Flourish is only one step of the seachem ferts. They do sell individual NPK bottles to add more of each. If you google seachem dosing schedule they will show you how much of everything they suggest each week. I think a lot of plants can survive on low phosphates but some would like higher levels like some of my buce will flower if I increase the phosphates. That being said in predominantly fish tanks where plants are not the priority maintenance will be easiest with minimal phosphates, but it is possible to see phosphate deficiencies in certain plants.
I recently found your channel, and I'm really enjoying all the knowledge you share. Your wisdom goes against alot of the philosophy I learned previously, but your thorough explanations make sense. I'm excited to look through more of your previous videos and learn as much as I can. Thanks!
From Seachems own site : MultiTest™ Phosphate measures inorganic phosphate to less than 0.05 mg/L, producing a unique easy to read yellow-green-blue color range in marine and freshwater; however, usually, freshwater phosphate concentrations will be beyond the range of this kit, and dilutions of the sample with distilled water will be required. It performs over 75 tests and contains a reference sample for validation.
You are right about that but the Duck Weed will get most of its Nitrogen from the air and not your aquarium so much. I thought I would try the pads to see if they make a big impact on the phosphates or not.
I know (Dr Novak), you like to end confusion.. So, I will say it.. 0.5 ppm... Is less than One.. Not less than zero.. And, yes. Readings less than One ppm may read out as Zero on the simpler tests. (I believe you are saying that you definitely do want readings less than 1.0... There isn't such a thing as less than zero Phosphates, is there..? If so, am still confused. ) Thx for your free tech channel. Cheers, sir!
Please start a saltwater tank!! As a hobbyist that started in freshwater and moved to saltwater, I'd love to see your experiences even if you are not an expert in saltwater. It's very informative seeing how you approach problems.
Liquid color test kits are my bane! I can never differentiate the which color it matches. It either looks like none of the colors or changes color based on lighting. It’s super frustrating
Seachem does state that test kit is not great for fresh water. They suggest to do a dilution before testing because usually there are to many phosphates to read accurately on the test then multiply by the dilution or something? It’s in the instructions but I don’t remember exactly.
The Seachem color chart is very pixilated on the colors and for me it is very hard to get the colors absolutely right. They need to fine print the color chart better.
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums I noticed that too! It’s like instead of a gradual color change of one pigment, it has pixelated squares of multiple pigments at one section of the strip. Almost like they expect you to blur your eyes so they can combine into one color haha
We know aquarium plants require phosphates to grow. Rather than eliminate phosphates introduced into my aquariums, I prefer to control it. I do this with floating water lettuce in my aquariums and sumps. This method allows the submerged plants to get their phosphates dosed from fish feedings, followed by the floating water lettuce absorbsing sufficient phosphates to keep them at a level that dies not promote undesirable types of algae from growing. This method is eliminating cyanobacteria and black beard from my systems. As a biologist charged with finding ways to reduce phosphorus inflows into a local Reservoir I know too well how high phosphates can destroy recreational health of surface waters and promote uncontrolled algal, cyanobacteria and invasive aquatic plants.
The hard part is if you do top offs with .11 phosphate water your phosphates will probably rise above .11 because the concentration rises when the evaporation happens and you aren’t diluting it back down with pure water
Bingo , you got it. Now you add that on to feeding and now you know why you have Algae. Nitrates will show zero but why do I still have this algae problem...phosphates too high still.
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums yes i agree that must be a contributing factor. Based on personal experience I am of the opinion that ammonia/nitrates, phosphates, and light intensity, (co2 lvls (primarily related to staghorn)) are the three biggest or possibly sole contributors to algae growths. Then a couple years ago I read a scientific atypical where they concluded that ammonia is the only chemical way trigger several strains of the most common algae spores. However, even after all their scientific data I still cannot believe this to be true /: I would be curious to hear if you did any scientific research/excitements (official or unofficial obs.) with chemicals that trigger algae spores when you were at university?
