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Re: Ammonia preference over nitrate (was KNO3 K2SO4)
FWIW, my take on the whole ammonia uptake is that in a planted aquarium the
bioloigical filter should not be able to outcompete the plants for ammonia. To
me, this means that you should have the right balance of plants and and lower
volume filter so that the ammonia is undetectable but the plants are still
effectively competing with the nitrogen cycle bacteria in your filter. This
should also lead to less nitrate accumulating (in theory) because the plants will
directly use the ammonia and the filter will have less ammonia to form nitrate.
It is a delicate balance, however, and you shouldn't use a filter that is too weak
or has little or no biological capacity because ammonia could conceivably
accumulate to toxic levels even if there are plants trying to take it up (depends
on the fish load, feeding regimen, etc.)
Just an opinion,
Al
> - ------------------------------
> Cavan wrote, Oct. 26:
> snip
> >That said, and knowing that aquatic plants prefer
> >ammonium to nitrates, would we get better growth and
> >color adding VERY weak additions of ammonium or
> >ammonia daily? I cringe as I write this, but I think
> >it may have some merits.
> >
and paul replied:
snip
> Don't go too far with this notion that plants perfer ammonia to nitrate.
> They may take up ammonia faster than nitrate when given both, but they do
> very well with nitrate, only, and can take it up even from very low
> concentrations.
snip