Re: Seachem Prime -- NO3 & PO4 & Fish Food

["S. Hieber" <shieber at yahoo_com>]

Kirk Melton said, in part, regarding his 8 ppm nitrate but
relatively low phosphate:


> I do have a rather heavy load of rainbows and congo
> tetras in the 
> tank.  They are not fully grown, but, I do feed rather
> heavily once to 
> twice per day.  That may account for it.  As far as my
> tap water, I haven't 
> tested it, nor have I tested my water during various
> parts of the day. 

For my tanks, it's easy for the NO3 to climb steadily
between water changes such that I end up needing to dose
PO4 but not NO3.  This situation occurs in the fast grow
tanks, in which I do regular large water changes, one with
rainbows and congos btw.  I suspect the NO3 would climb
unacceptably high in a relatively short time were it not
for the frequent water changes.  The N in the fast tanks
doesn't come from my tap water; it comes from the fish
food.In the slow grow tanks, NO3 is needed varies depending
on how much fish food I provide.  Unless I measure the
food, the amount is somewhat unpredictable.  Your sense of
"a dash of this, a pinch of that" might be more accurate.

As a rule I tend towards heavy fish (fish food) loads. So
the NO3 levels aren't unexpected.  What is unexpected is
that the PO4 levels tend not to keep pace with the NO3.  I
guess fish foods have very little phosphorus these days --
or maybe it's all bound up in the organic phosphates or
soemthing like that.


Scott H.

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