[APD] Back on the wagon.

[Chris Hotte <ecwh73 at gmail_com>]

So I was off the waggon for a while in terms of maintenance for my tank. 
One day after looking at it (yesterday) I could stand it no longer. I 
trimmed the dead plant leaves and did a ~40% water change and cleaned 
out the canister filter completely with tap water. I've never cleaned my 
filter with tap water before, but it needed it. I would have been able 
to clean it only so much with tank water. It hadn't been cleaned since 
March this year. Ack! I think the last vacuum was 1.5 months ago. Likely 
longer.

Anyhoo, I checked the KH when complete and it was down to 60ppm, so 
added 1 tsp NaHC03. Today KH is up to 80ppm and PH at 6.6. Perfect on 
the C02 but need to move up a bit with the KH again. Now I went and 
checked the N03. The test reads out somewhere between 40 and 80ppm. 
After such an overhaul, I'm completely amazed this much Nitrate remains. 
However, my concern is nutrients, specifically K. I removed KNO3 from my 
PMDD solution, which uses both K2S04 and KN03 as sources for K combined, 
so I've still half the equation. However, when pruning the old leaves, 
there was definitely a K shortage. Holes/melting leaves... it was awful. 
All due to my neglect.

Can I just double the K2S04 to compensate? Acquire some KCl? I'm a bit 
hesitant in acquiring KCl as I already use NaHC03 as a buffering agent 
and worry about the potential escalation in sodium chloride, or have I 
got my chemistry wrong?  Or should I just bite the bullet and add KN03 
back and do more water changes, ie every couple weeks rather than the 
spotty once a month or not method.

- Chris.


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