If you have.03 of phosphates that's not below zero. If I have 0.25 in coins that's a quarter I don't owe a quarter so that's positive. Your readings aren't negative .3 of phosphetes. So yes you're below one but you're not below zero.
I just saw that aluminum oxide screen is commercially available. Could you make the anoxic filter baskets with aluminum oxide screen? Would that help reduce phosphates?
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums I put 5 of the aluminum oxide mesh sanding discs in a Tupperware with my tap water (tap water was reading ~2.0 ppm phosphate. Using the not so accurate API test). After waiting a sufficient amount of time (went grocery shopping), the phosphates were reduced to 1.0ppm. Not sure how much reactant is on the discs or what effect they'll have on a 40 gallon tank. I'm going to put 50 of them in the canister and see what happens!
@@AquaMayne The Algae you’re talking about Colpochaete is more dependent on silica than it is phosphates. And it’s a very rare Algae for aquariums in fact most people in their lifetime will never ever see it in their aquariums. In fact in the 50+ years I’ve been in the Hobby I have never seen it in any of my aquariums.
Some test kits will show zero on them like my LaMote one will. However, it is a high rage test kit so it may show that there are no phosphates but there still is. Only buy the low rage test kits to get everything below .oooo on the scale. The test kits that have the color scales are very hard to read and you may be mislead into believing that you have zero phosphates . Sorry for the confusion .
will putting more BCBs help to bring the phosphates down further? I had the scaled down set up, but oversized in the BCBs capacity, low fish population, only 6 guppies. My premium zeolites are in place. And so far no algae problems yet. Zeolites are about 2weeks. My plenum is about 2 years old.
Yes, putting in more BCB will bring down and/or stabilize phosphates but you will never reach absolute zero unless you stop with adding in phosphate altogether into the system. Thanks for all the info too.
In your effort to lower phosphates have you gotten any green dust or spot algae? I have been implementing fluval's clearmax phosphate remover into my canister filter for a few weeks now and have gotten the phosphates down from above 10 to right around 2 ppm. However during this time I have been experiencing green dust algae and more recently started noticing green spot algae on my slower growing plants. All the websites about planted aquariums state that this is a phosphate deficiency but I find it hard to believe that 2ppm is considered low phosphates. Do you have any recommendations to combat this problem? I am working to implement your chemi-pure blend in the near future but cannot purchase the supplies just yet.
I have my 8 gallon high tech planted tank on an auto doser dosing Tropica specialized nutrition. I've been doing water changes ever four days for a while now with remineralized RODI water and it has drastically reduced the amount of algae in the tank. However something I've always battled is Green Spot algae. My Anubis has ALWAYS had some GSA and got out of control after starting water changes every four days. After finally testing my phosphates I found out my phosphates are 0-0.5 ! Low phosphates definitely contributed to the amount of GSA in the tank.
Hi Dr Novak, do you have any experience of your filter in a marine aquarium?? I am currently using sugar (carbon dosing) to control nitrate, looking at developing methanol reactor still leaves me with phosphate, control currently with Lanthanum dosing. Any suggestions?? Obviously all the proteins in the food are a phosphate source, I take it you mean free phosphate food or food without proteins??
Actually there is a food made in Italy that claims to have no phosphate in it. The reason I did not mention it’s name is because I’m going to have to buy some and test it to see if it’s true or not and I don’t want to mislead anybody. However I’ll give you the name of the food and maybe you may want to try it out too. Elos SV.M2 Premium Fish Food , As far as testing the BCB in a saltwater aquarium, no I have not. There are people in the United Kingdom that have and claim they’ve had success with it but I personally have not experimented with it in a saltwater environment. I have in a brackish water environment and it’s been successful but not pure salt water environment.
@@worddunlap yes it does, most municipal water treatment facilities in United States do injector their water with chloramines and not chlorine anymore.
