Plant Consume Fertilizer

Eugene

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Aug 25, 2017
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Dear all,
Can anybody tell me, when the plant consume the fertilizer that we give it to them. At that time or waiting after the microorganism finish process that fertilizer. Thx

Rgds,
Eugene


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Allwissend

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Hello Eugene,

As I understand, you are asking if the plants are able to consume the fertilizer in the form we add it to the aquarium or does the fertilizer need further processing?

The fertilizer we add generally contains nutrient forms that are readily taken up by plants. Microbes in this context can somewhat compete with plants for the "good stuff".


However, the microbial community should not be discouraged as it plays an important role in the degradation of side products of the fish metabolism. Some of these molecules will not be completely broken down to plant usable forms under aquarium conditions. Other molecules, like NH3 may be dangerous to fish in high pH conditions. Although plants can take up NH3, we would rather have a buffer to prevent high levels of NH3 or NO2 in such aquariums.

Regarding the light:dark cycle you can assume that in general aquatic plants and algae will continue to take up nutrients all the time until they reach saturation.

Regards
Mihai
 
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Eugene

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Aug 25, 2017
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The nutrient that ready taken up by plant, is for all fertilizer. Is it including DIY fertilizer such as KNO3 KH2PO4 or premixed like Flourish nitrogen. Thx


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rajkm

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Plants uptake nutrients thru leafs and roots. Bacteria in root zone helps break down any bound fertilizers making it bio available or fixing them in substrate for root uptake.
 
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Allwissend

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The nutrient that ready taken up by plant, is for all fertilizer. Is it including DIY fertilizer such as KNO3 KH2PO4 or premixed like Flourish nitrogen. Thx


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Well not for every fertilizer, some terrestrial plant fertilizer labeled with "organic" will need further processing.

But every fertilizer listed under EI recipe will not need microbial interaction to be in plant available form, including the 2 you listed. The pre-mixed ones that are intended for aquarium use will also be directly plant available.

There is a star here and a fine print, where some micronutrients remain available for plants longer when low pH and no UV is used. Not directly related to microbes but maybe relevant.
 
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VaughnH

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Plants take up fertilizer as ions - when salts dissolve in water the molecules separate into ions, so KNO3 becomes K+ and NO3- ions. Those ions are taken up by the roots and the leaves of the plants and used as food. Iron is one of the nutrients which, if it is an iron oxide, needs bacteria to work on it to make it available to the plants, and it needs a chelator to protect the ions from combining with other ions in the water to make compounds that won't dissolve in water. Fortunately, the chemicals we buy as plant food work fine - there is a chelator in the trace element mix to protect the ions that need the protection, and the nutrients in the macro fertilizers are molecules that split into ions the plants use easily.
 
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