Potassium Deficiency

[Zac]

Hey all,

Some of my plants have pinholes which I’m suspecting is potassium deficiency. I’m currently dosing 4ml easy green in a 30 gallon. Before I start supplementing potassium, I’m considering adding an extra mL of easy green because my nitrates are only around 20ish according to aquarium co-op test strips. Along with that, I want to increase water changes because I have rather hard water so that may help with potassium increase. Thoughts?

[Kurt Brutting]

I dose Seachem Potassium twice a week and it definitely helps. Your plants and fish will enjoy the increase in water changes due to the oxygen exchange. I do small water changes once a week. As for increasing the easy green I think it’s a good idea. I have fast growing plants and they like the nitrates ppm between 25 and 30. 

[TeeJay]

Yes I have a fair amount of different Java ferns. I like to use seachem potassium as well. I dose mine once a week with easy green as well. If you worried about getting to much potassium you can start with a half dose and work your way up as needed. I have very hard water as well and I have seen no negative effects from adding the potassium to my regular fertilization.

[nabokovfan87]

On 8/15/2022 at 5:19 PM, Zac said:

Along with that, I want to increase water changes because I have rather hard water so that may help with potassium increase. Thoughts?

The difficulty with water changes is not knowing how much of the nutrient you need is in the water.  The easiest way to handle it is probably using potassium in powder or liquid form.  As always, the best thing to do is to start slow when adding new dosing to the tank.

I would be interested to see if you're having the 20 ppm nitrate levels from Easy Green or from the bioload and feeding regime.  Let's say it's caused by feeding.  Then you can increase volume or water changes short term to drop those levels and long term you adjust your maintenance to better handle that load.  This allows you to increase your dosing of easy green (knowing what is causing the nitrate levels) and potentially that solves the issue of potassium.  To determine where the nitrates are coming from what you'd want to do is to test daily for 2-3 days and see what happens to the levels.  If you're gaining ~0-5 ppm per day that's probably a very well stocked tank, the plants are balanced.  If you're gaining ~10+ ppm per day it would indicate that your levels are generally coming from the fish, feeding, and you can drop them with water changes.  You would then review what your maintenance schedule is like.  Potentially this might be a bump from ~30% water changes every other week to a ~50% water change.  Not really too big of an adjustment, but it does allow you to understand what the test strip is indicating and the day to day changes with your fertz and other things going on in the tank.

Meaning, if you're dosing (just randomly throwing out a number here) 1 full dose of Easy Green for the tank per week.  By dropping nitrates to 0-10 and then you dose your normal dose and then test in ~1 hour and record that nitrate level.  Repeat that nitrate test in 3-4 days and see if you're back to the original 0-10 level.  If those nitrates are still very low or nearly the same level, this means you could benefit from that midweek dose.  It would indicate the plants are using all of the fertilizer in those first ~3-4 days.

[Zac]

On 8/20/2022 at 12:36 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

The difficulty with water changes is not knowing how much of the nutrient you need is in the water.  The easiest way to handle it is probably using potassium in powder or liquid form.  As always, the best thing to do is to start slow when adding new dosing to the tank.

I would be interested to see if you're having the 20 ppm nitrate levels from Easy Green or from the bioload and feeding regime.  Let's say it's caused by feeding.  Then you can increase volume or water changes short term to drop those levels and long term you adjust your maintenance to better handle that load.  This allows you to increase your dosing of easy green (knowing what is causing the nitrate levels) and potentially that solves the issue of potassium.  To determine where the nitrates are coming from what you'd want to do is to test daily for 2-3 days and see what happens to the levels.  If you're gaining ~0-5 ppm per day that's probably a very well stocked tank, the plants are balanced.  If you're gaining ~10+ ppm per day it would indicate that your levels are generally coming from the fish, feeding, and you can drop them with water changes.  You would then review what your maintenance schedule is like.  Potentially this might be a bump from ~30% water changes every other week to a ~50% water change.  Not really too big of an adjustment, but it does allow you to understand what the test strip is indicating and the day to day changes with your fertz and other things going on in the tank.

Meaning, if you're dosing (just randomly throwing out a number here) 1 full dose of Easy Green for the tank per week.  By dropping nitrates to 0-10 and then you dose your normal dose and then test in ~1 hour and record that nitrate level.  Repeat that nitrate test in 3-4 days and see if you're back to the original 0-10 level.  If those nitrates are still very low or nearly the same level, this means you could benefit from that midweek dose.  It would indicate the plants are using all of the fertilizer in those first ~3-4 days.

I don’t think the nitrates are from feeding as I only have 4 guppies and some amanos at the moment, but they will definitely go up when the guppies give birth. I also began dosing 5ml of easy green every 3 days and I’m monitoring nitrates so they don’t go above 50. So far they seem to be staying around 25. I started dosing potassium because I believe that will probably solve my issues because I’m not seeing any other deficiencies in the plants. Will my plants repair themselves once adequate potassium levels have been reached? I’d hate to rip out all my pogo and restart it. The stems and roots are healthy.

[nabokovfan87]

On 8/20/2022 at 1:18 PM, Zac said:

I also began dosing 5ml of easy green every 3 days and I’m monitoring nitrates so they don’t go above 50.

I would do a big water change and dose when nitrates are under ~5.

On 8/20/2022 at 1:18 PM, Zac said:

ill my plants repair themselves once adequate potassium levels have been reached?

I cannot confirm, but I believe no.

Edited August 20, 2022 by nabokovfan87

[Tanked]

I have had success with a root tab from Planted Aquarium Concepts as a compliment to the Easy Green.  While it has a little more than half as much Potassium, it also has half the Nitrogen, more iron and other nutrients.  It definitely helped my Anubia.

[Zac]

On 8/21/2022 at 5:06 PM, Tanked said:

I have had success with a root tab from Planted Aquarium Concepts as a compliment to the Easy Green.  While it has a little more than half as much Potassium, it also has half the Nitrogen, more iron and other nutrients.  It definitely helped my Anubia.

I use root tabs as well from seachem and they still have a deficiency. I have a lot of fast growing plants in my tank 

[CT_]

Another option is equilibrium.  It's got tons of potassium and raises your gh which may be a good or bad thing depending on what you want