Hello Dr. Novak. So my understanding is that plenum and BCB will bring down nitrate and phosphate. I'm curious to know if it brings down other elements like calcium, potassium and iron....just curious...thanks in advance
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums Thank you. Just wanted to understand better the system. I have a plenum already but I didn't put the cat litter and laterite so I'm making soon a BCB. so since I have shrimps as an example I wanted to know if the BCB will use more calcium as an example and I'll need to add more often. Maybe not in significance numbers but just for the understanding. Thank you in advance.
That would depend on the osmosis system you are using. Some osmosis system use a resin which will remove all calcium ,magnesium, nitrates and phosphate out of the water.
Hi Dr Novak I built my first BCB but I don’t have a sump yet, can I cycle the BCB in a 5 gallons bucket just by adding liquid ammonia and let it sit there?
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums i saw in one of your videos that you have potassium supplement like the one you buy cvs ( pills) can I use iron supplement from de dollar store brake the pill and add it to BCB? Pardon my ignorance Dr Novak
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums Thank you so much for your reply I am from India, where I live we don't have access to tap water. My borewell water is extremely hard TDS is around 780. Hence at least planning to use RO DI water. Your video are very inspiring, thank you so much for your help.
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums After I switched to (remineralized) RO water my planted freshwater tanks blew up with less algae growth and way healthier plants. It depends on your tap water if you want to go the RO route. Plants prefer acidic water. If you have a fish that thrives in acidic water and you have hard water RO is the way to go in my opinion.
Thanks, Doc! I'm loving your videos. The next tank I build, I would love to include an internal anoxic sump. Please could you do a video that would help me get it right the first time? Any tips you have would be greatly appreciated.
I believe your math is off. When doing your calculations you assume 0.2% phosphate in your fish food* equates to 0.2 on your test kit, which I believe would be in parts per million (ppm). I however don't doubt your anoxic filter can lower phosphates, I just wanted to point out what I believe to be a bit of a flaw in your argument *Edited: Changed fertilizer to fish food, I misspoke before.
I never stated that the fertilizer had .20%, It has .0100% and this is to be added once or twice a week, my calculations are spot on. However, it doesn’t state that percentage for how much of the fertilizer you are using. The reason they don’t state it because no law requires it for aquarium products to be specific.
@@ethanpatel6739 okay, 6x2=12 or 6x.2=1.2 ppm phosphates of food added ever day, right? Now add water @ .11 ppm of phosphates in tap water and then add .010% of phosphates from fertilizer.
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums You’re missing my point. You can’t simply equate .2% phosphate to .2 ppm phosphate. The amount of water and the amount of food you put in has a very large impact on the ppm. If what you said is true, I could put in 2 grams of food in a 5 gallon tank and have the same ppm of phosphate as if I put 1 gram of food in a 500,000 gallon tank. Your calculations fail to cross out units, by multiplying 6 feedings/week by 0.2% phosphate (grams/grams) you get no valuable information. You need to also take into account how many grams of food and how many gallons or liters of water there are in the tank
I don’t believe phosphates are an issue, I know tanks that get dosed regularly with phosphates and have no noticeable algae and very healthy plants and livestock.
If you have sufficiently growing plants and bacteria colonies, phosphates can be a non-issue... But, for hungry sloppy eaters like puffers... that leave meat and food everywhere.. It makes an algae problem, unless you do something to lower these levels.
Seachem offers phosphorus in a separate bottle and also the other 2 macros, and also they have a calendar that shows how much to dose of each one every week. And I've seen some interviews with seachem employee saying that adding phosphorus in some cases is good to get rid of spot algae by keeping the ratio between phosphorus and nitrogen 1 to 10
Yes Phosphate is a nutrient needed by plants. If an aquarists goal is healthy plants phosphates are needed. Green dust algae/Spot Algae is due to low phosphates sometimes
Unless I was asleep and missed it, you never explain what a BCB is...just refer to it/them. Seachem says its Flourish is like a base layer of fertilizer...
Love the content think that you need to look at the balance of said tank if you feed your fish you produce nitrates and phosphate's this coupled with dead matter from live plants you can remove this simply doing water changes get a nitrate filter for your tap water job done having said that i an going to try your baskets
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums I think if you have live plants especially leaf feeders it is important to have nitrates and phosphates in small doses i feed some tanks and others i have no need to due to these levels i tend to use plants to remove nitrates if present ,,my tap water here in the UK is 50 ppm
That you so much Dr. Novak!
