Nitrogen Deficiency

UPDATE: In the process of recieving the mineral list from my local water supply just to find out WHAT is already in there.

Also now that I have the two staight (phosphate & potassium) knowing that phosphates are not wanted in large volumes in a planted tank are these worth the money?

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I have very hard water here in eastern PA. I was using the phosphate and nitrate sponges to soften/clean up my water. They wore out incredibly fast, and in the end were a waste of money. I ended up trying the API Tap water Filter, and was going through cartridges at a mad rate. I ended up spending ~ 125$ for a Coralife DI/RO system. It is much more cost effective. The water is "pure" water and the chemistry is exactly controlled by me. :-)
 
Just got the water report...Not sure what is really important so I will post it all.

Silver <5.0 ug/L
Arsenic <2.0 ug/L
Barium 23.4 ug/L
Beryllium <1.0 ug/L
Cadmium <1.0 ug/L
Chromium <1.0 ug/L
Copper 2.4 ug/L
Manganese 1.6 ug/L
Nickel <2.0 ug/L
Lead <1.0 ug/L
Selenium <10.0 ug/L

Carbonate Hard 6 mg/L
NonCarbonate Hard <1 mg/L

Aluminum 0.24 mg/L
Calcium 1.74 mg/L
Iron <0.10 mg/L
Potassium <3.00 mg/L
Magnesium 0.38 mg/L
Sodium 39.8 mg/L
Zinc 0.05 mg/L
Mercury <0.30 ug/L

Nitrate + Nitrite <0.10 mg/L

So does anything STAND OUT ???
 
Just got the water report...Not sure what is really important so I will post it all.

Silver <5.0 ug/L
Arsenic <2.0 ug/L
Barium 23.4 ug/L
Beryllium <1.0 ug/L
Cadmium <1.0 ug/L
Chromium <1.0 ug/L
Copper 2.4 ug/L
Manganese 1.6 ug/L
Nickel <2.0 ug/L
Lead <1.0 ug/L
Selenium <10.0 ug/L

Carbonate Hard 6 mg/L
NonCarbonate Hard <1 mg/L

Aluminum 0.24 mg/L
Calcium 1.74 mg/L
Iron <0.10 mg/L
Potassium <3.00 mg/L
Magnesium 0.38 mg/L
Sodium 39.8 mg/L
Zinc 0.05 mg/L
Mercury <0.30 ug/L

Nitrate + Nitrite <0.10 mg/L

So does anything STAND OUT ???

if I read this correctly, this is incredibly SOFT water. Carbonate hardness comes out to 0.3 KH http://www.saltyzoo.com/SaltyCalcs/AlkConv.php
mg/L is ppm, ug/L is ppb. it looks like pretty clean, soft water.

Where do you live? I would love to have that kind of water.
 
no, no, no... you WANT 4+ppm of phosphate usually... or more...

other than sodium and mercury, it looks like you're reconstituting from scratch almost. now, that's good H^2O!

~1/2 tsp baking soda per 5 gallons of w/c water at w/c (increase your dkh by 5) time would be a bare minimum... but you definitely don't want to take that kh up quickly, directly in the tank. doing frequent w/c's would be your best bet until the tank levels out. shooting for a kh of 5-7 degrees would usually be ideal.

~1.5 tsp barr's gh booster same way... should raise gh by 6dgh same target as kh

^^^^^when you do w/c's... ALWAYS match these 2 items in your w/c water to keep things consistent. for topping off, you can use clean water if you'd like.

you, my friend are about as far as you could be from needing that filter as far as i see.

side note... i want to see some N in that tank, since you know it's low. ;) 10ppm MINIMUM, buddy boy. :grinno:
 
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