.Plant growth is just not what I'd like so I've decided
to dose those two compounds.I can't find any greenlight stump
remover so I'm going to try Seachem's new nitrate and phosphate
additives. Has anybody tried these yet?

I've been using Flourish K and N for about a year, they are both great
products however as many others have done, now that my supplies are
running out I'm mixing my own to save some $. The PMDD article is
aimed at reducing algae, while limiting phosphates will work, it will
also limit the growth of your plants. Phosphate does not = algae in my
opinion, a balanced nutrient load and good plant growth will fix many
algae problems. If you have a high light tank with CO2 then you
shouldn't have any problems keeping a PO4 level of 0.2-0.5ppm in the
water colum (as long as nothing else runs out such as NO3,
traces....), if you have a slower growing tank it's sometimes best to
keep phosphates in the substrate, if this is the case, Flourish Tabs
are rich in phosphates.

You can compare the contents of Flourish, Trace and Tabs he
http://67.89.4.174/aqua/fert_table.htm

Sometimes I with Seachem had chosen better names for Flourish and
Trace, they can be very misleading. Flourish Trace and Flourish Trace
Supplement would have been better titles IMO

Hope that helps
Giancarlo Podio


Blarneytoad wrote in message . ..
I've tested my tank and nitrate and phosphate are almost
imeasurable.Plant growth is just not what I'd like so I've decided
to dose those two compounds.I can't find any greenlight stump
remover so I'm going to try Seachem's new nitrate and phosphate
additives. Has anybody tried these yet?

On 21 Oct 2003 07:18:22 -0700, (Giancarlo Podio)
wrote:

I've been using Flourish K and N for about a year, they are both great
products however as many others have done, now that my supplies are
running out I'm mixing my own to save some $. The PMDD article is
aimed at reducing algae, while limiting phosphates will work, it will
also limit the growth of your plants. Phosphate does not = algae in my
opinion, a balanced nutrient load and good plant growth will fix many
algae problems. If you have a high light tank with CO2 then you
shouldn't have any problems keeping a PO4 level of 0.2-0.5ppm in the
water colum (as long as nothing else runs out such as NO3,
traces....), if you have a slower growing tank it's sometimes best to
keep phosphates in the substrate, if this is the case, Flourish Tabs
are rich in phosphates.

You can compare the contents of Flourish, Trace and Tabs he
http://67.89.4.174/aqua/fert_table.htm

Sometimes I with Seachem had chosen better names for Flourish and
Trace, they can be very misleading. Flourish Trace and Flourish Trace
Supplement would have been better titles IMO

Hope that helps
Giancarlo Podio


I'd go the mix your own route but I don't have the time to get
involved with it.FWIW the Flourish nitrate and phospate products
are working great for me so far. I have a high light/CO2 set up and
you're right,NO3 and PO4 are essential to keeping the plants going
and the algae in check.