Re: Possible Potassium Deficiency

[Beverly Wladyka <greybird at v-wave_com>]

> From: "James Purchase" <jpurch at interlog_com>
>
> Jennifer Glover has noticed a problem with her sword plants, which she
> thinks might be caused by a lack of Potassium.
>
> And in this particular case, and with this particular nutrient, this is a
> relatively simple task - go to your nearest drug store and pick up a bottle
> of Potassium supplement pills (they are sold in the Vitamin section - look
> for a house brand which contains nothing else other than Potassium. Typical
> sizes are 50 mg tablets.) the pills contain Potassium gluconate and will
> dissolve easily in water.

We have an on-going algae problem in our planted 180 gallon Amazon aquarium.  Experimenting
over the past several days, I've been trying to find the optimal daily macro- and
micro-nutrient dosage and have been using the recipe from
http://WWW.CAM.ORG/~tomlins/algae.html as my guide.  However, this recipe calls for potassium
sulfate and above potassium gluconate is suggested as the potassium source.

I am trying to understand the complexities of the chemistry involved in the macro-nutrient
treatment of our plants (currently Echinodorus spp and some Ceratophyllum demersum) and am
confused.  According to our city's water treatment website at
http://www.aqualta.com/pages/about9a.html, our tapwater has a sulphate range of 58.5 - 97.0.
Is the sulfate in the potassium sulfate compound and the sulphate listed at the city water
treatment website the same?  If so, it would then make sense for us not to use more sulfate (in
the form of potassium sulfate) in our 180 but to use potassium gluconate instead, correct?

By the way, what is the chemical symbol for potassium gluconate?

Are there sources of potassium other than sulfate and gluconate for aquatic use?  I ask because
going the drugstore route to use potassium gluconate tablets for a 180 is going to cost big
bucks over the long term.

> 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).

Thanks in advance.

Beverly Wladyka         Edmonton AB Canada
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