Plant nutrient advice required

[jayc]

SD = Shrimpy Daddy

Edited August 28, 2015 by jayc

[kizshrimp]

@Shrimpy Daddy, got any advice for Oz? 

[Shrimpy Daddy]

So if i get some K2SO4 this should prevent the problem? Will the leaves green up again ?

how much do i add to my water when i am remineralising ? I generally add 15-30 litres at water change

would this be beneficial aswell?

http://aquagreen.com.au/plant_data/Dinosaur_Pee.html

Strangely...I am not getting email notification from SKF, unless people @ me.

There use to be a fantastic online calculator for fert, but the owner of that website passed away about 6 months ago. But for now, you can use this instead: http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/calculator.htm

For the tank water, aim for constant 10 to 20ppm of K. Daily dosing will be depending on the type of plants and whether you are injecting CO2 or not. For my buce tank that has low CO2 injection (1 bps for 100L tank), I only dose 0.75ppm daily. For my medium light tank with demanding plant, I am dosing 1.6ppm daily.

Don't need to be too exact as potassium doesn't have any toxicity issues for fish or shrimp.

I have to add onto this point. In aquatic hobby. most people are blinded about the truth of potassium level. I think it was due to someone or company mentioned about "potassium is safe and it is not toxic or cause algae". This is not totally true.

For plant, fish and invertebrate, they need proper electrolyte in the water to survive (I think due to cell membrane osmosis and absorption). Electrolyte is made of Na and K. In the nature, Na level is higher than K's level. But in planted tank, we will need to keep K at higher level. This does not have adverse effect, but we just need to make sure these two levels should different by too much. :)

Dave at Aquagreen sells Rexolin APN or an equivalent trace supplement (at least he used to) and I think you should occasionally dose something like that too. Don't worry about the copper level unless you're using a lot, remember that Aquagreen has bred plenty of shrimp over the years. 

But yes, you could provide the Potassium with just Sulphate of Potash. I like to also use Potassium bicarbonate as my carbonate source. You should be able to buy both those from Dave as well. 

Rexolin has too much copper. Use Plantex instead.

[JacksonL]

Strangely...I am not getting email notification from SKF, unless people @ me.

There use to be a fantastic online calculator for fert, but the owner of that website passed away about 6 months ago. But for now, you can use this instead: http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/calculator.htm

For the tank water, aim for constant 10 to 20ppm of K. Daily dosing will be depending on the type of plants and whether you are injecting CO2 or not. For my buce tank that has low CO2 injection (1 bps for 100L tank), I only dose 0.75ppm daily. For my medium light tank with demanding plant, I am dosing 1.6ppm daily.

I have to add onto this point. In aquatic hobby. most people are blinded about the truth of potassium level. I think it was due to someone or company mentioned about "potassium is safe and it is not toxic or cause algae". This is not totally true.

For plant, fish and invertebrate, they need proper electrolyte in the water to survive (I think due to cell membrane osmosis and absorption). Electrolyte is made of Na and K. In the nature, Na level is higher than K's level. But in planted tank, we will need to keep K at higher level. This does not have adverse effect, but we just need to make sure these two levels should different by too much. :)

Rexolin has too much copper. Use Plantex instead.

that's very interestinf about the K levels, I'm guessing for most situations it's not an issue though? It would have to be an abnormally high level of K to cause issues with fish and shrimp.