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Originally Posted by Salt I would hope my motivation is to learn... not sure what you are implying?
I do appreciate all your info! |
Salt, the issue is what the
real question actually is.
We can run off and waste time, $, resources etc chasing after something that does not address the application and the questions folks have..........spilling FUD everywhere in the process......that's why I pointed to using RO water, measuring the contents of fish food, air purifiers etc....
there is no end to FUD and marketing.........
The learning here is not to be a sucker.....
This is learning............learning beyond the constituent of what crap is in ag grade stuff, rather, does it make any significant difference in context of aquatic horticulture?
These are entirely different questions.
One will answer the real question, the other will merely answer whether there are a certain amount of X, Y or Z in the ag grade vs Research grade(or whatever grade you chose) chemicals.
Now what does the amount of X, Y and Z tell you after you went to all that trouble?
The learning I'm suggesting is critical thinking, and asking the proper questions to answer and see through all the FUD.
Ask a "good" question, not one that leads to a dozen gazillion other questions and ton more test that are even tougher to answer and lead you to NOWHERE without a lot of resources.
We are aquarist, we need to keep the test simple to answer the question.
There are much more clever ways to see through the issue and design a simple test to find out.
Folks said excess PO4 causes algae. Well, I added excess PO4, no algae, end of story.
It's;s easy to prove what something is not, it's more difficult to prove what something is.
Reflect back on your own common sense here. Was there any issue prior?
Have I ruled out poor maintenance, low CO2, enough NO3?
The history that ag grade chemicals have is long and folks have not been able to trace any issues to it.
This will help you solve future issues far better than this wasteful procedure.
Even if we found As, Ba, Cd etc in the ag chemicals, how much is toxic?
How much will cause issues for plants? fish? Shrimps?
I've done a lot of work with ferts, I've added far more than most folks ever would consider. I did kills some shrimp on purpose last week. I added 120 ppm of NO3 for 3 days. No algae, no fish death, but the shrimp were not happy at this insanely high level.
Similar patterns exist for PO4/Traces/GH/KH/K+.
Maybe is was some other contaminant? So don't add that much NO3
You can use the plants as the gauge as to whether the different grades do better, but you need controls and need to Maintain stable similar conditions for each test.
That's tough for hobbyist, but over time you Can get a feel, it's still a better solution that the proposal which really will not answer the real question, is it worth it for folks to pay 10-50X more for ferts.
Maven says yes, I say no.
I'm not suggesting anyone __not learn or experiment__, quite the opposite, I am suggesting more thought be put into the experiment and __ask__ how to design one that might answer the question without introducing more FUD.
Apparently many don't see this distinction, think I have some attitude or ivory tower BS. They run off testing without much purpose, making lots of work and added expense for themselves, not answering the real question.
Can I grow plants super without the other grades? The same thing can be said about RO water. Does RO, higher fert grades help plants?.
Learning what NOT to do is... as... if not more helpful.
Should you set up a heater cable test also?
No.......
Regards,
Tom Barr
www.BarrReport.com