# is this true about K2SO4



## 2in10 (Feb 8, 2011)

I don't think I would stop. Maybe cut back the dosing. Redo the experiment when growth slows and check your NO3, KH, GH and PO4 before and after the experiment. Your water may have been too hard for uptake until Ca and Mg came down.


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## happi (Dec 18, 2009)

2in10 said:


> I don't think I would stop. Maybe cut back the dosing. Redo the experiment when growth slows and check your NO3, KH, GH and PO4 before and after the experiment. Your water may have been too hard for uptake until Ca and Mg came down.


in my tank as the days passes by the Gh does not go down, it actually goes up hence making the water more harder. i use RO water, so GH/KH isn't the problem.


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## HD Blazingwolf (May 12, 2011)

I dont think hard water limits groowth. However if u dosed more than normal that could explain ur situation. I use ei and one plant refuses to grow unless i add 2 ml of seachem iron and it explodes. About 1 inch every 2 -3 days.. maybe u removed the limiting factor by accident?


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## 150EH (Dec 6, 2004)

It seems in general, most plants & fish prefer neutral to softwater, so why even with RO/DI do people add gH/kH boosting elements. My kH is 100 ppm and gH 50 ppm which is fairly soft and adding Mg,CA,etc. doses nothing or so it seems in my tank anyway, but I would rather mix in a couple of gallons straight tap water with my RO/DI water to get a balance of micro nutrients.

It seems your amounts vary slightly from what I use

EI dosing for a 50 gallon tank:
2-3x a week:
1/2 teaspoon KNO3
1/8th teaspoon of the KH2PO4

Add K2SO4 after water change, say 1 teaspoon

CMS+B, I'd add 1 TABLE spoon into 500mls of water, 1 teaspoon of MgSO4(Epsom salt), dose 15mls 3x a week


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## darkoon (Nov 11, 2010)

would be interested to see if it is repeatable. keep the current dosing for 2 week to see if the trend continues, then switch back to EI to see if the growth slows down.
don't think it is necessary to add additional K2SO4 when you are already dosing full EI dose of KNO3, as there should be plenty of K in KNO3. another interesting thing to experiment if you think K is the determine factor is to continue with EI dosing but cut out K2SO4 completely.

what is your lighting condition for your 50G? i have 23w clamp light 3-4 inch above my 10g, i am not exactly dosing EI but it is probably pretty close, whenever I dose less, i get bad growth/deficiency symptoms and algae too.


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## happi (Dec 18, 2009)

i have 2x54 T5HO 26" away from the substrate, using 2 Rena xp2 filters, koralia 1 for circulation and using ada aqua soil. 

there were a thread where people have said that extra potassium in their water slowed the plant growth, same applied for the phosphate. am not sure how correct this information is.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

happi said:


> i have 2x54 T5HO 26" away from the substrate, using 2 Rena xp2 filters, koralia 1 for circulation and using ada aqua soil.
> 
> there were a thread where people have said that extra potassium in their water slowed the plant growth, same applied for the phosphate. am not sure how correct this information is.


I've never seen any evidence of K+ harming growth in anyway, there's no evidence for it horticulturally, till you get to salt stress ranges, which are hundred's of ppm. Many ran K+ in the 40-100+ ppm K+ ranges for about 3-5 years in the USA, no one reported issues then curiously..........

I recall Erik Leung won the AGA contest with his stem plant tank using 100+ K+ ppm without any issues.

I tested about dozen claims of "excess" K+ using all sorts of supposed sensitive plants and could confirm nothing in each and every case.
Correlation does not imply cause. It could be many things.

That said..........I see not reason to dose more K2SO4..........unless you simply are not adding much KNO3. You should not run into a limiting K+ scenario using KNO3. I add GH booster once a week, it's for my low GH tap.......but if you have RO etc, then you may as well blend RO+ Tap, maybe try 1/2 and 1/2, or 1/3 to 2/3rds etc.......add some MgSO4(this can be added at the water change, or mixed in with the Trace mix like PMDD suggested years ago).

I did this for my plants and dosed a fair amount of everything here when I lived in Davis CA which has very very hard tap water, I did a 50:50 split with RO and tap:










I got about 6-7 " per week. PAR was about 120 at the tops of the plants, so that did not help. At 50-70, I only get about 3". This is at the tips of the plants.

Sometimes just leaving things alone can help more than day to day fiddling. I do not day to day fiddle. 2-3x a week is more what I prefer. But this is more my own habit. I'm not impatient. 

