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Re: [APD] Aquatic-Plants Digest, Vol 28, Issue 2



So Scott, how much excess NO3 causes algae?
  
  I wanna know.........because I've never been able to do it even at 120-140ppm NO3(killed some shrimp though).
  Likewise for PO4 to about 3-5ppm.......
  
  Where's my algae if it causes algae if these are in excess?
  Give me a number, ppm's?
  
  Say, how about excess Fe? How much causes algae?
  I wanna know cause everytime I try to replicate their supposed causes,  I never get an algae bloom but I have nice growing plants......
  
  I have an ADA soil tank, ADA says not to dose the water column in the  beginning, I have and now have even better growth, but no  algae...........
  
  The issue is more complex than simply excess Nitrogen or PO4........
  If these nutrients are solely from fish waste, they first must start  out as NH4.............not NO3 which is the end product of  nitrification, a process that is heavily dependent on O2.
  
  If we start out by adding NO3, say from KNO3.........that's not the same thing.
  It's not the NO3, it's the NH4 that causes the algae. Add some sometime and see for your self.
  
  Then try it with NO3........
  
  Guess why we cannot keep cramming more and more fish(NH4 producers) in  our CO2 enriched tanks to supply all their Nitrogen needs?
  
  You can do this with non carbon enriched tanks though........guess why?  Much slower growth rate, roughly 10X less, and the NH4 never gets high  enough to cause an algae bloom.
  
  You can still add lots of NO3, PO4 and Fe to a non carbon enriched  planted tank BTW. It will not help, but you can dose fairly high levels  or dose once a week and have good results(I add about  1/10th as  much KNO3/KH2PO4/Traces/GH once a week, or about 1/3 as much for Excel  dosed tanks once/twice a week.
  
  The main issue with folks having trouble with nutrients are :  confounding factors, such as poor CO2/NO3/PO4 etc, then they blame say  Fe if their CO2 is poor for the algae.
  
  You have to isolate the dependent variable, so with PO4, since most  have excess everything else using PMDD, you see a dramatic increase in  plant growth/health asap.
  
  The other issue: junky test kits they rely and based their dosing routine on.
  EI is about the same accuracy as most good high quality test kits. But  with many of the cheaper ones, EI is probly more accurate. 
  
  This also assumes that you have acalibrated the cheap test kits against  a set of standards(say 1-10-30ppm NO3), most don't and if they do, they  only maske one standard, say a 10pmm. Other folks also simply assume  since Bob calibrated his test kit, their test must be the  same..........poor color comparison charts also make testing an issue.
  
  People procrastinate and avoid work if possible, they hate to test water as rule.
  Water's are fairly easy since many already do that anyway.
  Autowater changers, pythons etc are used for the truly lazy, so the  water change work can also be avoided easily for  most all  situations, and is especially worthwhile for the larger tanks,  say  55gal and higher(autowater changers).
  
  Regards, 
  Tom Barr
  
  www.BarrReport.com
  
  
   
  
   
  
  
     
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

		
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