Re: Urea-ka

[Thomas Barr <tcbiii at earthlink_net>]

> Hopefully everyone is having a great Wednesday. Hey, I've been
> collecting chemicals for PMDD. The first trace mix I bought had copper and I
> figured I'd try to find one without copper since it's so bad for the fish. I
> found a product at Lowes called Ironite. It contains Urea as the nitrogen
> source. I found a post that stated urea is a form of ammonia. I also found a
> post from someone that they added urea to a planted tank and the plants grew
> simular to adding nitrate. I assume if it's in low enough concentration the
> plants would suck it up and your biofilter would consume the rest before
> your fish bit the bullet. Anyone have any ideas?

Urea is not something you want to add to a plant tank. If you want to add
NH4/Urea etc use the fish waste. Very lean well run tanks can benefit from
tiny additions of NH4/Urea. Most folks should stay along way away. Use NO3
only for getting enough N to your plants and fish for the other NH4/Urea.
Adding NH4 proved pretty tricky and at unpractical low levels not inducing
algae in the process and the amount added was very small relative to what
the plant needs. Stick with NO3. Much easier and safer to use. You do not
gain much by adding the NH4/Urea and the potential risk is quite high for
algae/fish problems.
Regards, 
Tom Barr