Flourish is only one step of the seachem ferts. They do sell individual NPK bottles to add more of each. If you google seachem dosing schedule they will show you how much of everything they suggest each week.
I think a lot of plants can survive on low phosphates but some would like higher levels like some of my buce will flower if I increase the phosphates. That being said in predominantly fish tanks where plants are not the priority maintenance will be easiest with minimal phosphates, but it is possible to see phosphate deficiencies in certain plants.
I recently found your channel, and I'm really enjoying all the knowledge you share. Your wisdom goes against alot of the philosophy I learned previously, but your thorough explanations make sense. I'm excited to look through more of your previous videos and learn as much as I can. Thanks!
No, I thank you for watching.
From Seachems own site : MultiTest™ Phosphate measures inorganic phosphate to less than 0.05 mg/L, producing a unique easy to read yellow-green-blue color range in marine and freshwater; however, usually, freshwater phosphate concentrations will be beyond the range of this kit, and dilutions of the sample with distilled water will be required. It performs over 75 tests and contains a reference sample for validation.
I so wish you would mention the model number of the Hannah phosphate meter. I would like to buy the same thing. BCB? Acronym police.
HI 713 LR Phosphate checker by hanna
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums Thank you! I just ordered one.
Duck weed, and phosphate media remover are cheaper than the pads, very informative video dr. Novak
You are right about that but the Duck Weed will get most of its Nitrogen from the air and not your aquarium so much. I thought I would try the pads to see if they make a big impact on the phosphates or not.
I know (Dr Novak), you like to end confusion.. So, I will say it.. 0.5 ppm... Is less than One.. Not less than zero.. And, yes. Readings less than One ppm may read out as Zero on the simpler tests.
(I believe you are saying that you definitely do want readings less than 1.0... There isn't such a thing as less than zero Phosphates, is there..? If so, am still confused. )
Thx for your free tech channel. Cheers, sir!
Please start a saltwater tank!! As a hobbyist that started in freshwater and moved to saltwater, I'd love to see your experiences even if you are not an expert in saltwater. It's very informative seeing how you approach problems.
Extremely helpful . Thanks
Liquid color test kits are my bane! I can never differentiate the which color it matches. It either looks like none of the colors or changes color based on lighting. It’s super frustrating
Seachem does state that test kit is not great for fresh water. They suggest to do a dilution before testing because usually there are to many phosphates to read accurately on the test then multiply by the dilution or something? It’s in the instructions but I don’t remember exactly.
The Seachem color chart is very pixilated on the colors and for me it is very hard to get the colors absolutely right. They need to fine print the color chart better.
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums I noticed that too! It’s like instead of a gradual color change of one pigment, it has pixelated squares of multiple pigments at one section of the strip. Almost like they expect you to blur your eyes so they can combine into one color haha
We know aquarium plants require phosphates to grow. Rather than eliminate phosphates introduced into my aquariums, I prefer to control it. I do this with floating water lettuce in my aquariums and sumps. This method allows the submerged plants to get their phosphates dosed from fish feedings, followed by the floating water lettuce absorbsing sufficient phosphates to keep them at a level that dies not promote undesirable types of algae from growing. This method is eliminating cyanobacteria and black beard from my systems. As a biologist charged with finding ways to reduce phosphorus inflows into a local Reservoir I know too well how high phosphates can destroy recreational health of surface waters and promote uncontrolled algal, cyanobacteria and invasive aquatic plants.
That’s exactly what a BCB does, controls phosphates without the use of plants. But it won’t eliminate phosphates 100%.
? Dr. Novak my phosphate read 0.20 with the Hanna, so lower than that is needed?
Thank you Doctor
Thanks. By the way I just upload a few video on BCB from media to fill in BCB. Hopefully you can see whether it is correct or not. Thanks.
