Is aquasoil ADA amazonia light powder pumping PO4 ?

Coasters13

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Jun 29, 2017
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hi all,

I have a question for you, if you have this king of experience

here is the situation :

I'm starting a new Tank with Eleocharis sp mini (10 boxes) in 129L (33G)

I'm adding CO2, enough light (Led dennerle tropica 48w during 7h)

and I'm adding dry fertilizer and I have an issue with PO4

I'm adding 1,3ppm of KH2PO4 3 times/weeks, I check with a standard solution if the concentration in my tank is ok (and it's ok : 1,3ppm)

48 hours after, I check again the PO4 in my tank and there is nothing in my tank, PO4 is = 0 ...

My tank is new and Eleocharis is small

is it possible that all the plants pump the PO4 in 48h ?

or is it my ADA aquasoil amazonia light powder which is pumping my PO4 ?

I did it 3 times and all the 3 time my PO4 fell from 1ppm to 0ppm in 48hours

I ask this question because I'm worry to saturate my soil with PO4 if it's pumping in it

thanks for your help !



20170726_205730.jpg
 

Coasters13

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Jun 29, 2017
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NEED HELP please !

I have a huge issue with my PO4 in my aquarium

my eleocharis is dying, I dose dose dose and my PO4 is still and always @ 0 ppm

I chose Amazonia light powder because I read that it's better to reduce algae issue

did I do a mistake by taking Amazonia light ?

I wonder if Amazonia light is right for carpeting plant like eleocharis

I would may be took Amazonia "classic" wich is higher in nutriment.

I'm dosing KH2PO4 1.5 ppm every day !!!

I dose 0.75 the morning, I check the ppm with my test kit and it's ok but at the end of the day my concentration is @ 0 ppm

same thing the night ! I dose 0.75ppm the evening and the morning it's @ 0 ppm !!!

how is it possible to have a water column between 1 and 3ppm of PO4 ??

should I increase more my PO4 ? 1.5ppm per day is high

ADA brighty light is dosing 0.2ppm of PO4 per day how is it possible to grow eleocharis with such low concentration ?

do you have some advice for my ? should I add more PO4 ?

thanks for your help
 

Christophe

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With fairly fresh Aquasoil, you shouldn't really need to dose much at all for perhaps a couple months. I'd suspect your test kit is wonky, it's very unlikely that little bit of plant biomass is actually consuming that much PO4.

It takes some time for plants to establish, and the waiting is the hardest part. Chasing specific numbers with a wonky test kit makes it feel worse.

Keep up your water changes, probably twice a week if it's in the first couple months of an Aquasoil tank. If you dose ferts, keep the doses to recommended EI level or even perhaps less. Watch things for a while.
 
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Coasters13

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Thanks Christophe,

I'm not sure that my test kit is wrong

because when I add 0.75 ppm of PO4 in my aquarium

If I check the concentration 10 minutes after the addition in my aquarium, my test kit shows concentration around 0.75 ppm (I always confirm the results with a standard solution made by myself @1ppm)

but if a wait 12hours and make again the PO4 test in my aquarium, I have 0 ppm.

your are right when you write that with aquasoil I don't need to fert for a couple of month but if I don't do that eleocharis is dying

since I dose twice a day PO4 (morning 0.75 ppm and evening 0.75ppm) roots are coming again and eleocharis is growing again

that's my surprise and this is why I share it with you

I can't understand how it's possible and I don't understand what happens and where is going my PO4 ...
 

Coasters13

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Tonight I'll do a test

I'll use 3 glasses

one with RO water + amazonia light (controle 1)

one with 1ppm PO4 + amazonia light (experiment)

one with only solution PO4 1ppm (controle 2)

I'll do the PO4 thest to shows the concentration immediatly

and I'll wait 12h.

I'll see if amazonia light release or pump or do nothing with my PO4
 

rajkm

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Don't worry about PO4 dropping, even if the soil is taking some out, or its precipitating by reacting with something, in the end it's available in the substrate for plants to access.
Concentrate on your CO2 and flow.
There will be some dieback from the plants adjusting to being submerged.
As long as the conditions are good, you will see it bounce back. It might already be sending runners but you won't see it for some time.
 
