Phosphate vs phosphoros question
 

Hi all,

I appear to have gotten something wrong... A while ago I posted a question
re doesing phosphate into my tank as in australia we have little to no
phosphate in our water and I was concerned as I was going to start dosing
what I thought was a phosphate product, which is Seachem's phosphoros.
However, it appears that Seachem phosphoros is phosphate free... Well
that's what is says on the lable...

In australia, according to my LFS, we need to dose NPK in addition to
fertilizers as we do not have them in our water like America and Europe do
and most higher end ferts come from these coutries e.g. Dupla, Seachem etc.
I decided to dose these seperately using Seachems Nitrogen, Potassium and
Phosphoros rather than a product like Hagen's NPK, which has the three
macronutrients in a fixed ratio and makes it more difficult. I have
purchased a phosphate test kit and my phosphate is 0.1ppm

My question is, what is the difference between phosphate and phosphoros? I
dosed according to the lable 0.5-1ml per 80 litres (approx 20gal) water, but
my phosphate kit did not pick any more phosphate up, which is when i read
the Phosphoros lable closer and found that it has no phosphate...

Can someone please explain the difference to me?

Thank you in advance.

Justin.

Justin, plants only use PO4, P is just the elemental form and is always
oxidized.

You should try and find some KH2PO4(monobasic potassium phosphate) from
a hydroponic vendor down there.

1 kg will last....oh ....about 50 years.
You can use the SeaChem product(just KH2PO4 in water) and add about
1ppm of PO4 3x a week or so.

Regards,
Tom Barr

www.BarrReport.com

Thanks for the response Tom.

From what I understand of what you are saying, the Seachem Phosphorus is
just KH2PO4 disolved in water, so I can use this?

I have tried obtaining products from hydroponics stores, but the hydroponics
supplies here all dye their ferts... I think they do this for safety
reasons, so the guy at the store said it would turn my water blue...

So I can use my Phosphate test kit and just keep adding enough of the
Seachem product until I get a reading of 1ppm... Is this right?

Thank you once again.

Justin.
wrote in message
ups.com...
Justin, plants only use PO4, P is just the elemental form and is always
oxidized.

You should try and find some KH2PO4(monobasic potassium phosphate) from
a hydroponic vendor down there.

1 kg will last....oh ....about 50 years.
You can use the SeaChem product(just KH2PO4 in water) and add about
1ppm of PO4 3x a week or so.

Regards,
Tom Barr

www.BarrReport.com