How much nitrate needed?

C

cambro

AC Members
Nov 7, 2004
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I did it! I bought a plant (an anubia v. nana) and plopped it in my tank and it is doing great one week later! I am just wondering, though, how much nitrate do plants need? I did my usual weekly water change yesterday to keep my nitrates in the 10 ppm range and wondered if I was taking food away from the plant. Anybody?

I'm very encouraged and want to add more plants!! I figure I'm full up on fish, so I'm moving on to plants! Ha ha.
 
10ppm NO3 is great :)
That's where I keep my levels, and I learned from some very knowledgeable people here on AC. If you've got just the one plant right now, it should get enough P and N from the fish. If you have a trace mix and add some KCl ('No-Salt' or 'Nu-Salt' at the grocery store) to give the plant a source of K, you're off to the races :D
 
I did get some Kcl at the store. Thanks Blinky! 1/4 tsp to 20 gallons, right?
 
Be very careful not to over fertilize your plant.
It's an Anubia and as such will probably not need any additional nutrients with the fish load you are carrying, even though it is on the light side.
Extra nutrients in a tank can easily add up to algae issues.

Len
 
Blinky,

Can I ask a quick question about your PMDD? I've got right now - just KNO3 mixed up in a solution for adding... have you gone through also adding P and maybe K to the mix as well, or are you dosing those seperately?
 
The 'recipe' I use is in my signature link if you're interested. I use KNO3, KCl, traces, MgNO3 and MgSO4 in a mix, and dose P separately (I use Fleet). I'm still learning a lot, and I keep tweaking the mix based on how the plants do. Lots of people create separate mixes of each element so they can all be dosed as needed, but using a mix + fleet seems to be working for me so far.
 
Blinky said:
The 'recipe' I use is in my signature link if you're interested. I use KNO3, KCl, traces, MgNO3 and MgSO4 in a mix, and dose P separately (I use Fleet). I'm still learning a lot, and I keep tweaking the mix based on how the plants do. Lots of people create separate mixes of each element so they can all be dosed as needed, but using a mix + fleet seems to be working for me so far.
Click to expand...

Kinda off topic, but Blinky, have you noticed any advantage in using Mg(NO3)2 over KNO3? I was just curious as to why you might so much extra NO3 (I'd also imagine that the MgSO4 would supply all the Mg that is required anyways)
 
I had a REALLY hard time finding KNO3 in Toronto, and when I learned that a hydroponics shop would have it I was thrilled! I went to the shop and was told they had 'other stuff that ends in NO3' but no KNO3. I bought Mg(NO3)2 because I figured with soft water the extra Mg wouldn't hurt, and I needed a source of NO3.
Now that I have KNO3 (the shop did have it, the guy just hadn't seen it the first time) I'm using more of that then Mg(NO3)2 but since the plants did well with the initial mix I didn't want to completely cut out the Mg (I'm currently using 3tsp Mg(NO3)2 : 7 tsp KNO3 in the mix).
I find I need a lot of NO3 in the tank - I have some real 'nitrogen hogs', and I like to keep the NO3 at 5-10ppm, which requires adding quite a bit. I'm still learning and adjusting the mix according to the plants' needs, but this mix seems to be working. It's heavier on traces and KNO3 than the initial batch, and the plants seem pretty happy with it :)
 
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