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From: richard@gryphon.COM (Richard Sexton)
Newsgroups: sci.aquaria,rec.aquaria,alt.aquaria
Subject: A talk with the Coralife Plant Fertilizer people
Keywords: plant fertilizers
Message-ID: <24849@gryphon.COM>
Date: 17 Jan 90 00:52:48 GMT
Organization: Trailing Edge Technology, Redondo Beach, Ca.
Lines: 66

Upon John Bridge's behest, I spoke today to the Coralife people about
their plant fertilizers.
 
These are my notes:
  
 I spoke to Dr. Tooley. He had a slight accent, so it could have been
 Dr. Tu Lee for all I know. Nice man. He can be reached at (213) 320-9872
   
 Q: What are the proportions of Nitrogen (N), Phosphorous (P) and Potassium (K) 
    in the aquarit plant food ?
    
 A: Basically it's 2-1-2. 
     
      
 Q: Hmm. Planttabs are 10-15-10. Why the difference ?
       
 A: They are measuring theirs by weight. Ours is by volume; it's in
    solution.
	   
(I didn'nt understand what he was talking about, but didn't want to press it)
	    
Q: What are the sources for these ?
	     
A: Calcium Nitrate, Potassium Phosphate and Potassium Nitrate.
	      
	       
Q: Is there anything else in there ?
		
A: Yes. Plants need a balance of 13 essential minerals. A deficiancy
   in any one of them will result in poor plant growth. Note that
   different plants have different requirements as to the percentages
   of these nutrients.
			  
			   
Q: And what is the source of these minerals ? Standard Hoaglands solution ?
			       
A: No. Hoaglands is outdated. It's a formula developed by Dr. Muraschu (SP?)
   and his Prof. Dr. Skoog (SP?) at the university of Irvine. It contains
   more elements than Hoaglands.

(Can anybody fins any reference to work by these guys so we can find out
exacly what is in this stuff ?)
				       
					
Q: Let me get back to the N-K-P for a moment. Plantabs are 10-15-10
   yet Tetra fertilizers are 1.5-0-10, ie. just Potassium. Any idea
   why this is ? Is the idea here that the fish supply nitrates and
   there will (for whatever reason) be enough phosphates and that all
   plants need is to get additional potassium to utilize existing
   nitrates and phospates.
							
A: Yes I think thats the idea, but I peronally don't think this
   is very well thouh out. You can't really do that, it's like
   eating things from the four food groups but eating them
   on different days. Besides, plants don't use ammonia which
   is what fish excrete, they use nitrates.
								     
(Doesn't this contradict what I just read here someplace ?)
								      
Q: What can you say about algae ? I used to have blue-green
   bit now that I'm using RO water I get hair algae.

A: Yes, blue green is the most pernicious, but requires some
   minerals to grow. RO water does not contain many of these
   minerals so it will not dominate. Thread algae, however
   trives on silicates which are ot removed by the RO filter.