01-12-2005, 08:28 AM
posted to rec.aquaria.freshwater.plants
|
|
|
Adding nitrates without adding Ca, Mg or K
George Pontis wrote:
Philippe Lemaire (remove oldies) wrote:
George Pontis wrote:
Philippe Lemaire (remove oldies) wrote:
Is there a way ?
Philippe
The only other compound that is a likely candidate would be sodium
nitrate. The others are poisonous, expensive, or unavailable.
If this is for a planted tank, what's wrong with readily available
potassium nitrate ? Usually a planted tank needs more potassium than
nitrate, so you use KNO3 to supply as much nitrate as needed and add
more KCl to get the K up to target.
I add some KH2PO4 and my K is nearly at 60 ppm.
Perhaps, shall I reduce TMG and Profito supplies
but how be sure that traces are sufficient ?
Thanks again !
Philippe
Usually we need very little KH2PO4 (potassium phosphate), maybe enough
to get 1ppm phosphate.
The K that we get along with the phosphate is less than the K that
comes along with the nitrate in potassium nitrate. After dosing those
two we still need to add many times more K to get up to what the plants
want.
I don't know what TMG or Profito contains, but I thought TMG was only
traces. K is usually considered a nutrient and is supplied in much
larger amounts than the traces.
The simplest method that I have seen for ensuring proper amounts of
nutrients and traces is the Barr method, usually called "EI" for
Estimative Index. You can read about it if you register at
www.barrreport.com. A good tool for mixing your own potions is Chuck
Gadd's Aquarium calculator, which you can download from his interesting
pages he http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/
Thanks for the info !
Philippe
|