# Potassium or Calcium deficiency?



## Champagnero (Aug 7, 2006)

Hello,

I have some major problems with especially one of my plants. It's an ammania gracilis and it does not really want to grow in my tank. It shows stunned growth and other deficiency symptoms. For me it looks like potassium deficiency and on the other hand calcium.

In the last weeks I had some problems with my PO4 too. It was nearly not present in my water column till I finally dosed it up to 2 ppm. Since than my Hemianthus callitrichoides is growing fine and my Rotala rotundifolia too. But the A. gracilis and Heteranthera zosterifolia are my problematic plants. The eusteralis stellata on the other hand is growing since the po4 uptake.

First some facts about my tank:

160 litres / 42 gallons

2x39 Watt T5

Ph: 6,5
KH: 4
Dh: 6,8
NO3: 5 ppm
Fe: 0,1 ppm
PO4: 0,5 ppm
C02: ~30 ppm

My tap water has nearly no potassium (0,8-1,2 ppm), Calcium (34-30 ppm) and Magnesium (5-10 ppm).

I started to dose potassium with some fertilizers which add Potassium=3,8 ppm, Mg=0,06 ppm, Fe=0,047 ppm, Ca=0,008 ppm, NO3=6 ppm, PO4= 6 ppm and some other micronutrients daily.

Due to the pinholes I first thought about potassium deficiency and started to dosing it up, but on the other hand the plant is totally stunned and shows other deficiency symptoms too. The Heteranthera zosterifolia isn't growing either, it keeps small leaves and is growing towards the ground and has some black sprinkles too. Maybe some pictures will tell more than thousand words&#8230;

   

I have read alot of threads discussing potassium and calcium deficiency but at the end i was abit confused . I hope someone has a hint for me what this problem could be .

Best regards
Tobi


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## chiahead (Dec 18, 2004)

Personally when ever my stargrass looked like that it was from either low No3 or Po4. You said your no3 was 5ppm. I think it may be wise to raise that to 15-20ppm. I would also raise the Po4 to 3-5ppm. If you have a lot of fast growing stems your 5ppm of kno3 and .5 of Po4 could be taken within a day or so. Good luck!


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## Champagnero (Aug 7, 2006)

Hi Chiahead,


thanks for your reply. I will try to dose more NO3 and PO4 and hope that it will solve some of my problems. 

Best regards
Tobi


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Can't argue w/ chiahead. You should increase your fert dosing first (particularly phosphate to 1.5-2ppm and micro's), and add a little more nitrogen, try get it to about 10ppm before looking for possible deficiencies. 

It is difficult to determine what the actual nutrient levels are in your tanks are using titration kits because they are not very accurate. So your test might say you have 5ppm in your tank, but you actually could have much less. If higher micros/macros do not solve the problem, then we have a problem 

If you are keeping the nutrient levels low for color, 5-10ppm nitrate won't really affect the red coloration that much. Also, with ammania in particular, more phosphate/high micros will bring out the red far more than low nutrient levels across the board will.

By the way, those are some nice pics  what kind of camera/lens are you using?


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## Champagnero (Aug 7, 2006)

Hi Zapins,


thanks for your reply and yes i'm using titration tests . Here in germany many aquarists are maintaining their tanks with lower po4 and no3, therefor i was trying to keep the ferts low. But with adding more nutrients i will be on the safer side.

My camera is an old model, it's a nikon coolpix 995. Bought it some years ago but it's still good in doing macro shots  .

Best regards
Tobi


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