From: "Thomas Barr" <tcbiii at earthlink_net>
Reply-To: tcbiii at earthlink_net
To: "Mariano Fernández Bonfante" <mariano_bonfante at hotmail_com>
Subject: RE: [APD] Re: algae problems
Date: Fri, 27 May 2005 21:24:54 -0700
Hola,
> Thanks indeed for the advice. I currently using a powder formula for
micros,
> with the following components:
> Which would be the desired amount?.
Add this to 500mls of water.
Then add 15mls 3x a week
> I done some calculations with your figures. For 100G I compute:
> - KNO3 -> 3900 mg -> 7.31 ppm
> - KH2PO4 -> 700 mg -> 1.36 ppm
> I read about the Redfield index, which gives the N to P ratio. In this
case
> it will be 3.73, with a standard between 10 and 20. Is this a matter to
> care?.
Redfield ratio is for tiny picoplankton in Marine systems.
Not Aquatic plants.
Aquatic plant ratios is about 10:1 N:P
Plants need more PO4 than algae.
The dosing will greatly enhance the tank since you will have plenty of
nutrients for the plants.
When the plants grow well= algae does not.
Happy plants= poor algae growth
The ratio itself does not matter, since the plants are supplied and you re
set the tank with regular water changes each week.
you can have a NO3 of 5ppm and a PO4 of 2ppm, or a NO3 of 20ppm and a PO4
of 0.3ppm and still have good growth. You will have less Green spot algae
if you have high PO4 and much better O2 production from the plants.
A ratio is a good starting point and tends to waste less NO3 and K, and
PO4, but these are very cheap and easy to dose and many tanks will use
2-4ppm of NO3 per day, and 0.3ppm to 0.8ppm per day of PO4 if you use CO2
enrichment at 30ppm.
There are a few Argentine plant aquarist I've helped and they translated
the EI into Spanish and another group is Italian as well.
You can read it on my site for free. Register a username and password,
ignore the sign up ads.
I can try and find those folks for you.
> Sincerely,
>
> Mariano F. Bonfante
>
Regards,
Tom Barr
3rd annual Plant Fest July 8-14th 2005!
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