KNO3 aka Potassium Nitrate is used to primarily dose nitrates or NO3. It does have the side effect of dosing a small amount of potassium
So what is the "K" potassium?
K2SO4 aka Potassium Sulfate is used for dosing potassium
If the "K" is potassuim why do we need the sulphate?
KH2PO4 aka Mono Potassium Phosphate is used for dosing phosphates or PO4
Same as above, so why do we need the KH or the extra potassium?
Or is there a way I can break these down / combine them into a single formula? NO3+K2O4+PO4?
Plantex CSM
Fe 7.0 % Iron
Mn 2.0 % Manganese
Mg 1.5 % Magnesium
Zn 0.4 % Zinc
Cu 0.1 % Copper
Mo 0.05 % Molybdenum
B --- <== don't know what that is
Co --- Cobalt
Mb --- <=== don't know what that is
This is a premixes solution (dry). I don't want the iron nor do I want the copper. I am on well water so additional traces may be good just not at those levels.
How do I go about testing for them? That way I would know what the consumption levels were and which ones to cut back on.
Last edited by J-P on Wed Mar 17, 2010 8:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
if you follow me, you avoid stepping in the crap that I just did...
Your question is over my head, but doesn't K have a bad/violent reaction with water? I think it may produce another element...something harmful to fish perhaps????
Perhaps the other elements are needed to stifle that bad reaction
actually it is a complex question that may or may not have a simple answer.
I am on well water and I have elements that I may need to suppliment with fertalizers. I also have an abundance of other elements that the ferts will contain that I will not need.
I need to know how to adjust these. If I can't test them I'll never know. If I don't know I won't have a happy tank, or be doing trial and error for a life time.
The filp side is, I could keep the happy plants and discard the ones that don't do so well. Would you do that with your fish? Or try to make them happy?
if you follow me, you avoid stepping in the crap that I just did...
Since RTR uses a limited spectrum of plants, selected from the dozens (hundreds?) he has tried in the last 50+ years, selecting those that grow well and easily for him in moderate lighting, do you really think that he is the one to ask?
RTR in a nutshell:
That looks cool. Buy it. It grows too fast, needs too much care, requires constant pruning. Compost it.
It does not grow at all, Remove it and compost it.
That works pretty well. These are easy and have multiple cultivars. That is slow, but if I take care of it for a decade or two, I can have plenty... Decades later: "How of earth do you have square yards of A. b. nana carpets?: Answer: "I like it and grows well for me." This decade I am working on A. b. nana petite.
My requirements:
1.I must like the plant.
2. It must grow reasonably well under my standard conditions.
3. Little or no pruning requirement.
4. No high light or high or special nutrient issues permitted..
Chemistry:
There are 17 essential nutrients required for plant growth: carbon (C), hydrogen (H), oxygen (O), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), sulfur (S), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), boron (B), molybdenum (Mo), chlorine (Cl) and nickel (Ni). Of these 17, all except carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen are derived from minerals, which roughly means the soil. BTW, they are listed in decreasing order of quantity. The first three are air/water, the second three the macnonutrients (in the US, these are the only legal "fertilizers" on a label). The rest are micronurients or trace elements (those two terms are usually interchangeable, but some differentiate the micros and the really tiny trace element requirements. Note: N2 is from the air, but it requires specialized soil bacteria to 'fix" N2 into bacterial mass and that later supplies plants and animals their N requirements, so here it listed as mineral/soil since that is where most plants get it..
Some salts are chosen for one particular component: K2SO4 is for K (potassium), and it has 2 atoms per molecule of that. Sulfate does not load into other nutrient's totals - you are not going to OD something else, and sulfur is required as well. BTW: K (Latin: kalium, from Arabic: القَلْيَه al-qalyah "plant ashes", cf. Alkali from the same root), (Wikipedia)
KH2 P04 is nicely soluble. We cannot measure K and OD is not hazardous - it does no harm to add it here. The two hydrogens are always useful - organics are bristling with H. P is a macronutrient, a US fertilizer, used in quantity, and absolutely irrevocably linked to life, ditto the 4Os - we are O2 creatures.
I have a ton of species in my tank and I plan on throwing out the ones that don't do well. Unless it's one of the ones I like
ETA: "Throwing out" would mean giving it to someone else. I wouldn't actually put it in the garbage, I'd pass it on.
Last edited by Flutter on Thu Mar 18, 2010 9:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
It is absurd to talk of one animal being higher than another. We consider those, when the cerebral structure/intellectual faculties most developed, as highest. A bee doubtless would when the instincts were.
Charles Darwin
OK, I admit that for plants I really like, most often for some special use (such as Banana plants for shading for light-avoiding fish such as Glass or debauwi cats) I may make the needed adjustments to me standard conditions I use. So, I cannot fault that attitude, as i do so myself.
Other plants which I would love to have in certain tank, such as the Madagascar Lace plant, are strictly off limits. At the old house I could grow this plant well (read as: massive and healthy) - too big for a 50) due to a cooler area for such tanks. Here I do not have that option, so the plant is off limits. Such lessons are learned the hard way, and it is everyone for themselves. I try to substitute Crinum calamistratum, but I am not as good with that one. It is if anything, even larger when mature.
