Ok, all. Two questions/facts.

1) I have dosed phosphate, to continuous detectable levels,
and have triggered algae in an otherwise stable, long term
stable, tank. Yea, like-like, no other changes made.

2) Ammonia is indeed a preferred form for plant/algae. But,
what do bio-filters do? Convert Ammonia to Nitrate, they do
that quite quickly, and adjust to sustained higher levels
also quite quickly. In light of how many tanks face algal
issues, are we saying that "everyone" is running material
levels of Ammonia, routinely?

My tried and true recommendation... Obviously, don't dose
Ammonia, Urea, or other forms of Ammonium - it's flat out
fish poison, if nothing else.

If you don't have algae, then make no mistake, you are
limiting it in some way. YOU may be depending on limits in
N, P, Fe, heck, even B or any of the other dozen odd
nutrients plants need. Algae has a fast turnover rate
compared to plants, and plants will, ultimately, "win" on
the uptake of rare nutrients.

*I* AM P limited. Item 1 above made that completely clear.
*YOU* may be able to dump tons of P into your tank, and
live a long and algae free life - if you are in fact
limiting on something else.

Now, being "X limited" doesn't mean absolute 0, absolutely
all the time. You may have to dose, small bits now and
again, to make sure the higher plants can occasionally find
what they need.

*******************************
Happy'Cam'per wrote:
There are different forms of Nitrate/Ammonia. Urea is a form of ammonium
which comes from fish waste and jobes stix and soil. Algae loves Urea, so
limiting phosphate is a waste of time as its the urea or other forms of
Nitrogen that algae love. Plants need phosphate to survive healthily,
limiting phosphate = limited plant growth. Plants can utilise different
forms of Nitrates, and so can algae. I suppose urea is more easily digested
than NO3 as far as algae is concerned, this is why we are dosing KNO3 and
not Urea, sorry I dont know the elemental abbreviation for that form of
Nitrogen.

I'm sure this post is confusing, I'm speed typing at the moment. I'll
clarify the above mess tomorrow when I'm of sane mind.
--
**So long, and thanks for all the fish!**



"Nemo" wrote in message
...

" wrote in message
.com...


I commonly dose 1ppm of PO4 [ ... ] Adding more is not going to give you

more algae or

plants beyond their intital needs/storage.
Algae need far less nutrients than the plants do also.

N:P ratios for aquatic plants= 10:1. FW algae= 14:1.
More PO4 will favor the plants.

[ ... ]


This is myth about PO4 = algae in planted tanks.

Now I am royally confused! I've been working very hard to control algea
through limiting phosphate. How is it done otherwise?

Thanks