Yes, I looked. Looks good you did it right.
Thanks
Much appreciated
The hard part is if you do top offs with .11 phosphate water your phosphates will probably rise above .11 because the concentration rises when the evaporation happens and you aren’t diluting it back down with pure water
Bingo , you got it. Now you add that on to feeding and now you know why you have Algae. Nitrates will show zero but why do I still have this algae problem...phosphates too high still.
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums yes i agree that must be a contributing factor. Based on personal experience I am of the opinion that ammonia/nitrates, phosphates, and light intensity, (co2 lvls (primarily related to staghorn)) are the three biggest or possibly sole contributors to algae growths. Then a couple years ago I read a scientific atypical where they concluded that ammonia is the only chemical way trigger several strains of the most common algae spores. However, even after all their scientific data I still cannot believe this to be true /:
I would be curious to hear if you did any scientific research/excitements (official or unofficial obs.) with chemicals that trigger algae spores when you were at university?
Good tip on wiping the bottle. Gotta swipe some chemwipes from the lab(:
Oh yeah, keep it clean for best test results. A microfiber towel does best.
Put Rowaphos in a reactor, job done. 👍
If you have.03 of phosphates that's not below zero. If I have 0.25 in coins that's a quarter I don't owe a quarter so that's positive.
Your readings aren't negative .3 of phosphetes.
So yes you're below one but you're not below zero.
I just saw that aluminum oxide screen is commercially available. Could you make the anoxic filter baskets with aluminum oxide screen? Would that help reduce phosphates?
It's abrasive screen, but coated with aluminum oxide. I read it binds phosphates. I might throw some in the canister to see what happens!
I've never use such a screen myself, so keep us up-to-date on your outcome.
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums Will do! It's just a hunch based on the research. Thanks!
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums I put 5 of the aluminum oxide mesh sanding discs in a Tupperware with my tap water (tap water was reading ~2.0 ppm phosphate. Using the not so accurate API test). After waiting a sufficient amount of time (went grocery shopping), the phosphates were reduced to 1.0ppm.
Not sure how much reactant is on the discs or what effect they'll have on a 40 gallon tank. I'm going to put 50 of them in the canister and see what happens!
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums
Well, ultimately adding this media to the canister didn't make an appreciable change. It was worth a try!
Nice! Thank you.
Welcome!
Some algae happens because phosphates are too low
Could you name me the Algae’s that are prelevante with very low phosphates that are a problem in our aquariums please?
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums Green Spot Algae and Green Dust Algae
@@AquaMayne do you have the scientific name there’s a lot of algae’s that can fall under green spot?
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums Coleochaete
@@AquaMayne The Algae you’re talking about Colpochaete is more dependent on silica than it is phosphates. And it’s a very rare Algae for aquariums in fact most people in their lifetime will never ever see it in their aquariums. In fact in the 50+ years I’ve been in the Hobby I have never seen it in any of my aquariums.
What do you mean with less than zero phosphates? I thought it was an error but you said it and you wrote it in the video.
Some test kits will show zero on them like my LaMote one will. However, it is a high rage test kit so it may show that there are no phosphates but there still is. Only buy the low rage test kits to get everything below .oooo on the scale. The test kits that have the color scales are very hard to read and you may be mislead into believing that you have zero phosphates . Sorry for the confusion .
will putting more BCBs help to bring the phosphates down further? I had the scaled down set up, but oversized in the BCBs capacity, low fish population, only 6 guppies. My premium zeolites are in place. And so far no algae problems yet. Zeolites are about 2weeks. My plenum is about 2 years old.
Yes, putting in more BCB will bring down and/or stabilize phosphates but you will never reach absolute zero unless you stop with adding in phosphate altogether into the system. Thanks for all the info too.
