# Dosing with PO4



## Cherry (1 Mar 2014)

Hi,
wanted t ask why the heck did I buy a bottle of "Easy Life Fosfo?(PO4) someone recommended it to me but I cant remember why - and now having( a little) more experience and reading on here ,everyone spends theur time trying to keep the PO4 levels down?
I don't have trouble with algae (crossed fingers) run pressurised CO2 and have a high number of fish for the size of my tank - I have a lot of plants too - I work on the principle of cottage gardening (if there is a space bung another plant in - and am trying EI (with an accent on the E!


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## Edvet (2 Mar 2014)

Ei asks for adding N,P and a GH booster. I am adding amongst other things PO4 three times a week

EI DOSING USING DRY SALTS | UK Aquatic Plant Society


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## dw1305 (2 Mar 2014)

Hi all,


> everyone spends theur time trying to keep the PO4 levels down?


 This is often a recommendation on other forums. It comes about because in the natural environment  a lot of loss of water quality (algal blooms etc) is associated with elevated nitrate and phosphate levels. The algae are the "smoking gun" of pollution by sewage, optical brighteners from washing powders, agricultural run off etc.

One of the reasons that PO4--- levels are so high in the environment is that phosphorus is one of the 3 macro-nutrients that plants require most of, it is the P of N  :K. Although plants require less phosphorus than nitrogen or potassium, they still require a lot more of it than they do of all the other micro-nutrients.  

Low phosphorus levels will limit plant growth. If you are adding CO2, plants can only make use of that additional carbon if their growth isn't limited by the availability of nutrients.

If you want a more complete view of the argument, I'd recommend <http://www.britishcichlid.org.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=7161>. It is quite  along thread and quite technical, but it contains both sides of the argument and links into a lot of related UKAPS posts.

Cheers Darrel


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## Cherry (2 Mar 2014)

Thank you both - will start adding it now!  phew Darrel, they have strong views on that site - think my head has just imploded


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## dw1305 (3 Mar 2014)

Hi all, 





Cherry said:


> they have strong views on that site


 It is a quite good forum, but  because it has a lot of Rift Lake Cichlid keepers etc. often people are anti-plant, and in some cases they use their (valid) experience with very hard water and apply it to soft water, so you get people worried about "pH crashes" etc. 

In that particular case there isn't anything wrong with the product mentioned,  and the supplier is a _bona fide_ scientists, but the advertising is misleading. "_*Helps you fight the green monster - Remove Phosphate® Reduce Algae - *_*It really is that simple!"
*
cheers Darrel


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