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[APD] Re: terrestrial ferts



From: Lief Brittan Youngs <liefy at yahoo_com>
Subject: [APD] Fertilizer
To: aquatic-plants at actwin_com

"I have heard that you can use plant fertilizer made for potted land plants. If I use a dry fertilizer for my land plants what rate can I use in my planted fish tank? Should I just follow the directions for making solution on the package and put that much in my tank like I would put in tap water?"

You heard wrong.
Tell you what, try it and see:)
The issue is Urea and NH4, the other nutrients are fine, the problem is they also add these along with NO3, which is fine to add by itself.

Small trace amounts added to healthy tank is fine but people generally add too much at some point and then get algae blooms and learn their lessons the hard way.
Some add Jobes sticks to their substrate which have the same thing, but when they uproot a plant and don't notice it, they get a bad algae bloom also and learn their lesson the hard way.

Sure you can do it and might get lucky. But add only NO3 and never NH4, unless it's from fish/critter waste only unless you are fine with algae blooms.

You try some rather simple test to prove this for your self if you so desire.  
 
"What using plant fertilizer how often do I need to fertilize the tank? Is a week, like the packages say, too often? Is dry or liquid fertilizer more effective?
 Lief Youngs"

None, no and no.
Use KNO3, KH2PO4, traces. They are cheap and allow you to tailor your needs for the plants and the tap water.
Generally 2-3x a week is good. Some divide it up to daily dosing.

Stick with these 3 easy to find and buy items.
Do not play with house plant terrestrial ferts. 
Perhaps for the advance person that has very small fish loads etc or someone wanting to see what algae is like.

Regards, 
Tom Barr







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