# [Wet Thumb Forum]-How much PO4 per week?



## MarcinB (Apr 16, 2004)

Hi

How much PO4 are you adding to your tanks weekly at moderate/high light? Currently I'm dosing 2,6ppm of PO4 at 3WPG. I want to try a higher dosage because of some problems with green spot algae..

150L (40G) planted tank
click here for photo
Rate my tank!


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## MarcinB (Apr 16, 2004)

Hi

How much PO4 are you adding to your tanks weekly at moderate/high light? Currently I'm dosing 2,6ppm of PO4 at 3WPG. I want to try a higher dosage because of some problems with green spot algae..

150L (40G) planted tank
click here for photo
Rate my tank!


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## ekim (Jan 31, 2004)

Hi Marcin,
I use to add 2ppm per week to my 3WPG tanks,
I now only dose 1.6ppm per week.
I didn't see any change!

Thanks,
Mike Morrissey

*My Digital Gallery*


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## Guest (Nov 3, 2003)

Marcin,
Green haze is a great indicator when PO4 is running low, at least in my tank.

I used to run my tanks w/o PO4 or minimum PO4 and my front glass had major haze at the end of the week. After tri-weekly addition of PO4 for the total of *2ppm* algae situation drastically changed and haze disappeared in matter of days.

Just wondering what is your K and N ? (remember about N ratio







)

Regards,
Jay Luto


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## MarcinB (Apr 16, 2004)

I keep NO3 at 5ppm (maybe a bit more). I'm adding about 12ppm of potassium (TMG+K2HPO4+KNO3) and 10,5ppm of NO3 weekly. I'm not sure about the level of PO4, there's definitely some in the water column, I estimate it at 0,5-1ppm (my PO4 test is not reliable).

150L (40G) planted tank
click here for photo
Rate my tank!


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## Guest (Nov 3, 2003)

If your NO3 levels are around ~5ppm and you are adding ~10ppm of NO3 on weekly basis, then IMO I wouldn't go over 2ppm with your PO4 addition. Let's stick to N (10:1) ratio, which turn out to be a fact, and stay with your present PO4 addition.

How about looking into your Trace/Fe ?.

Regards,
Jay Luto


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## MarcinB (Apr 16, 2004)

Currently I'm dosing huge amounts of micros (almost 3x recommended dosage). I use modified TMG (DIY) with twice as much of Fe, Mn and Zn as in original Tropica's fertilizer. The additional iron helped for stunted/pale new growth on some plants. It also solved the problem with black brush algae. The additional Zn solved the problem with curled new growth on ammania and chlorosis of the new leaves on anubias and heteranthera. It also made the hair algae go away. The additional Mn turned my tank into a 40G of sparkling water







Three weeks ago I switched from 3x to daily dosing and that was it. Now my plants look better than ever. I've never seen such lush colors before. My Rotala indica finally started to grow well. I still see some day to day variations in condition of my plants so there's still some work to do. Few weeks ago I cut PO4 by 1/3, after that the green spot algae started to grow faster. So maybe additional PO4 would help? I have moderate amount of fish, slightly underfed (?).

150L (40G) planted tank
click here for photo
Rate my tank!


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## Guest (Nov 4, 2003)

Marcin,

Let me get your story straight first.

1. You first used DIY Trace and that solved some algae problems and plant deficiencies

2. Then you switched from 3x to daily dose which improved things even more

3. Few weeks ago you changed your PO4 addition and green spot started growing faster

Am I correct ?. If so, then why did you change your PO4 routine ?. "If ain't broken, don't fix it







". Try to reset your levels, and follow previous formula which worked for you.

Regards,
Jay Luto


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## Vinlo (Jul 27, 2004)

I was wondering. Is it normal for the PO4 levels to be deplenished much much faster than the NO3 levels? It seems I canot keep my PO4 levels up but my NO3 levels stay relatively unchanged. Could this suggest a bigger problem than levels of macro nutrients? I dose 15-20ppm of K a week also and some Flourish weekly also.

_____________________________
30g, 2wpg (NO Fluorescent), 90% Flourite, DIY CO2, HOB


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## MarcinB (Apr 16, 2004)

Well done Jay, you managed to understand my miserable English







I cut down a bit on PO4 and NO3 to see how it influences hair algae, but I increased the dosage when I noticed that the green spot algae is expanding. I think I'll try to push the PO4 level a bit higher. Some people maintain 2ppm of PO4 or even more without problems.

150L (40G) planted tank
click here for photo
Rate my tank!


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## imported_Svennovitch (Feb 1, 2003)

Hi Marcin,

i am gonna ask you a question about the micro mix you are using. How did you notice the difference in doubling Fe, Zn and Mn? Did you dose them seperately? What did you see improving?

What were your problems with Rotala rotundifolia? How did it look before?