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Coasters13

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20170809_200220.jpg
20170809_200253.jpg
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I have the answer of my question : yes amazonia light is pumping my PO4 !!!

Here are the results:
Picture one :
1 : ro water + amazonia light
2 : standard solution PO4 1ppm + amazonia light
3 : standard solution PO4 1ppm
Picture taken few minutes after mixing
It seems that PO4 is already pumping by amazonia light but the solution is still trouble.

Picture 2 : zoom of sample 2 and 3 from picture 1

Picture 3 : after one night

Amazonia light has pump all the PO4 !!!

20170809_200220.jpg
 
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Swissal

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Hi all, its my first post here, so I hope I'm doing things right. I thought I'd chime in with my experiences here, since I feel it's not something which should be taken too lightly.

This spring, I tore down my aquarium to start from scratch due to some serious losses, which I could not account for. The aquarium had been running for about a year or so I guess. It was my first real attempt with Aquasoil and EI. The plant growth was really the best I'd ever had, the cherry shrimp were breeding like nuts, Ottos and even the Gold ring butterfly sucker (Sewellia lineolata) were reproducing. The light I guess was moderate at about 70 - 80 PAR. The PO4 I kept at around 0.4 with an auto doser. I was changing 50% of the water each week. In retrospect, I did feel I was putting a bit too much PO4 in, but since the readings were well below any danger levels, and everything was going great, I just assumed that some species of plants were hogging the PO4. Big mistake!
Early this year, I started loosing the red shrimp. Their bodies were soft, so I thought it must be something to do with not being able to rebuild their shells after moulting. I upped the GH and KH a little, but it didn't help. Over the course of a couple of months, all were lost (60 - 80 I guess). During this time I also noticed the Asassin snails had also been dying off. I had been giving these to the LFS in bags of 50 -100 at a time, but suddenly I could only find empty shells. The small round snails they were put in there to kill were taking over the tank. This was really confusing: Why should one species of snail die, and another excel? Surely not a calcium issue then?

I realise that what I describe above could be due to a host of other things, and my observations are not exactly scientific proof of anything, but I have just set up again with completely new aquasoil, and notice again, that I can dump relatively large quantities of PO4 in there, and within a day it's down to zero again. And what really bugs me is that the asassin snails mainly hang out in the substrate, and the cherry shrimp are mostly on or near the substrate as well, so could there be a connection? Could it be that PO4 builds up to dangerous levels in the aquasoil over time?

I don't want to hog this thread with my own issues, which I unfortuately wasn't wise enough to diagnose thoroughly enough at the time. I just felt it was worth mentioning, that PO4 build-up in the aquasoil substrate might well be an issue in my opinion, if you follow the routine of trying to maintain a certain level of PO4. If you follow the regime of adding a certain level of PPM per week, do regular water changes, and don't care too much about what the test kits say, well I think this forum is living proof that that works very well! I myself will concentrate more on the volume of PO4 I put in the tank this time, and less about the level measured.
(P.S: Sorry if I have hogged this thread it too much. I've never posted on a forum before, so need to feel the way a little)
 

Tom Barr

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Rather than build up, it's more likely a function of CEC and lost over time of the NH4............ADA As lower pH, KH, GH etc.
But only for so long, same for supplying N as NH4.

It'll bind metals and PO4. You can look at the long term concentrations vs time with new and 18 month old ADA AS using essentially EI version.
Most things remain similar, but not NH4. It drops.

Same deal in the rice paddies. They literally pump liquid NH3 into the soil, flood the soil immediately to prevent NH4(non mobile)=> NO2=> NO3(very mobile, will not bind).
Then add seeds. They do not fertilize with any thing else really.

Test above do not reveal anything that's not known.........but aquarist do not do test on the soil itself much nor over time. The soil is VERY different at Time=0, 5 days, 10 days, 30 days, 180 days, 320 days, 500 days etc.
New soil will bind a lot of things when you flood it.