mistergreen

The high tech kids like to keep there nitrate @ 10ppm, Phosphate @ 2ppm, K @ ?
(potassium is hard/expensive to measure).

I was wondering if a natural tank's nutrient params are the same.

Muirner

From what I gather, you'll only need to keep levels elevated by dosing, if you have a high light setup. With the higher light you will need to dose and possibly use pressurized or else you'll have shortages of certain nutrience.

The thing with El Natural, is they are set up using low light or natural light, top soil and no dosing, all the nutrience should come from the soil. Personally i have an el natural setup and i'm dosing the PPS-Pro method, and CO2 at about 1-2bps.

aquabillpers

Classical "El Natural" theory states that the required plant nutrients come from the soil substrate and from fish food, by way of the fish. Given that, there is no need to be concerned about nutrient levels when it works as it is supposed to work.

In my experience with 6 to 8 "El Natural" tanks, sometimes it works as advertised and sometimes it doesn't. When an additional nutrient is needed it is usually NO3.

BTW, the high tech folks suggest nitrate-to-phosphate ratios of from 8 to 1 to 14 to 1.

Good luck!

Bill