In your effort to lower phosphates have you gotten any green dust or spot algae? I have been implementing fluval's clearmax phosphate remover into my canister filter for a few weeks now and have gotten the phosphates down from above 10 to right around 2 ppm. However during this time I have been experiencing green dust algae and more recently started noticing green spot algae on my slower growing plants. All the websites about planted aquariums state that this is a phosphate deficiency but I find it hard to believe that 2ppm is considered low phosphates. Do you have any recommendations to combat this problem? I am working to implement your chemi-pure blend in the near future but cannot purchase the supplies just yet.
Spot algae is one of the outcomes of very low phosphates but it is mostly silica base algae and glass seems to be its preferred medium for growth.
I have my 8 gallon high tech planted tank on an auto doser dosing Tropica specialized nutrition. I've been doing water changes ever four days for a while now with remineralized RODI water and it has drastically reduced the amount of algae in the tank. However something I've always battled is Green Spot algae. My Anubis has ALWAYS had some GSA and got out of control after starting water changes every four days. After finally testing my phosphates I found out my phosphates are 0-0.5 ! Low phosphates definitely contributed to the amount of GSA in the tank.
How about put in Eichhornia sp. in my tank?
Hi Dr Novak, do you have any experience of your filter in a marine aquarium?? I am currently using sugar (carbon dosing) to control nitrate, looking at developing methanol reactor still leaves me with phosphate, control currently with Lanthanum dosing. Any suggestions??
Obviously all the proteins in the food are a phosphate source, I take it you mean free phosphate food or food without proteins??
Actually there is a food made in Italy that claims to have no phosphate in it. The reason I did not mention it’s name is because I’m going to have to buy some and test it to see if it’s true or not and I don’t want to mislead anybody. However I’ll give you the name of the food and maybe you may want to try it out too. Elos SV.M2 Premium Fish Food ,
As far as testing the BCB in a saltwater aquarium, no I have not. There are people in the United Kingdom that have and claim they’ve had success with it but I personally have not experimented with it in a saltwater environment. I have in a brackish water environment and it’s been successful but not pure salt water environment.
My city tap water has more nitrates than my dirty aquarium water.
You're not first one to tell me that.
Does your municipal water contain chloramines?
@@worddunlap yes it does, most municipal water treatment facilities in United States do injector their water with chloramines and not chlorine anymore.
@@worddunlap yes
Hello Dr. Novak. So my understanding is that plenum and BCB will bring down nitrate and phosphate. I'm curious to know if it brings down other elements like calcium, potassium and iron....just curious...thanks in advance
Most elements will have to be replaced as they get used up either by plants, the animals or bacteria, no different than any other aquarium you set up.
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums Thank you. Just wanted to understand better the system. I have a plenum already but I didn't put the cat litter and laterite so I'm making soon a BCB. so since I have shrimps as an example I wanted to know if the BCB will use more calcium as an example and I'll need to add more often. Maybe not in significance numbers but just for the understanding. Thank you in advance.
What is bcb Doc Novak?
What about reverse osmosis water? Do phosphate still exists after the process
That would depend on the osmosis system you are using. Some osmosis system use a resin which will remove all calcium ,magnesium, nitrates and phosphate out of the water.
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums ok, thanks for your knowledge.
How old is the BCB basket you speak of in this video? Is it 60 days or older?
Its now 45-days old.
Hi Dr Novak I built my first BCB but I don’t have a sump yet, can I cycle the BCB in a 5 gallons bucket just by adding liquid ammonia and let it sit there?
Yes, but you must add a bacteria from old tank.
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums i saw in one of your videos that you have potassium supplement like the one you buy cvs ( pills) can I use iron supplement from de dollar store brake the pill and add it to BCB? Pardon my ignorance Dr Novak
@@ilovegirls69style no, I’m sorry you can’t.
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums exactly what I thought
Laterite is kind of expensive just for one BCB
Thanks for you feedback Dr Novak
Should we use RO/DI water for our aquarium then?
in saltwater Ro/DI water is good but in freshwater it is not, unless your tap water is really bad with Nitrates and phosphates.
I use rain water :)
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums Thank you so much for your reply
I am from India, where I live we don't have access to tap water.
My borewell water is extremely hard
TDS is around 780. Hence at least planning to use RO DI water.
