# NO3 question



## OakRaid (Mar 17, 2004)

Hi .. most of you have seen me post questions already, well here comes another one.. :roll: 
I just got over my brown fluff algae. (two sae's did a great job!)
Now I have what I would beleive is hair or thread algae on a lot of the plants. I have been manually pulling off as much as I can, but continues to get worse.
I just got my new pressurized co2 system set up and running, so am hoping that will help. I have read a couple posts on here about low KNO3 causeing this type of algae. I have been testing the tank off and on sense I set it up .. and no3, no2, and nh3 have always came out 0 ppm.
So based on this...adding no3 could help right? And even if it doesn't help the thread algae, it is something I should be adding for the plants, right?
So anyway, I have read that a lot of you guys use "Green Light Stump Remover" for no3 ... Just how do you go about using this? Don't want to do something wrong and crash my tank.
The tank is a 50 gal, 2 x 65 watt power compacts, 4ft 40watt flo.
pressurised co2 run into a magnum 350 cannister filter.
PH..7.1 KH..7 GH..7 co2..17 ppm (just started running the co2, so will go higher within a few days)


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## Steve Pituch (Jan 25, 2004)

What you say all makes sense.

In addition to NO3, though, you really need to add PO4 and Fe and traces.

You can use the Greenlight for NO3, but you need the other stuff so its better to order it all from Greg Watson at:
http://www.gregwatson.com/

Get 1 pound each of KH2PO4, KNO3, and CSM+B (for the iron and traces).

Then you can add say .5 ppm each Fe and PO4, and 10 ppm NO3 twice per week with one 50% weekly water change.

I have some calculations at:
http://users.ev1.net/~spituch/Chemicals/chemicals.html

and Chuck Gadd has a good site at:
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/

You can read Tom Barr's original article on nutrition at:
http://www.aquatic-plants.org/est_index1.html

Regards,
Steve Pituch


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## OakRaid (Mar 17, 2004)

Thank you for the reply ... I am using Seachems florish, and flourish Iron.
Would I be better off with the dry mix additives? I was thinking sense I was using the flourish products, I would be ok just adding the kno3??
Or would I still be low on the po4? Got to excuse me on this stuff...very very new here.


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## bms (Feb 19, 2004)

Flourish and Flourish Iron take care of Fe and Traces, you can keep dosing those, you need however to dose NO3 and PO4.

Once you get KH2PO4 (Mono potassium phosphate) and KNO3 (Potassium Nitrate) from Greg Watson or anywhere else you can click here to calculate how much to add to your tank.

References on target levels of concentration of NO3 (Nitrate) and PO4 (Phosphate) can be found here on APC by doing a search.


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## OakRaid (Mar 17, 2004)

ok, I placed my order with greg. And thanks for the link to Chucks page, I am using his calculator for my co2 now. 
His mixing calc. is great .. but still don't know what kind of dosage I should use to start? I know my no3 is at 0 right now...not sure about po4??
I guess I will have to get a test kit for that one.


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## Steve Pituch (Jan 25, 2004)

Well, you wouldn't need the test kits if you studied Tom Barr's Estimative Index method. Its just one simple way to do it but it works. The 50% weekly water change prevents high concentrations of nutrients.

Try 

1/2 teaspoon (3 grams) (10 ppm) KNO3 twice per week,
put 1/4 teaspoon of KH2PO4 in 500 ml of water. Use 35 ml (1 ppm) of this solution twice per week.
Use 1.3 grams of CSM+B (.5 ppm) twice per week.

Don't forget the 50% weekly water change.

Steve


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## Gomer (Feb 2, 2004)

Tom's method does require a little testing. ..you should know where whatthe general levels of NO3 and PO4 you are dealing with from the tap/fishload sans adding ferts
Maybe your tap water is high in phosphates or nitrates or both!


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## OakRaid (Mar 17, 2004)

Gomer said:


> Tom's method does require a little testing. ..you should know where whatthe general levels of NO3 and PO4 you are dealing with from the tap/fishload sans adding ferts
> Maybe your tap water is high in phosphates or nitrates or both!


Thank you Gomer .. This makes sense to me, Even in his web page he says to be very careful with the PO4. I won't be adding any until I do the test. This is my first planted tank .. but did Salt water for a few years, but used RO while doing that. Don't want to do that again, as it took forever to get a little RO water from this soup we have.


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## cS (Jan 27, 2004)

Thomas Barr et al's "The Estimative Index" does not require test kits, not even for baseline measurements. These base line levels of NO3, PO4, etc. are provided through your local water report, which is FREE. Also, the original article was written a few years ago. Much has changed since, especially with regards to PO4, K, and traces.

Take PO4 for example, I routinely dose 2 ppm/week. For the past ~2 months, I have been experimenting with dosing PO4 at 3-4 ppm. I have observed nothing unusual, not even an observable increase in algae so far. My Anubias are spotless, even under direct light. In a few weeks, I will start dosing PO4 at >4 ppm, just to see what happen. Mind you, I am keeping CO2 and other nutrients w/i range.


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## bms (Feb 19, 2004)

In case you decide to get test kits... you should target the following levels:
NO3 (Nitrate) = 10ppm
PO4 (Phosphate) = 1ppm

these are by no means carved in stone, as you can see from Cs' post people is still experimenting with various levels of the different nutrients, but these are safe and proven to give good results on other tanks.


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## OakRaid (Mar 17, 2004)

Just wanted to post an update ... I have been doseing with kno3, and kh2po4 for the last few weeks. And the black hair algae problem is pretty much gone now!! Also seeing faster growth in my plants (maybe to fast in some cases.. 
So just wanted to thank you guys for the input, really appreciate the help.


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## Steve Pituch (Jan 25, 2004)

Oakraid,

Thanks for the valuable feelback. Part of Tom Barr's regimen is to thoroughly clean the tank and remove infected leaves before the weekly water change. Did you do anything else besides adding the nutrients?

Steve


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