Do you still have fuzz algae? This is a picture of fuzz algae:









Sven


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## 2la (Feb 3, 2003)

> quote:
> 
> Originally posted by Jay Luto:
> Let's stick to N (10:1) ratio, which turn out to be a fact, and stay with your present PO4 addition.


Jay, what did you mean by this? Has this ratio been proven by scientific experiments? And to clarify, this is nitrogen as N (not nitrate) and phosphorus as P (not phosphate)?

Thanks,

2la

40-gallon heavily planted
15-gallon heavily planted
10-gallon Tanganyikan
7-gallon South American
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is.


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## Hawkeye (Aug 20, 2004)

I don't know how scientific is but it works. I have several tanks, some have a high NO3/PO4 and some have low NO3/PO4 but as long as I keep the 10/1 ratio I have the algae thing under control. All kinds of algae are disappearing. I have a 10gal tank that I use to grow Java Ferns for trading at my LFS. This tank has the 10/1 ratio on the low side. I can put ferns in that are covered up with hair algae, with in a week its dies and the mollies eat it up. They won't eat it until it turns light gray and is dieing out. On the other side I have a 15gal I use to grow Baby Tears. This tank has a very high level of NO3/PO4, no algae at all!! Just that brown stuff on the glass that I have to clean about once a month. Now that I try to maintain this 10/1 ratio instead of trying to lower levels PO4 it seems to be working for me. I don't dose PO4 in any of the tanks that have high PO4 but I do dose more NO3 even though its all ready high. Keeping the 10/1 ratio works for me!

Hawk

Trust But Verify «*»®


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## 2la (Feb 3, 2003)

Thanks, Hawk. The question remains if this is still an N ratio or a nitrate: phosphate ratio. There seems to be some confusion about this in Ghazanfar's thread on creating a macro mix. I've always assumed the latter when dosing my tanks, but I haven't been consistent enough to make any real good observations about growth, algae, etc.

40-gallon heavily planted
15-gallon heavily planted
10-gallon Tanganyikan
7-gallon South American
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is.

 

[This message was edited by 2la on Wed November 05 2003 at 01:53 PM.]


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## MarcinB (Apr 16, 2004)

> quote:
> 
> Originally posted by Svennovitch:
> How did you notice the difference in doubling Fe, Zn and Mn?


Everything is written in my earlier post.



> quote:
> 
> Did you dose them seperately?


Yes, at the beginning, now everything is mixed in modified proportions.



> quote:
> 
> What were your problems with Rotala rotundifolia?


Stunted growth, very small new leaves, death of the growing tips.



> quote:
> 
> Do you still have fuzz algae?


Sorry, I was thinking about thread algae.

150L (40G) planted tank
click here for photo
Rate my tank!


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## Guest (Nov 5, 2003)

> quote:
> 
> Originally posted by 2la:
> Jay, what did you mean by this? Has this ratio been proven by scientific experiments?


I'm not sure about science but it is understood as a fact by people all over the globe.

http://www.xs4all.nl/~buddendo/index.html



> quote:
> 
> And to clarify, this is nitrogen as N (not nitrate) and phosphorus as P (not phosphate)?


NO. It is NO3O4 ratio.

Look for further conversation in below topic.
NO3O4 ratio

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Regards,
Jay Luto


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## imported_Svennovitch (Feb 1, 2003)

Marcin,

Can I ask some other questions?

You said you used 3 times the recommended dose of traces. What is the recommended dose? In fact I want to know how much traces you add per week.

Are you saying that the addition of the Zn made your fuzz algae disappear? Or do you really mean hair algae?

I am very curious to know because I don't seem to be able to grow Ammania. And I still have a lot of fuzz algae. This is terrible for fine-leaved plants, especially the ones that are slow growing, like Ludwigia arcuata.

Thanks for your help,
Sven


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## 2la (Feb 3, 2003)

It seems to be based more on theory and empiric observations, but as long as I have a reason to advise others of the Redfield ratio. I've been doing so without really looking into the why's and wherefore's, so I didn't want to get caught with my pants down. However, I've heard recommendations from a pretty knowledgeable person or two to dose my tank up to 10ppm of nitrate and 2ppm of phosphate, so it makes my wonder how stringently plants respond to the Redfield ratio.

40-gallon heavily planted
15-gallon heavily planted
10-gallon Tanganyikan
7-gallon South American
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is.


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## MarcinB (Apr 16, 2004)

Sennowitch,
When I was writing about the recommended dose I meant Tropica's recommendations. The composition of my fertilizer is the same as TMG with the exception of Fe, Mn and Zn. I'm not sure what's the difference between hair and thread algae, but I'm sure it wasn't fuzz algae.

150L (40G) planted tank
click here for photo
Rate my tank!


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