If you dose good and then leave, there's a fair amount of nutrients.........so things will grow for awhile quite well.........then later...after they ARE GONE, the reserves are exhausted......then you start to have reduced growth..but there's a few days time delay, maybe a few weeks. ADA AS will have a fair amount of ferts also, but reduced N as it ages.........

Also, the last time you trim stem plants also makes a large difference in such cases where you have nutrients in the water, but also the sediment. *Much longer time to develop good root systems......*

And if there is less in the water...the plants will go after things in the sediments. This will give you some ideas to think about.


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## Higher Thinking (Mar 16, 2011)

plantbrain said:


> I've never seen any evidence of K+ harming growth in anyway, there's no evidence for it horticulturally, till you get to salt stress ranges, which are hundred's of ppm. Many ran K+ in the 40-100+ ppm K+ ranges for about 3-5 years in the USA, no one reported issues then curiously..........
> 
> I recall Erik Leung won the AGA contest with his stem plant tank using 100+ K+ ppm without any issues.
> 
> ...


Hey what's the bright red plant?


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## happi (Dec 18, 2009)

plantbrain said:


> I've never seen any evidence of K+ harming growth in anyway, there's no evidence for it horticulturally, till you get to salt stress ranges, which are hundred's of ppm. Many ran K+ in the 40-100+ ppm K+ ranges for about 3-5 years in the USA, no one reported issues then curiously..........
> 
> I recall Erik Leung won the AGA contest with his stem plant tank using 100+ K+ ppm without any issues.
> 
> ...


tom i agree with your statement, which i followed very well till now. recently am running into more problems as i explained earlier. yesterday i lost 2 of my discus due to co2 overdose, because that was the last thing i could think of which i thought might be the limiting factor in my tank, but drop checker was solid green to lime green all day. i also thought that Ca and Mg might be the problem but again i was dosing enough to support my plants, i was dosing 2tsp of Ca sulfate and 3tsp of Mg during water changes, which gives me 9ppm of Ca and 6ppm of Mg. for right now i lifted up the light by another 2" and reduced the co2 levels to save my discus. 

Tom i have asked this before but never heard from you, i have asked in one of the post about your dosing schedule, soil, filtration, lights etc. i really want to know exactly what you are doing, i want to try the exact same thing and see what i could achieve in my tank. looking forward for your reply on this. thanks


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## KH2PO4 (Jul 18, 2009)

Yeah, follow down to the opening size of his bubble counter.:wink:

There should have been an ISO standard for it. :red_mouth


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## DeChaoOrdo (Aug 17, 2011)

I'm not sure if this is true of aquatic plants, but in terrestrial plants nearly all of them have means to store some nutrients when conditions aren't right for them to use them, or if they're taking in more than is needed. When the conditions change they'll switch to their stores which can be easier for them to access so they'll show increased growth for a short period of time, and usually use their reserves to propagate. Stress fertilization is a common technique for gardeners who want heavy fruit harvests or to trigger flowering among orchid growers but the plants usually start to look terrible after some time. This could explain what you saw and the only way to verify that's not the case would be to continue the dosing change. 

K+ ability to interfere with other nutrients would either require a massive excess of K+ or an already present deficiency in the other nutrients. Case 2 is far more likely.

Maintaining a consistent excess of all nutrients may not create as rapid growth/propagation as stress fertilizing but is easier to control and maintain healthy plants. Might be worth exploring if you want to spread the DHG fast and don't mind if the plants end up not looking healthy for a while. Just pick a stressor that has a fast recovery time, and K+ might not be the best option since it helps in transport of other nutrients within the plant. Though as Tom said K2SO4 isn't necessary to dose if you're using decent amounts of KNO3. I also wouldn't try limiting PO4 due to its role in root structures.


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## HD Blazingwolf (May 12, 2011)

HAHA higher thinking!!!!!!!!!!! tom has a magical aquatic green thumb. i think he poops in his tank and it turns into beautiful plants


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## happi (Dec 18, 2009)

HD Blazingwolf said:


> HAHA higher thinking!!!!!!!!!!! tom has a magical aquatic green thumb. i think he poops in his tank and it turns into beautiful plants


lol, maybe that's why he doesn't want to tell us about his secret ingredient.


