[APD] Re: Nutrients

[Thomas Barr <tcbiii at earthlink_net>]

Regarding some advice on the 29 gallon with 3x 55w/light.
Yes, you can pretty much double the portions.
I tend to think in terms of 80 liters roughly a 20 gallon tank.

A few things you need to consider:
Fish load
Light intensity and type(NO vs PC vs MH's etc)
Plant density/unit area

You'll need more frequent dosings at higher light.
You become more dependent on the inorganic sources of nutrients the higher the light intensity. 

So a lower lighted CO2 enriched tank is able to do better with less dosing and more dependence on fish waste.

George's tank for example:
He had to do 50% water changes  every 2 weeks to keep the NO3 down. His plants were beyond their ability to remove all the waste being generated, fortunately for the Pirate of the Rockies, he also has a nice wet/dry etc. So the NH4 doesn't get him as bad as some.

But whe the fish load was reduced, his NO3 dropped, his plabnts look "crappy"(his words, not mine:-)), and the routine needed to be changed, eg add KNO3 etc or add more fish like before. 

With his system and method, he relies on the fish to do some work and take a regular fecal dosing. Many folks do this but they have less fish, higher light and rely more on topping off the N needs witrh KNO3 etc. 

It becomes very difficult to add enough fish with more light. You generally cannot add more fish with algae as the filter and the plants cannot keep up with closely interwoven/coupled cycling and free algae available NH4 is produced. Then Doom comes. 

Regards, 
Tom Barr

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