phosphates ability ?

Do some reading on Liebigs Law of the Minimum; it'll help you out a great deal. If the plant has all the CO2 in the world, but it's short on the PO4 necessary for mitosis, then it can't grow. Think of it like stunting a growing person by eliminating nutrients from their diet; they may not show deficiency, but they may not grow to full potential. The limiting factor is always the supply that's lowest.

 

Tricky Stuff

Hi,

Phosphorus is tricky stuff, usually when we refer to adding a certain number (parts per million) of phosphates we are referring to inorganic phosphate such as Potassium phosphate, monobasic, KH2PO4 or Dipotassium hydrogen phosphate K2HPO4.3H2O that require the help of friendly bugs to turn it into an organic

I suspect we use more inorganic phosphate to compensate for the loss in processes to convert the inorganic to organic forms.

I tend to dose 2-ppm inorganic phosphate, though I see no problem using it as a cleaner to help suppress algae that often pushes to 10-12-ppm.

An excellent read on the subject is the ever-popular Phosphorus’ Role in Aquatic Macrophyte Horticulture, by Tom Barr, http://www.barrreport.com/showthread.php/1606-Barr-Report-Newsletter-Phosphorus.

Biollante