Dosing No3

[xxBarneyxx]

Tank has now been running just over a month and I'm not far off my final fish stocking level.

The problem I'm having (which I NEVER thought would be a problem in a fish tank) is that my nitrate is prettty much zero! I have used two test kits and it barely registered on both.

I'm dosing with Brightly K and Step one at the recommended dose (only just started step 1). Do I need to dose NO3 as well (stupid question I know but I really dont know what plants do and dont need which is why I took the dumb mans ada route ).

Really does show how effective plants are as a chemical/biological filter though

 

[RadaR]

I would think that anyone using the ADA ferts method are experiencing this. In no time, the plants absorb all the nitrate, and as a result of not adding any back in, you end up with a reading of 0.
Is this giving you any algae problems?
I don't seem to recall oldwhitewood from AE having problems and he ran his tank with ADA ferts....

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Nope, algae free at the moment (touch wood). All the hair algae I had during cycling has gone away and I dont even have much dust algae on the glass despite not having cleaned the glass off for two weeks. Plants are still healthy and growing but not quite as fast (not such a bad thing ) and not pearling as much.

 

[RadaR]

Nope, algae free at the moment (touch wood). All the hair algae I had during cycling has gone away and I dont even have much dust algae on the glass despite not having cleaned the glass off for two weeks. Plants are still healthy and growing but not quite as fast (not such a bad thing ) and not pearling as much.

In that case, personally I would be inclined to carry on with the ADA ferts and not add anything else.

 

[George Farmer]

If you have the ADA substrate system i.e. Power Sand and Aqua Soil, then you'll likely be providing sufficient NP from that, for a good while at least.

ADA Special Lights and Shade also provide NP.

KNO3 and KH2PO4 are much cheaper though.

NP in the water column is beneficial and won't cause algae if you have good CO2 and heavy planting.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

If you have the ADA substrate system i.e. Power Sand and Aqua Soil, then you'll likely be providing sufficient NP from that, for a good while at least.

ADA Special Lights and Shade also provide NP.

KNO3 and KH2PO4 are much cheaper though.

NP in the water column is beneficial and won't cause algae if you have good CO2 and heavy planting.

I'm using PS and Aqua soil so I'm guessing it is ok in the short term at least. I will see how things go over the next couple of weeks but will get some KH2PO4 and KNO3 anyway and then see how much difference it makes

(Back to AE again ).