[ShaneSmith]

Tom Barr says that hard water usually requires more traces, why is this?

 

[IUnknown]

I think he might have meant it the other way around. More hardness and you get more traces in the water, so you dose less. Look at the advice from tropica.

Aquarium-owners should also be aware of the hardness of their water. Soft water requires half the dosage of hard water. Dealers and private aquarium-owners alike can give their plants perfect growing conditions by looking after their aquariums correctly and observing Master grow´s instructions for use.

http://www.tropica.com/default.asp

 

[dennis]

IUnknown, sorry bbut reread that qoute. "soft water requires half the dosage as hard water" implying the hard water requeres twice as much. While I do not know the cause hardwater does seem to make nutrients precipitate out faster. The same as high light. My guess is that harder water has moe free ions for the stuff we addd to bind with adn precipitate out. Just a "slightly" educated guess though. I am sure someone else will know more. .

My advise on dosing is one i have learned from tsumani. Start with a reasonable amount based on your tank parameters, light light, co2, etc, and slowly, each week, increase your doses until you don't see an improvements. Traces are not ususally hte cause of algae and ofter they can help you compat it to some degree. If hte plants grow better, you get less algae. Hope that helps.

 

[ShaneSmith]

Thanks for the help. After reading what he said i dosed 100ml of Plantex csm+b recommended solution. Plants are pearling like never before. I'll try using Flourish Iron to supplement so i dont dose so much Cu but i'm going to try to dose even more. I've not been this happy with the tank in a long time.