[APD] re: re: amonium chloride and CO2

[Gwmangen at cs_com]

"George, I have run my CO2 levels very high in my high light tank - well 
above the 35 that seemed to stress your fish. Maybe something else is going on? 
What was your pH when the CO2 was that high? Is your KH high enough (>3 dGH) to 
keep your pH from crashing? If you're wanting to add N, you might want to try 
KNO3 rather than ammonium chloride.  -Rachel"


Rachel, with regards to the plants, I think you can run your CO2 higher in a 
brightly lit tank than you should in a dimmer tank.  It's a supposition based 
on a hypothesis that plants consume more nutrients when exposed to more light. 
 My pH was 6.6 and my KH was 5 dH.  Respecting the fish, it's true that CO2 
is an anesthetic.  You can even use it to euthanize fish.  My animal was 
looking doped and drowsy so I thought the gas might be too high.  I'm relieved to 
hear you haven't had a problem with it being that high.

I do add KNO3 and it seems to be working well.  I dilute it to about 2 
mg/drop and dose judiciously to avoid algea growth.  Plants prefer amonia to nitrate 
because it takes them less effort to absorb it or use it.  So, I was 
commenting that it would be interesting to see, given more CO2,  how much better the 
plants might respond to amonia than nitrate.  I don't now mean to suggest that 
you don't know any of this.  In fact, I suspect you have had more experience 
with plants and know more about them than I do.  I'm sorry if my post left out 
too many facts or was unclear.

You asked, "What does amonium chloride have to do with CO2?"  Well, I suppose 
that with enough light and CO2 a plant would better be able to utilize the 
amonium in amonium chloride.  However, there might be too much chloride in it.  
For the benefit of those of you that don't know these things, our fish 
conveniently provide the tank with amonia.  It's just sometimes not enough to 
adequately fertilize the plants which is why we dose potassium nitrate KNO3.  We 
don't add amonium because it can convert to amonia which is toxic to fish.

Sincerely, George Mangen

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