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[APD] Re: Fertilizer Stability



Just browsing through the archives and noticed this post:

http://fins.actwin.com/aquatic-plants/month.200105/msg00031.html
<snip>
>> What about KNO3?  I keep this in a clear bottle.  Will KNO3 degrade in  >> this
>> environment?  Even on other tanks where I store it under the stand it
>> eventually grows a little _fuzzy_ stuff.
 
> It's stable, as well as the vast majority of the salts we use. It's just 
> the chelated stuff that degrades so easy. I wouldn't worry about the 
> fuzzy stuff. It's probably bacteria, or excess KNO3 falling out of 
> solution. A 30% solution is pretty close to the saturation point. If it 
> bothers you, make smaller volumes of solutions or weaker 
> concentrations.

I notice a bit of this stuff in my KNO3 stock solution (~13%) too after time. I think that it's biological; bacteria/fungi? rather than precipitation. I'm shortly going to switch to dosing dry.

I've never been too worried about it, but my question is, could some of the nitrate be reduced to ammonium during storage by bacteria/fungi? Would redox be low enough? If so, then might this not promote algal growth? Just curious.

Clint Brearley
Melbourne, Australia




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