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[APD] Re: Nutrient Dosing

This has been pretty much my approach since I started water testing again in the quest for more stable tanks. I have moved from the original PMDD recipe to adding Fe/trace elements separately from the macros, and adding the macros as indicated by the NO3 and PO4 water tests, with K assumed at 10-20 ppm.

Two questions:

1) With relatively hard water (gH = 14), do I need to add MgSO4 (epsom salts) to my Fe/trace elements mix, or can I assume that there will be sufficient magnesium carried in the water?

2) My newly planted H. difformis has white veins and rather spindly new growth. The new leaves also don't have the deeply cut ridges characteristic of this plant. I'm assuming Fe deficiency here, since the iron was nearly undetectable when the plants first went in. Current iron levels are at 0.1 ppm.

William

On Dec 20, 2004, at 3:05 AM, aquatic-plants-request at actwin_com wrote:

Use new growth on the water sprite (h. difformis) as an indicator
for low Fe (iron) and dose CSM+B or another product accordingly.
It will grow in pale if low on Fe. The only real wild card in all
this is K+ (potassium) since there isn't a reliable
hobbyist-level test kit. Look at the posts earlier this month on
K+/potassium to see what people are doing. I do a weekly 20%
water change, test for NO3 and PO4 then dose KNO3 and monosodium
phosphate (Discus Buffer)accordingly to get to the recommended
levels. If NO3 doesn't drop much during the week, I'll dose K2SO4
for K+ at about 5 ppm. It's looking like a twice weekly dose of
CSM+B at .1 Fe is working.


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