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Posted by Mr. Zee on April 9, 2005, 9:25 am
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Thanks for the input, yes this 'internet thing' is really amazing...I love
seeing all the great plants on it and the pictures of the tanks.
Cany you give me a link to the Tom Barr method? I 'googled' it but can't
find the orginal thread. I really want to have some nice plants in the
tank. Thanks again!
> Mr. Zee wrote:
>> Hello all. Just getting back into this hobby after a 15 year vacation.
>> I'm setting up a 55 gallon tank with a lot of live plants and a few
>> dawrf amazon chiclids. (Not sure which ones yet, perhaps Apistogramma
>> cacatuoides and some cardinals. )
>>
>> My copper level from the tap is about 0.25 ppm and my phosphate level
>> is near 1 ppm. Are these two high? Ph fm the tap is 6.2 and KH is
>> 71.6ppm . I have a RO unit, and I was thinking of using half RO water
>> and half tap. Is this a good plan?
>>
>> Perhaps I'm worring too much, but I want to do this right so as not
>> to 1) kill fish and 2) have alge.
>>
>> Any thoughts/advise to a (re)beginner (!) appreciated. Thanks!
>>
>>
> I came back after only 5 years and quite a bit had changed. I'm having
> fun with the new lighting options and fabulous plants available by mail
> order over the internet.
>
> Half RO will take you down to about 0.5 ppm phosphate. That's fine for low
> algae as long as you have adequate nitrate. According to Tom Barr, the
> NPK ratio to shoot for is 8-1-16 so you need 4 ppm nitrate. That's
> optimal for plants, which will outcompete the algae. You may have to add
> KNO3 to get there if you have a lot of plant growth.
>
> As for the copper, you may want to do something about that. It will make
> it difficult to keep snails and shrimp, and build up in the tank
> substrate. Good carbon will remove copper from water. You probably don't
> want to carbon filter a planted tank, so maybe prefiltering the tap water
> overnight with a box filter full of carbon would work?
>
> --
> __ Elaine T __
> ><__'> http://eethomp.com/fish.html <'__><
> rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com
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> I'm setting up a 55 gallon tank with a lot of live plants and a few dawrf
> amazon chiclids. (Not sure which ones yet, perhaps Apistogramma cacatuoides
> and some cardinals. )
>
> My copper level from the tap is about 0.25 ppm and my phosphate level is
> near 1 ppm. Are these two high? Ph fm the tap is 6.2 and KH is 71.6ppm .
> I have a RO unit, and I was thinking of using half RO water and half tap.
> Is this a good plan?
>
> Perhaps I'm worring too much, but I want to do this right so as not to
> 1) kill fish and 2) have alge.
>
> Any thoughts/advise to a (re)beginner (!) appreciated. Thanks!
>
>
>
>