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Re: Adding Potassium
>From: Jennifer Glover <jglover at autometric_com>
>Subject: Re: Possible Potassium Deficiency
>
>Thank you everyone for such helpful responses. I am going to just do one
>big email
>as they all have the same topic, so hopefully these don't all get jumbled.
>I knew I
>should have paid attention in writing class :)
>
>James Purchase wrote:
>> Potassium is best added to the water column, as opposed to the substrate, so
>> just drop a pill into the tank (it should be a matter of simple math to work
>> out how much to add - you want a target doseage of between 5-10 ppm K in the
>> tank). If Potassium is the nutrient which is limiting growth and causing the
>> problems with your swords, the problem will lessen and eventually go away
>> (within a few weeks) following the addition of the nutirient.
>
-------------<rest snipped>------------------------ >8
I think that an upper limit of 10 ppm K is conservative and that that
amount won't last long in a typical planted tank. I routinely start off my
tanks with about 25 ppm K and have seen no harm to plants, fish, or snails.
In fact the snails and fish both seem healthier and more active than in a
potassium-deficient tank. I have tried 50 ppm K in tanks with only snails
and plants,and all seems well, but havn't tried it with fish, yet. Fifty
PPM of potassium is only 1/5 the strength in Hoagland's solution, which is
widely used in hydroponics.
Paul Krombholz, in Central Mississippi, where we had become convinced it
had forgotten how to rain, but good rains finally arrived today.