Re: [APD] EI Questions

[Vaughn Hopkins <hoppycalif at yahoo_com>]

Hi Christine,
ppm refers to parts per million of mass, or miligrams per kilogram,  
which, for water is mg per liter.

The way I understand it, if you have anything in a tank that can  
generate ammonia, such as fish, fish poop, rotting organic matter,  
etc. you need lots of plants to virtually instantly use up the  
ammonia.  Otherwise it acts as a signal to the algae spores to start  
their life cycle.  So, a fully planted tank will do that much better  
than a sparsely planted tank.  If you had a large reservoir, as you  
suggested, with the tank water circulating through it, that should  
stabilize the fertilizers, but only if the reservoir was always kept  
completely blacked out.  Algae also need light to start growing and a  
reservoir with lots of ferts and light too would soon grow algae,  
defeating the purpose.

Vaughn H.

On Jul 29, 2006, at 5:10 AM, Christine Hood wrote:

>> Date: Fri, 28 Jul 2006 10:25:44 -0700 (PDT)
>> From: Thomas Barr <tcbiii at yahoo_com>
>> Subject: [APD] Fertilizing the substrate vs the water column
>> To: aquatic-plants at actwin_com
>
>> Algae is often due to lack of nutrients, poor plant health,
>> limiting the plant growth, lack of plant biomass at the initial
>> planting stage and every so often excess NH4.
>
>
> Hi Tom, Hi All
>
> I'm trying to get my head around how and why EI works, prior to  
> giving it a
> go. Tom frequently states the importance of having enough nutrients  
> in the
> water, that a deficiency can lead to algae whereas an excess is rarely
> harmful. So if I had a small planted tank with water circulating  
> through a
> large resevoir, both with a good level of nutrients, the levels  
> should be
> stable for longer, yes? How do we reconcile this with the also  
> often quoted
> need for a good planting density? What happens if I have just a few  
> plants
> in a large volume of water with the recommended nutrient levels?
>
> Could someone please clarify what units are being used in EI when
> concentrations are given in ppm. As I understand it, ppm can refer  
> to v/v
> w/w w/v or mol/mol.
>
> Thanks
> Christine
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