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Old 20-04-2003, 07:13 AM
SLEngst
 
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Default High K levels

Some discussions suggest adding KNO3 (or other source of K) to planted tanks,
so I bought a turbidity test kit. My tanks have been recently cleaned,
replanted, refished but are still growing some algae.

General info - mountain spring well water - KH, GH off scale. The tap water pH
is 8.4 after it off gasses. The yeast/sugar CO2 systems bring tank water down
to ~ 7.5. After doing the test, below, I figure my hard water isn't all
Calcium carbonate.

Tank 1 - NO3 - well below 12.5 mg/l. PO4 maybe 0.05 ???- directions say 0.02
is good but don't say what is not good. K - way in excess of the two turbidity
standards in the kit. Tank 2 about the same except the PO4 might be as much as
0.1 mg.

The K instructions say if the K is too high do a partial water change. K test
on tap water is as high as tanks. (Duh, I guess.)

Is this a problem? What is the problem? Appears I'm a bit shy of NO3. More
fish or feed will just raise the PO4, which could be a little high, but its
hard to tell. KNO3 isn't the answer. And I'm probably changing my tank water
too much too often anyhow, going at 50% a week, trying to reduce algae. I
could use some advice from someone who understands hard well water.

Thanks in advance,
Sharon
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Old 20-04-2003, 07:13 AM
kush
 
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Default High K levels

...And I'm probably changing my tank water
too much too often anyhow, going at 50% a week, trying to reduce algae. I
could use some advice from someone who understands hard well water.

I'm no expert but I'm in a similar situation - well water with high pH and
immeasurable kH. Do not change too much water - you CAN do too many water
changes. I know that's counter to what you usually hear from the experts,
but they all have city water, the swine! Your established tank environment
modifies your water to suit the needs of it's inhabitants as closely as
possible. Doing massive water changes is destabilizing. I try not to do
more than 10% - 20% weekly, depending on the tank.

kush


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Old 20-04-2003, 07:13 AM
 
Posts: n/a
Default High K levels

General info - mountain spring well water - KH, GH off scale. The tap water pH
is 8.4 after it off gasses. The yeast/sugar CO2 systems bring tank water down
to ~ 7.5. After doing the test, below, I figure my hard water isn't all
Calcium carbonate.


So what is the KH?
You cannot shoot for a target pH without that measurement.
High KH doesn't effect plant growth with CO2 enrichment. CO2 levels do
effect plant growth.

Tank 1 - NO3 - well below 12.5 mg/l. PO4 maybe 0.05 ???- directions say 0.02
is good but don't say what is not good. K - way in excess of the two turbidity
standards in the kit. Tank 2 about the same except the PO4 might be as much as
0.1 mg.


FWIW, my PO4 levels are 10 to 20X what your are. My plants grow like
mad, there is no algae. I've been doing this PO4 level for a decade,
so have many others.
By severely reducing PO4, you limit NO3/NH4 uptake, K uptake etc on
down the line.

The K instructions say if the K is too high do a partial water change. K test
on tap water is as high as tanks. (Duh, I guess.)


Well please......... what is K that's too high? I can tell you
50-60ppm is not an issue.

Is this a problem? What is the problem? Appears I'm a bit shy of NO3.


Well noting your measurement(12.5ppm of NO3) something tells me you
have a test kit that is very broad, let me guess a Tetra? Thiose are
not accurate to the range needed for measurements in planted tanks
IME.
I wish I could tell you a cheap kit, but there are not any I've found.
I use Lamott(at home, about 55$) or an ion meter(for research).
But there is another way around this that gets you fairly close to the
estimation of 5-10ppm of NO3.

More
fish or feed will just raise the PO4, which could be a little high, but its
hard to tell.


No, it's too low. A ratio of N:P should be about 10:1(this is not
written in stone but is fairly close for most aquatic plants) so a NO3
reading of 5-10ppm should also have a PO4 of .5ppm to 1.0ppm. These
are the exact ratio's that I have in my tanks.

KNO3 isn't the answer.


How do you know with that test kit?
Have you tried adding it? You have algae right now, I don't. Try this:
do the 50% water change, add about 1/4 level teaspoon per 20 gallons
of tank. Add this same amount after 3-4 days, do another weekly 50%
water change. Thius way nothing ever builds up since you remove 50%
each time. The above dosage gives about 11ppm extra of NO3 and 7ppm of
K.
Try it and see. Unless your well water is loaded with NO3, this should
work fine.
Have you ever had the well water tested? What was the NO3?
If so let me know what it was. We can change things around nutrtient
wise to suit your tap water.

And I'm probably changing my tank water
too much too often anyhow, going at 50% a week, trying to reduce algae. I
could use some advice from someone who understands hard well water.


Well, my tap was GH of 25 and a KH of 9. Mighty limely.
It's an issue of CO2, hard/soft etc does not matter that much when you
are using CO2 gas.
You need: the KH of the water, the test report for the well water's
N-NO3 level in mg/l or ppm.
Then you can make a move.

Regards,
Tom Barr



Thanks in advance,
Sharon

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Old 20-04-2003, 07:14 AM
BruceKGeist
 
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Default High K levels

Wow! 20 ppm K? Really? I guess I have been underdosing. I try to keep the
level at around 1ppm by adding K twice per week.

-Bruce
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