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Priceless Fertilizer and CO2 calculator

10K views 7 replies 8 participants last post by  Mike 
#1 ·
#3 ·
The only trouble with it is CO2 calculators are innacurate.
What happens if you pH6.6 and KH4... does that mean you have 30ppm CO2 striaght out of the tap :shock:

Somehow i dont think so... This conversion table only works when there is no acidic substances in the water, except bicarbonates, clearly this is impossible because we add Nitrate & Phosphate to the water. Even if you dont, fish still produce it!

Thanks, Aaron
 
#5 · (Edited)
This chart is intended for those who want to use individual nutrients on their own; this is not recommended for low-tech or natural type systems because the balance in such a setup is very close and there is not considerable room for error. Such systems are better served by comprehensive nutrient fertilizers.

The idea behind using a good comprehensive fertilizer like Flourish is not having to figure out how much of this and that. Flourish Comprehensive has all the necessary nutrients and in the correct porportion according to how plants are known to use nutrients. I believe Kent Freshwater Supplement is the same, or close to it. So all the aquarist needs to do is dose the product according to the instructions, a measured amount per gallon or whatever, without worrying about overdosing or underdosing a particular nutrient.

The equation is also affected by the light and CO2. While strictly speaking CO2 is a nutrient (carbon), it enters the aquarium through fish respiration and biological actions of bacteria and so forth. Overdosing with nutrients (here thinking of macro-nutrients and micro-nutrients such as would be in fertilizers) without sufficient light and CO2 to balance will certainly lead to problems. Generally speaking, plants can't keep using nutrients without sufficient light and CO2; some plants can store certain nutrients but this is limited and there are plants that are not effective at this. It is far safer to aim for the balance. The CO2 will be what it is, so the aquarist has the light and fertilizer nutrients to adjust in order to balance the CO2. Increasing the CO2 by adding more fish might require adjusting the balance of nutrients and light; light should always be the limiting factor. Plants will photosynthesize (grow) up to the point at which some factor is no longer available, what we call the limiting factor in the equation.

Byron.
 
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