Koi-Lo wrote:
wrote in message
ups.com...

You need to provide a nice range of nutrients for plants in order for
them to grow well, not too low= algae, not too high= dead fish from
very high NO3(100ppm or more using KNO3)
====================
Not everyone knows what you're talking about. Not being a chemist, I have
no idea what the above are. And not everyone can afford a large number of
tests kits. So we tend to stick to the plants that thrive for us with a
minimum of supplements.
--
KL

Hi,
You know what baking soda is? Sodium bicarbonate.
If stump remover(KNO3) works better for you, that's simple enough.

I'm not suggsting you buy a test kit, I never once did.
Actually quite the opposite, but if you want to verify vai a test kit,
you may, but then you also need to make some standard solutions of
known amounts of NO3 to make sure the test kit is not in error. Many
folks have made that mistake and still do.

NO3= nitrAte

There are many acronyms that chemist, hobbyists, feeble minded people
like myself use. LFS is a common one few outside our hobby might
know........
Any chem formula is easy to search to see what it might be.

You do have google search right here on the page after all
Still, it sounds all Greek if you are not a little familar with it.
You see the fertilizer bags for your lawn etc, they have 3 numbers,
NPK, % of the these same fertilizers, Nitrogen(N), Phosphorus(P), and
Potassium(K).

Now Farmer Bigweed is no chemist either..............but he knows that
adding his fertilizer 3x a week on his rice keeps the algae back and
the rice growing well.
He's a little worried that his crops might get burned from all this
fertilizer and potential for build up.

So he drains the field once a week and then adds the fertilizer right
back to prevent any residual build up.

The main difference between us and Farmer Bigweed is that we use only
dose NO3, not NH4 (Ammonium, you know the stuff that kills fish real
well even if there's a little).

Otherwise, it's the same............

Farmer Bigweed needs no test kits because he knows how much water
volume is in his fields, and he knows how much kilograms of fertilizer
he needs to add to get a good level of NO3.

So if he changes say 50% of the water in the rice field, he will never
build uop more than 2x the maxmimum amount dosed for that week.

You can easily estimate tha ppms using a dosing caluculator on
line(there are many, see Chuck Gadd's dosing calculator).

I know adding 1/4 teaspoon of KNO3 will add 10-11ppm of NO3 to an 20
gal tank for each dose.

So if I dose 3x a week: 30ppm total.

If I assume that the plants will not take up any and do weekly 50%
water changes, the max build up possible is 60ppm NO3.

This is a simple mathmatical equation referred to as an infinite series
of dilutions.

Now if the plants do take up nutrients, say 20ppm a week, then the
range will be about 25-40ppm all week.

So what about if the plants grow real fast?
The max uptake for NO3 is about 4 ppm per day in packed tank with no
fish and very high light and high CO2 etc.

4x 7 = 28ppm.

So dosing 30ppm for a higher light tank will never run out of
NO3............and thus no tank with less light will also run out of
nutrients either.

The water changes prevent build ups. You can change less or more %%% if
you so chose, more will lead to great accuracy and less build up.
Less will lead to lesser accuracy and more potential build up.

A little math and chem is needed for the hobby to deal with some things
like BBA or BGA if they reoccur, but it's better than suffering also
for years...............

But how much do you really need before you can deal with things on a
practical level?
Do you need all those test kits like Beelezabubba from the University
claims to add ferts to rice to get rid of your algae issue in the rice
field?

No........some simple dosing methods/routines are all that's needed,
they are generally more accurate than the test kits anyway.

I did not nor do most folks in this hobby decide to keep tanks in order
to test water, water testing is not my "hobby".
I like plants, so I add ferts for them to grow well/the best and watch
their responses.

EI is a simjple method, about as simple and cheap as you are going to
get, folks get weird when the first try to wonder about the "why", the
how is very easy..........

Give me a tank volume and light, whether you use CO2 or not, and I can
prescribe a very simple, cheap way to dose it and target these levels.

You can read more about EI and there's even an "EI light" version
around on the web etc

http://www.barrreport.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=4

Regards,
Tom Barr