BGA and potassium

P

paludarium

Guest
Hi,

I just read an interesting thread in a German forum http://www.flowgrow.de/algen/blaualgen-cyano-bakterien-die-kalium-methode-t8205.html. According to the article, lots of water changes, keeping potassium at 30 mg/L and nitrate at 15-20 mg/L seem to be effective in controlling/killing the BGA in a few days without any blackout. Is there any correlation between BGA outbreak and potassium deficiency?:rolleyes:

I don't have a chance to try it now, but would like to hear the experiences or comments from other people.

Regards,
Erich
 

Tom Barr

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Jan 23, 2005
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paludarium;43345 said:
Hi,

I just read an interesting thread in a German forum http://www.flowgrow.de/algen/blaualgen-cyano-bakterien-die-kalium-methode-t8205.html. According to the article, lots of water changes, keeping potassium at 30 mg/L and nitrate at 15-20 mg/L seem to be effective in controlling/killing the BGA in a few days without any blackout. Is there any correlation between BGA outbreak and potassium deficiency?:rolleyes:

I don't have a chance to try it now, but would like to hear the experiences or comments from other people.

Regards,
Erich

Old news really. The issue is that they increased the NO3, not K+, so they CANNOT say anything about N or K+, unless they tested it independently.

Water changes, dosing KNO3.........sound familiar?
But is it the K+?

If so, then simply dosing K2SO4 would resolve the issue.

This also assumes that there's no other source of NO3/that NO3 was actually measured correctly, calibrated test kits, and that there's no soil/substrate based source of N also.

You can test and ask other folks if adding GH booster, SeaChem Eq, or K2SO4 ever fixed their long term BGA issue.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 

Tom Barr

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Jan 23, 2005
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Also, if the case is somewhat mild, the blackout often is not required needed.

BTW, EI dosing does exactly the ppms for N and K, and lots of water changes............

Regards,
Tom Barr