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Re: More on Seachem
Pat Bowerman wrote:
>
> >There can be repurcussions to oversupplying macronutrients,so if I
> >were manufacturing a plant supplement for general use I would not
> >include large supplies of macronutrients in the mix.
>
> I'm not disagreeing with this statement, but I'd like to hear you
> discuss some of these "repurcussions".
Nother real fancy. Of course, nitrogen as ammonia is toxic in
sufficiently high doses, but mostly it's just the algae bloom. There's a
good chance that one or the other of N or P is likely to be controlling
growth, but which one is in control will depend on the tank. Any increase
in the supply of a growth-controlling nutrient will cause a burst in
growth and quite often that growth spurt will be put on by the algae, not
by the plants.
Also, consider that the fertilizer will be sold on the normal hobby
market. A lot of aquarists dabbling with a few plants for the first time
would be faced with a sudden algae bloom from using a fertilizer with a
lot of nitrogen or phosphorus. Those aquarists are likely to throw the
seething green mass out, turn there back on ever growing plants again and
badmouth the manufacturer while their at it.
So from the point of view of a manufacturer, I would say exactly what Greg
said, that macronutrients are supplied by the fish. The fish food may not
supply enough macronutrients for a high input tank and it may not provide
them in exactly the right ratio, but certainly the supply from fishfood is
good enough to get a new plant keeper started. I'd chose to sell
specialty macronutrient supplements to the small group of aquarists who
get to the point of needing them. Especially if the alternative is to put
them into a general plant supplement that might actually increase the
chance of a customer failing in the hobby.
Roger Miller