What Is the Normal Range for NPK, gH & kH in a fresh water planted aquarium - 3 watts per gallon, heavily planted with stem plants like hygros, pressurized CO2 and organic substrate?
What Is the Normal Range for NPK, gH & kH
- Thread starter Crispino Ramos
- Start date
You are going to be all over the place.
You also need to quantify how much is in the organic substrate you mention, and using PAR, not w/gal will also be needing to be addressed, not to mention how the CO2 is measured.
In otherwords, what good is ppm's in the water column......if the light is not comparable, or the CO2, or there's yet another source accessible to the plant roots?
Not much since they are dependent on all of the above
If you pose the question like this:
What ppm's for NO3, PO4, K+, GH, and KH do folks have using plain sand, light at 75micromol at the bottom average, and CO2 at 35ppm.
This is much more specific.
I can go from extremely low ppm's to very high ppms at low light for any combo.
I could also do the same for non CO2 aquariums, as well as enriched sediments. These things are inter related, not isolated nor the key to growing plants. Holistic thinking about plants will help you much more.
How can aquarist compare parameters and what units, test etc are most appropriate?
Light is a biggy, so is CO2, both of which have testing issues for most hobbyist, at least at the present time.
Regards,
Tom Barr
yes par might be the best but not very many people have a $200 tool to measure light. we are still far behind the reefers on this one.
on this there is no normal number. some people have hard water some have soft. there are some plants that need the soft water but there isnt many.
fertilator has these ranges.
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/fertilator.php
N 10-20 P .5-2 K 10-20 Ca 10-30 Mg2-5 Fe .1
Examples:
Ca is 35ppm and Mg is about 18ppm here:
NO3: 40, PO4, maybe 5 ppm, K+ is the 40-50 ranges.
light is 450 at the surface, about 200 at the bottom.
Another tank:
Ca is about 4ppm and Mg is 1ppm, NO3 is 20ppm, PO4 is 5ppm, K+ is 40ppm.
Light is about 200 at the top, 70 at the bottom.
NO3 is under 2ppm, PO4, None detected.........GH, none detected........less than 1.
Light is 30micromols..........
Light and CO2 and much larger factors.
Light meters can be bought and used, then sold........many will snatch them up at 150-200$, so.........and once measured, light changes little. Other folks locally can go in on it also, then share.
Unless you are into comparative testing of specific tanks(like myself), or theory like Hoppy is here locally between different bulb types.........not much need to keep it around, so sell, rent, share etc.
Regards,
Tom Barr
Ca is 35ppm and Mg is about 18ppm here:
NO3: 40, PO4, maybe 5 ppm, K+ is the 40-50 ranges.
light is 450 at the surface, about 200 at the bottom.
Another tank:
Ca is about 4ppm and Mg is 1ppm, NO3 is 20ppm, PO4 is 5ppm, K+ is 40ppm.
Light is about 200 at the top, 70 at the bottom.
NO3 is under 2ppm, PO4, None detected.........GH, none detected........less than 1.
Light is 30micromols..........
Light and CO2 and much larger factors.
Light meters can be bought and used, then sold........many will snatch them up at 150-200$, so.........and once measured, light changes little. Other folks locally can go in on it also, then share.
Unless you are into comparative testing of specific tanks(like myself), or theory like Hoppy is here locally between different bulb types.........not much need to keep it around, so sell, rent, share etc.
Regards,
Tom Barr