Re: FE as a limiting nutrient

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

Steven Pituch said, in part:

> One possibility as to why the nitrates have not gone down
> is that I have
> about sixty local sailfin mollies of all sizes in the 125
> gal tank. Perhaps
> they are giving the plants the needed nitrate levels, and
> preventing the
> nitrates from being exhausted. I was afraid all the
> fishfood would provide
> too much phosphate, but with the decrease in algae I
> suspect not.

My limited experience with a variety of dried, processed,
and frozen foods foods is that they provide plent of N but
not P.  Even in my slow grow tanks, I find things go better
with some added PO4.  My LaMotte test first told me my
tnaks weren't getting enough P, and periodic testing bears
out that the added PO4 helps maintain levels, which helps
the plants grow, which in turn helps reduce the N.

I'm not proposing a general principle here; I'm just
suggesting something to consider.

Scott H.

__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month!
http://sbc.yahoo.com