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Re: [APD] Re: Nitrogen #2



Thomas Barr wrote:

[snip]

No one has ever put this NH4/NO3 split together in context of algae and planted tanks, so you will not find anything on
> it in books etc. I've done all the research myself. Same for
PO4, Trace dosing, general algae issues, substrate cycling, lighting, dosing routines, testing etc.

May be you could write a book on this subject. And does everyone agrees with your conclusions? Are there any dissenting views? I am not criticizing, jut looking for a large consensus with regards to causes of green water. I feel very grateful indeed that you share this information with us.

So, let me summarize here what I understood. The starting point
for unicellular algae is the spores which would be carried by
the fish and plants from aquarium to aquarium and so are always
present in some non-zero concentration in the water. Spores bloom
in presence of NH4 and give birth to the algae which can live on
either NH4 or NO3 and perhaps some other Nitrogen compounds. Very
little, often undetectable by common test kits, quantities of NH4
are sufficient for algae spores to bloom. New tanks often go
through the green water period because of initial spike in NH3/4.
High intensity lights worsen the problem by inducing rapid algae
bloom whenever NH4 is present. NH3/4 eating (nitrifying) bacteria
in external bio-filter cannot compete very well with the algae
for NH4, which makes sense, since algae present in the tank
itself where ammonia originates while it takes perhaps an hour or
more for tank's water to completely cycle through the filter.
However algae and nitrifying bacteria are not the only consumers
of ammonia. Higher plant can consume it as well, but they might
be limited by other factors in their uptake of ammonia. The
solution to the algae problem is to eliminate *all* factors
limiting higher plants grows, which would as well increase their
uptake of ammonia and make it a limiting factor to algae spores. This
won't make ammonia limiting factor for higher plants since they
take Nitrogen from other sources such as NO3. To initiate this
process it might be necessary to eliminate most or all of adult
unicellular algae from the tank by either replacing large amount
of water in the tank or blocking the light for several days, which
would kill algae. Adding random nutrients stimulating plants grows
may not solve problem because other factors may still limit plants.
Thus, for example, if the only limiting factor to a plant grows is
Nitrogen then adding it in the form other then NH3/4 like KNO3
may eliminate green water problem.

Does this makes any sense?

Thanks a lot.
Dmitri Priimak

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