Justin wrote:
Hi all,
I just want to check if I have understood something correctly, it's just
that I have started dosing NPK and I am putting a lot more in than I
thought I would be, well that is a lot more than Seachem recommend...
I am working off (what I think is Tom Barr's ratio) of 15:1:20 and I
through that a level of 15mg/l for Nitrate was too high, so I am keeping
my tank at levels of 7.5:.5:10 being mg/l... I don't know if this is
correct to start with (i just divided everything by 2)
Seachem recommend putting in roughly about 30ml of Potassium a week
whereas I am putting in 40-60mls and most websites I read say Nitrate
and Phosphate should be zero, but I cannot get my Nitrate to drop to
zero, it is constantly at 5mg/l (and i'm bumping it up to 7.5 for the
ratio's) But my Phosphate drops to zero every week...
I am getting great growth and everything was going well until tonight
after my water change I did all my tests and Nitrate was 20mg/l whereas
I have been following the above fertilzation regime that I have been
doing for 6 weeks now... When I last tested Nitrate, it was 5mg/l so I
added enough Seachem Nitrogen to bring it up to 7.5 as I have been doing
for weeks, but somehow it has just quite alarmingly... The only thing I
can contribute it to is my Red Tiger Lilly (or is it Lotus...?) has lost
two leaves this week and I have been letting them just rot in the water
as I was advised never to cut their leaves if you want them to flower...
Can anyone tell me if i'm on the right track or if i'm way off?
thank you.
Tank Spec's.
MH lighting
Pressurized CO2
KH3
PH6.8
200litre (approx 40gal)
Justin
MH lighting over a 40 gal?!? Cool! No wonder your tank sucks down
ferts. Seachem probably calculated for a more typical 2-3 wpg. I
wonder about the accuracy of your nitrate test kit reading since things
have been stable for a bit. Did you try to retest? Also test your tap
water and see if there was a nitrate spike.
I grow full-sized Nymphaea lilies in my pond, and I cut off the old
leaves. They flower fine. I don't know specifically about red tiger
lilies, but I've never grown any flowering plant in either my pond or
garden that missed it's dead leaves.
--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
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