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Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V4 #693
Roger,
Your argument sounds very reasonable. Nitric acid is also HNO3, not NO3 as I
originally said. I am pretty well convinced that nitrogen is an important
component of fertilizer, but you're right that it is unlikely that they
would make a fertilizer that lowers the pH (180 degree turnaround).
However, a number of years ago I was told that a particular liquid
fertilizer would lower the pH.
I still believe in the school of thought that small water changes instead of
adding chemicals are better. I'm in favor of laterite in the substrate with
a UGH for plants requiring more iron than is present in the water supply,
but I have never used any fertilizer or other additives, except for a small
fish population and fish food. I've seen remarkably fast growth at times,
enough to completely fill up the tank in a month, and very poor growth if
any at all at other times. I think that pH, possibly temperature (too
high), and possibly some other environmental factor account for these
differences.
Thanks for correcting my mistake.
Steve
> Date: Fri, 1 Dec 2000 14:44:06 -0700 (MST)
> From: "Roger S. Miller" <rgrmill at rt66_com>
> Subject: Re: Nitric acid
>
> On Fri, 1 Dec 2000, Steve Groginsky wrote:
>
> > I believe some if not all non-substrate fertilizers will also
> > lower the pH (they contain nitric acid, NO3), and certainly, if you're
> > growing low-light plants in a low-light environment, you do not need to
> > fertilize at all, at least in my experience.
>
> Hmmm. I don't recall that any of the commercial aquarium fertilizers
> contained nitrate. Even if they did, it's unlikely that they would
> contain nitric acid -- potassium nitrate would be a more reasonable
> source. Under any condition, nitrate (NO3-) does not lower the pH.
>
>
> Roger Miller
>