K:N ratio???

[moldyform]

I am about to start dosing nitrates and would like to know a bit more about the potassium:nitrate ration and what it shoud be??

Cheers.

[ILLUSN]

Excess K wont hurt your tank, it wont help it either, K help the plants to propperly utilise N and P, if your reading very low NO3 (below 5) then adding KNO3 to bring up your NO3 (say to around 5, 7-8 max) will add more than enough K for your plants.

[moldyform]

Ok thanks.
Also what phosphate reding should i aim for. Its currently at 2ppm. Should i be increasing this?

Cheers

[ILLUSN]

Too much can leed to algae problems, I'd keep it in check, 2 should be ok my planted tanks are barly on detecable ammounts of P. The easiest way to manage a planted tank is just to watch it closly, if you see the growth start to slow and your NO3 is good and your Phosphate is good increase K, if your NO3 is good and P is low increase P.

if you see small holes in leaves of fast growers increase K.

traces are a differant bag altogether, but keeping up your Fe and Mg and you should be fine.

dont try to over complicate things, your plants will tell you when something is in short supply. just watch your tank and enjoy it.