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Lean dosing pros and cons

if you have a lot of leaves in your guttering or water butt, it could be tannins released into the water. They tend to degrade rather rapidly when exposed to light.
Does it also mean that it contain ammonia ?
 
Could do, but less likely the water butt in particular should be fairly 'bacterially mature' if its got a layer of leaf litter in it.
thansk you, rain water can't contain hardness (GH/KH) before reaching the soil right ? my roof is in concrete
 
Hi all,
I'd have to defer to @dw1305 for more detail on the reasons why
Many and varied, water just wants to dissolve things, and <"very small amounts of salts" (as ions)> have a big effect on electrical conductivity.
  • The first is the very small amount of dissolved CO2 that converts to H2CO3 and adds a proton (H+ ion). That proton conducts a minimal amount of electricity (1 or 2 microS).
  • If you have other <"gaseous pollutants">, they also <"add some conductivity">.
  • The big one for me <"is dust">. Water is a very efficient <"amphoteric solvent"> and if you have a <"lot of dust in the atmosphere">, and <"that dust"> contains CaCO3, then some of it is dissolved by the <"proton donors"> in the water and raises the conductivity (and pH).
  • Sea spray (containing NaCl), you would be amazed by how far it gets inland.
cheers Darrel
 
Hey guys, one of my tank is more than a year old now and i can tell that the substrate nutrients are gone which mean that i have no backup if i mess with the water column dosing, i was thinking about osmocote but my soil is 1.5 - 2 inches deep, which mean that ammonia will sooner or later be in the water with osmocote, how to solve that ? thx

i managed to clean my roof, now that autumn is here and lot of rain, tds is now 15 ppm which is near perfect to go back to lean dosing i think.
I actually don't really know if i can call my ferts routine lean because there is so much recipe difference that i'm lost here is what i dose :

NO3 = 3-5 ppm
PO4 = 0.5 ppm
K = 3.65 ppm ( due to K in the KNO3 powder + colombo flora grow)
Mg = 11 ppm - 2.5 dGH
Ca = 4 ppm
Iron = 0.06 weekly DTPA
 
Lean it surely is. Only one point is rather unorthodox - prevalence of Mg over Ca.
yes i know, i've read about it, but never seen difference in my experience. I dose CaCl2, which have lot of chloride in it which i'm a bit afraid of
 
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