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RE: NO3 adding
> Date: Wed, 23 Sep 1998 05:44:08 -0400
> From: krandall at world_std.com
> Subject: NO3 adding
>
> I used to be very careful about adding NO3 only to the substrate. But in
> the past year or so, I have become more daring, and add it directly to my
> water as needed. I certainly don't add it daily, and I _only_ add it to
> strongly lit CO2 supplemented tanks with very fast growth. I don't depend
> only a test kit to tell me when nitrogen is needed. I _only_ add
> it when I
> see signs of nitrogen deficiency in the plants _and_ I test and find no
> measurable nitrate in the water. When I _do_ add it, I still keep the
> levels below 5 mg/L.
>
> I think you should be _very_ sure that your plants actually need more
> nitrogen before trying this, and you should fell quite confident in your
> ability to handle transient algae problems if you guess wrong. If your
> tank is less than 6 months old, and/or you are a novice aquatic
> gardener, I
> would be _very__VERY_ cautious about adding nitrate to your tank.
I was quite surprised to read this strongly worded caution. I add NO3 to my
tank quite regularly, otherwise they fall quickly to 0 ppm. When my levels
drop below 10 ppm I dose enough to raise them again to 15 ppm. Once,
miscalculating the dosage, I got them to 30 ppm. None of that has ever
caused a problem for me.
Before I started dosing NO3 I had terrible algae problems, and I have heard
from others on this list that nitrate limited tanks encourage certain forms
of algae.
If your test kit shows 0 ppm, why would you wait for your plants to show
damage before adding NO3?
Frank.
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