Well I said I'd come back here and update on my N and P situations, and I'm staying true to my word. If you look back and read what I wrote, you'll notice that I was not dosing any Nitrogen of Phosphorus, just Potassium and Trace. I was doing this, because the addition of the two was not necessary at the time because it was being provided by my Aquasoil Amazonia II.
Well, much time and resulting growth has passed since then. And like I and many knew would happen, and always does happen, is that the seemingly endless supply of macros provided by the soil slowed down, and has almost stopped. So what do I have to do now? I have to dose N and P. For any of you using AS you might find this information helpful. But, I'm pretty sure it hasn't run dry of it's supply, because I have been doing well with very lean dosings of the two.
For about a week, a month ago, I found that I was dosing enough Nitrates, some BGA sprouted it's ugly head. I dosed some N, and it was gone. Just recently I slacked a little bit on CO₂ and some BBA started up. I started up with the CO₂ again and it's growth stopped, and I'm now eliminating it with spot dosing and ODing of excel.
So, I leave you with one question Tom Barr, because I've been very curious as to the answer for many weeks. How does Amano keep set-ups for longer than a year (longer than mine by like 5 months) without dosing any N or P, and still get good growth and keep algae at bay. If you look at his catalogs, he only doses Brighty K and Brighty Step 2, neither of which contain N or P. His nitrates stay below .1 mg/L and yet he has no defficiancies? No BGA? I don't get it. Maybe you can explain his ways and methods?
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