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Potassium Deficiency?


MattyM
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On 1/20/2023 at 1:54 PM, knee said:

It does look like a potassium deficiency. Are you dosing ferts?

Just Easy Green and Root tabs. For EG I try to keep it around 20ppm nitrate, and if I up it - doesn't seem to matter. I tend to dose smaller doses, 2-3 times a week and work up to the recommended dosage. If I dose all at once, I seem more prone to staghorn algae. 

I just managed to find a Freshwater Potassium test kit, and I ordered that and some Seachem Potassium, so I can hopefully answer my own question! I'm wondering if something changed in my city water, and this problem has been especially bad lately. Stem plants seem most impacted. 

 

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On 1/20/2023 at 12:06 PM, MattyM said:

Just Easy Green and Root tabs. For EG I try to keep it around 20ppm nitrate, and if I up it - doesn't seem to matter. I tend to dose smaller doses, 2-3 times a week and work up to the recommended dosage. If I dose all at once, I seem more prone to staghorn algae. 

I just managed to find a Freshwater Potassium test kit, and I ordered that and some Seachem Potassium, so I can hopefully answer my own question! I'm wondering if something changed in my city water, and this problem has been especially bad lately. Stem plants seem most impacted. 

 

I was about to suggest getting a potassium test kit and test the tap but you got it covered already 😄

Have you checked ph and water hardness?

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Your GH could be an issue. Some plants are more sensitive to hard water. The high mineral content does make it more difficult for some plants to absorb the nutrients that they need. Some plants don't seem to care, but some seem pretty sensitive to it. I live where we have hard water and I have tried growing temple plants in my hard water (12 dGH) aquarium, and it never looked or grew that great. But then I had the same plants in my soft water aquarium (5dGH) and it grew like a weed. In my soft water aquarium, I have susswassertang growing out of control, so I took a handful and threw it in my hard water tank, and it's been about 3 days now it's about 50% dead. It also clearly doesn't like hard water.

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Hi @MattyM

Could you please post a couple of pictures of new growth of your plant(s) in the tank?

1977365878_CAREMattyM01croppedadjarrows.png.6564e14b0146ea793f467218f300b248.png

@JoeQ is correct in that I would suspect the pinholes (#1's in photo) in the older leaves are due to insufficient available potassium.  All of the macro-nutrients (N, P, K) are mobile nutrients which means a plant has the ability to move the nutrients from older leaves to new leaves for needed growth if there isn't sufficient available in the environment.

@nabokovfan87 is correct that the older leaves are showing signs of stress.  No only is there is insufficient available potassium but the #2 arrow is pointing to signs of interveinal chlorosis (darker leaf veins with lighter interveinal areas).  The condition can be linked by a couple of nutrient related issues, that is why I would like pictures of new growth.

Hope this helps! -Roy

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@Seattle_Aquarist not at my tanks but the new growth looks great. What I’ve been doing on some is pulling up the plant, trimming the bottom/struggling part off and replanting the healthy top portions. Then everything is fine for awhile. This is why I think it’s a deficiency, when some of the stems get too big it can’t find what it needs. 

I think I read on the 2 hour aqauarist site this is common to do, but it’s a pita. I prob need to get my dosing dialed in. I finally found a stem plant that works for me, just gotta get the ferts dialed in. 

Tx all, appreciate the input!

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On 1/22/2023 at 9:23 AM, Mmiller2001 said:

I would increase CO2 and improve flow throughout the tank. There's no reason to waist money on test kits. I would research Estimative Index dosing and employ this strategy.

I second this, using EI and doing a large water change each week is a whole lot easier than playing the 'guess which nutrient is missing game.

Edited by JoeQ
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Hi @MattyM

I see no issues with the new growth in the photo above.  If signs of interveinal chlorosis was present in new growth then I would suspect an issue with available iron was causing the problem in the cropped photo with arrows that I posted.  Since the interveinal chlorosis seems to be showing up in older growth that would suggest insufficient available magnesium (also a mobile nutrient).  One way to resolve the insufficient available potassium (K) and insufficient magnesium (Mg) is adding Seachem Equilibrium.   Do an initial dose of 1 teaspoon per 10 gallons will increase the overall hardness by 2.0 dGH and add: 26 ppm of K and 3.2 ppm of Mg.  Thereafter, when you do your weekly water changes add 1 teaspoon per 10 gallons of new water added.

Do not expect any change in existing leaves, however after you start dosing the additional K and Mg when the new growth that occurs matures you should not experience the pinholes or interveinal chlorosis.  Hope this helps! -Roy

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On 1/22/2023 at 12:23 PM, RadMax8 said:

If you can find some potassium salt, I would start adding that to the tank. 

Tx! Good to know. I got some Seachem Potassium yesterday, and am starting to experiment with that. Never heard of the salt before!

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@MattyM it’s also known as dry ferts, basically you’re taking the stuff that’s in the Seachem bottle pans adding it directly to your tank, rather than buying it mixed with water from Seachem. K2SO4 I believe is the common compound that most of us use. You can get a pound of the stuff for what it costs a single bottle of Seachem. 

I’m by no means bashing on Seachem, it’s fine for beginners and folks who don’t want the hassle of dealing with various chemicals and measurements and Seachem provides a premixed solution. But if you really want to dial things in and save money doing it, dry ferts is the way to go!

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Hi All,

As @RadMax8 mentioned you can certainly add potassium sulfate (K2SO4) to a tank to increase the potassium level.  The reason I suggest the Seachem Equilibrium is the product not only addresses the potassium issue of the OP but it contains the magnesium sulfate (MgSO4*7H2O) to address the interveinal chlorosis issue while still maintaining the recommended Ca:Mg ratio range of 3:1 - 4:1 Ca:Mg. -Roy

Edited by Seattle_Aquarist
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