ruben

Reading the contents on your formula I noticed you add some aminoacids, I understand that you use them as N source, How toxic is NH2 (amino) compared to NH3 (amonia)?, how fast is their uptake (by the plants) compared to NO3?

Seachem

Amino groups are part of a larger protein. It has nothing to do with ammonia. Nitrogen is a part of the make up of amino acids. As the plants take in the amino acids they are able to gain nitrogen.

ruben

Amino groups are part of aminoacids (that's where the name comes from amino group + carboxile) a lot of aminoacids form peptides and a lot of peptides form proteins.(No question here)
Plants prefer NH3, NO2 and NO3 in that order, NH3 is metabolically easier to use for a plant than NO3, the questions, are Aminos easier to use than NH3? How fast can they (the plants) use this NH2?
I don't believe plants can use aminoacids nor vitamins directly; bacteria in the tank use this molecules (metabolizing them) and making them available to plants

Seachem

The vitamins included in Flourish are those used in plant cell tissue culture research. They have been demonstrated to be beneficial to the growth of plants quite consistently. These vitamins as a group may be sythesized by certain species while not in others. They are typically used by organisms in aid of cellular metabolic activity.

The amino acids are utilized by plants as a means of sequestering nutrients from the water column as well as a means of cellular membrane transfer.

The aspect of amino acids as strictly a nitrogen source as well as their rate of uptake verus ammonia were not the basis or goal in their addition to Flourish. The goal was to provide a beneficial means of allowing plants to sequester more from the water column. Therefore we did not study the rate of uptake / ease of use as a nitrogen source versus ammonia.

ruben

Thanks for answering

Seachem

Sorry it took so long - exceptionally busy week I'm afraid.