Your video are very inspiring, thank you so much for your help.
@@NunoLeitaoTheEpiq unfortunately for me that's not an option since I poisoned a tankful of angels... I live in a concrete jungle.
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums After I switched to (remineralized) RO water my planted freshwater tanks blew up with less algae growth and way healthier plants. It depends on your tap water if you want to go the RO route. Plants prefer acidic water. If you have a fish that thrives in acidic water and you have hard water RO is the way to go in my opinion.
Thanks, Doc! I'm loving your videos. The next tank I build, I would love to include an internal anoxic sump. Please could you do a video that would help me get it right the first time?
Any tips you have would be greatly appreciated.
I have a video already that shows BCB in a sump. Just look at my TH-cam archives.
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums Thanks, I'll check it out
I believe your math is off. When doing your calculations you assume 0.2% phosphate in your fish food* equates to 0.2 on your test kit, which I believe would be in parts per million (ppm). I however don't doubt your anoxic filter can lower phosphates, I just wanted to point out what I believe to be a bit of a flaw in your argument
*Edited: Changed fertilizer to fish food, I misspoke before.
I never stated that the fertilizer had .20%, It has .0100% and this is to be added once or twice a week, my calculations are spot on. However, it doesn’t state that percentage for how much of the fertilizer you are using. The reason they don’t state it because no law requires it for aquarium products to be specific.
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums Apologies, I meant to say your fish food. You calculate 6 feedings as 6 x 0.2% = "phosphates at 1.2"
@@ethanpatel6739 okay, 6x2=12 or 6x.2=1.2 ppm phosphates of food added ever day, right? Now add water @ .11 ppm of phosphates in tap water and then add .010% of phosphates from fertilizer.
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums You’re missing my point. You can’t simply equate .2% phosphate to .2 ppm phosphate. The amount of water and the amount of food you put in has a very large impact on the ppm. If what you said is true, I could put in 2 grams of food in a 5 gallon tank and have the same ppm of phosphate as if I put 1 gram of food in a 500,000 gallon tank. Your calculations fail to cross out units, by multiplying 6 feedings/week by 0.2% phosphate (grams/grams) you get no valuable information. You need to also take into account how many grams of food and how many gallons or liters of water there are in the tank
I think API phosphate test kit is better quality.
I don’t believe phosphates are an issue, I know tanks that get dosed regularly with phosphates and have no noticeable algae and very healthy plants and livestock.
If you have sufficiently growing plants and bacteria colonies, phosphates can be a non-issue...
But, for hungry sloppy eaters like puffers... that leave meat and food everywhere.. It makes an algae problem, unless you do something to lower these levels.
Seachem offers phosphorus in a separate bottle and also the other 2 macros, and also they have a calendar that shows how much to dose of each one every week. And I've seen some interviews with seachem employee saying that adding phosphorus in some cases is good to get rid of spot algae by keeping the ratio between phosphorus and nitrogen 1 to 10
Yes Phosphate is a nutrient needed by plants. If an aquarists goal is healthy plants phosphates are needed. Green dust algae/Spot Algae is due to low phosphates sometimes
Unless I was asleep and missed it, you never explain what a BCB is...just refer to it/them. Seachem says its Flourish is like a base layer of fertilizer...
Biocenosis clarification basket AKA: BCB for short.
Love the content think that you need to look at the balance of said tank if you feed your fish you produce nitrates and phosphate's this coupled with dead matter from live plants you can remove this simply doing water changes get a nitrate filter for your tap water job done having said that i an going to try your baskets
Thanks , all nitrates and phosphates are now under control. Test this morning and phosphates .900 ppm. And nitrates .0000 ppm
@@anoxicfiltrationplenums I think if you have live plants especially leaf feeders it is important to have nitrates and phosphates in small doses i feed some tanks and others i have no need to due to these levels i tend to use plants to remove nitrates if present ,,my tap water here in the UK is 50 ppm
your babbling makes no sense at all
I'm sorry you feel that way.