Quote:
Originally Posted by Aquattro
Oh, while you're here, what's your thoughts on the required ratio of N:P for carbon dosing? I think that with my limited NO3, it's not going to do what it's meant to all that well
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If you Push the carbon dosing there may come a time where it will be a limiting factor , this usually only plays a role for peoplle trying to get to zeros for both nitorgen and phosphourous and started quite high , the numbers dont ratio well for a person who has high numbers of each , often no3 is zero befor po4. there doesn't need to be a constant supply of nitrogen and bacteria will use nitrogen when it's available be it always available or as it becomes available and they will even store it for later use , hence the reason we carbon dose even after getting zeros so bacteria never stop doing their jobs they just may stop doing it as fast on paper as we would like.
If you feel though like your at a stall then adding a bigger nitrogen source will get you over that hurdle , so be it adding fish , over feeding or adding nitrates directly (potassium nitrate) to name a few . the same can be said for phosphates both of these can be manipulated by you to act in your favor.
So if no3 is nil , then you have to ask your self do you want to go the slow route for bacteria to consume in ratio c : n : p or if you want to step in and do two things one is add a larger nitrogen source and the other is to lower the po4 for quicker end result (zeros)
Fwiw you may always have to run po4 removers from time to time , most do as we all overstock , change our imports and exports , get lazy etc. and po4 is in everything organic we add
