[MiamiAG]

BMS,

Sorry, I've been busy and haven't been looking at the forums lately.

If you can, I would urge you to go to the LFS and get a small bottle of Kent's Turbo Calcium. Then go to Eckerd drugs and get Epsom Salts. These should provide excellent sources of calcium and magnesium for you. We can then talk about how much to dose.

As for the Akadama, it is a very good substrate and is commonly used in Europe and Japan. Unfortunately, it is hard to get here in the States. Amano used to use it extensively. His Aqua Soil line is very similar.

As I mentioned, it will "eat calcium and magnesium" for the first 2-3 weeks. It also may bind phosphate for a while. This is actually a good thing as it would be available to your plants via roots and provide you a buffer from it getting out of hand.

Regards,

Art

 

[bms]

No problem Art,

I started adding the Raise Hardness product from Wardley I bought at the LFS... (99cents on sale) after adding that my KH went up to three the very next day.

I have not added more, and as of two days ago my KH was still at three.

Thanks for your input...
~Benicio

 

[bms]

Now PO4...

KH is under control at 3, I am monitoring it closely and adding Raise Hardness (Calcium and Magnesium) every time I see a slight drop. Now the issue is with PO4.

I have added 3/8 tsp of KH2PO4 to my 20 gallon tank over the past week, which, according to chuck's calculator (if I am using it properly), equates to an increment of around 15.67 ppm of phosphate in my tank.

I have some times measured my PO4 (Nutrafin test kit) at .25, but it stays mostly at 0.

Am I calculating the dosage properly? If so, what is going on? Could this also be a cause of the new akadama soil?

I read that you should add phosphate carefully, and also that having to much phosphate in the water can invalidate the CO2/PH/KH relationship... hence I want to make sure I am not adding too much.

 

[MiamiAG]

Benicio,

Stop adding phosphate. I think you may getting a false reading from your kit either because 1) it is bad or 2) the phosphate may be binding itself to the substrate. If 2), your plants would be able to take up the phosphate from the substrate.

How do your plant's look?

Also, don't go by the pH/KH/CO2 table as the peat in the substrate may cause that to be unreliable.

 

[bms]

I will not add any more PO4.

As far as my plants goes, the only thing I have noticed is that my L.Repens is not reddish anymore except on the tips of the leaves, everything else is green-yellowish. The plants are pearling, so I assume they are doing fine.

Appart from the PH/KH/CO2 relationship, how can I tell what my CO2 concentration is? Is it necessary?

 

[dennis]

Don't worry about the repens, they usually are no tred unless your NO3 levels are bewlow ~6-7ppm. In high light they will also get red but I find, personally, it does not really come out until NO3 is ~5ppm and plenty of traces. I just started using Flourish Fe and the reds of the L. repens are getting very intense. To compare i have a 10gallon wiht 45 watts no florescent aqua-glo/9325/9325, around 35ppm CO2, kH4 Gh 9, NO3 5ppm, P 1.5ppm, I dose 1ml Flourish 1ml Flourish Fe everyday, 1ml Flourish trace every other day, and generally I test mid week and usually need to dose another 3-5 PPm NO3 and also 1-1.5 P I do a 50% wc once a week at which time I dose 2 ml flourish, 1 ml Fe, 2 ml Flourish trace, ~5ppm NO3 (fromKNO3), 10ppm K(from K2SO4 plus the K from kno3). My palnts have never looked better the Fe and Ge 9325 are both less than one week old but I have seen a definate improvement in that weeks time.

Don't try to run your nutrient levels to bring out color yet. Make sure that everything is growing well and all is balanced before playing wiht this. Trust me, you'll get algae. Get everything growing then start to up the dosing an dplay ONCE you are comfortable. I am getting to were I trust my self (sort of) by watching my plants to know when I need more macros (N/P/CO2) by the growth of my plants I don't know much but I know more and I am much more confident that I was only 3-4 weeks ago. Don't be afraid to give yourself, or your plants, another week or two. In the end, you'll be glad you did

Hope this has helped.