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## darkoon (Nov 11, 2010)

HD Blazingwolf said:


> HAHA higher thinking!!!!!!!!!!! tom has a magical aquatic green thumb. i think he poops in his tank and it turns into beautiful plants


poop analyzers wanted, lol. 
here is mine, don't have a good camera.









setup is quite simple, a 23w CFL clamp light 5inch above the 10g tank, don't know the PAR readings. Azoo plant bed substrate, pressurized CO2 at slightly > 1bps. I probably dose 2x of EI (KNO3 and CSM+B on alternate days, no K2SO4) recommended amount with EI dosing schedule. no noticeable algae. I can grow pretty much any plant in this tank.

i have another 72g, 110w T5HO, eco-complete substrate, 5-6 bps of CO2, EI dosing, i can't grow as good plants as the 10G one, and I get GSA and some black aglea (not BBA), Sara looked at the samples I sent her, and found that most of the algae are actually cyanobacteria. I am going to try EM once I receive them. 

the main differences between the two tanks i think are the substrate and lighting, 10G probably much higher PAR than the 72G.


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## HD Blazingwolf (May 12, 2011)

i would say the 10 has lower PAR. tom is a big advocate that higher lighting is not necessary to grow lush plants, and produce brilliant colors including reds... im sure there is a limit to how low you can go. 

i've handled all my algae in my 29 by turning off one of my fixtures.. i had plenty of c02 to handle the light but i think a lot of it may do with what kind of light. how high it is. not just how high the PAR is.. algae is gone. but so is the pink of my rotala.. im curious as to what would happen if i bought a single fixture with more output and raised it off the tank what would happen????


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## happi (Dec 18, 2009)

darkoon said:


> poop analyzers wanted, lol.
> here is mine, don't have a good camera.
> 
> 
> ...


your plant looks good. IMO i was never able to grow much plant since i started using T5, PC fixture gave me very good results in the past. i had a 5g tank which only had a 27w PC bulb over it and flow wasn't that great on that tank but plant grew very well.


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## 150EH (Dec 6, 2004)

happi said:


> i have 2x54 T5HO 26" away from the substrate, using 2 Rena xp2 filters, koralia 1 for circulation and using ada aqua soil.
> 
> there were a thread where people have said that extra potassium in their water slowed the plant growth, same applied for the phosphate. am not sure how correct this information is.


I would think the lighting set up would be you limiting factor, my lights are 30 inches from my sub at 2.15 wpg and with my tank being only 1/4 to 1/3 filled with plants and C02 I dose EI at a half rate or less with good results, but the tank is somewhat slow growing with Green Cobomba being trimmed monthly at best.

I did have this tank set up at 4.29 wpg years ago and with double the current light I was throwing out my plant trimmings at a 1/2 to 3/4 of a 13 gallon kitchen trash can every other week. I was dosing EI at full amounts for my tanks size and running about the same on C02.

But I think you could throw in all the K you want and it wouldn't limit growth until you got to a really big extreme, but it may cause other problems, algae, etc.


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## 150EH (Dec 6, 2004)

HD Blazingwolf said:


> i would say the 10 has lower PAR. tom is a big advocate that higher lighting is not necessary to grow lush plants, and produce brilliant colors including reds... im sure there is a limit to how low you can go.
> 
> i've handled all my algae in my 29 by turning off one of my fixtures.. i had plenty of c02 to handle the light but i think a lot of it may do with what kind of light. how high it is. not just how high the PAR is.. algae is gone. but so is the pink of my rotala.. im curious as to what would happen if i bought a single fixture with more output and raised it off the tank what would happen????


I think you can go either way, but a lower light tank will be easier most of the time. But you can go 4-5 wpg and like anything else that gets an extreme result (growth) you are going to have algae problems until the whole system gets moving and eating up the ferts then it should settle down and grow like crazy.

Happi seems to have a nice set up with a good substrate, so I'm really surprised that so much fertilizer is getting used. I'd like to see a pic of the tank.


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## 150EH (Dec 6, 2004)

happi said:


> lol, maybe that's why he doesn't want to tell us about his secret ingredient.


Well I think one of secret ingredients is what he's studied his whole life and how much he has put into the hobby building systems, etc. 

I think the day to day fiddling is a very good point with most of these systems you have to set back and watch, make small singular adjustments so you can realize the result, if you make 15 adjustments every other day there is really no way to tell what the heck is going on.


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## happi (Dec 18, 2009)

*Darkoon, what else do you dose beside those nutrients, are you using RO water? are you dosing any Mg and Ca, tell me more about your setup please. 
*


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## happi (Dec 18, 2009)

150EH said:


> I think you can go either way, but a lower light tank will be easier most of the time. But you can go 4-5 wpg and like anything else that gets an extreme result (growth) you are going to have algae problems until the whole system gets moving and eating up the ferts then it should settle down and grow like crazy.
> 
> Happi seems to have a nice set up with a good substrate, so I'm really surprised that so much fertilizer is getting used. I'd like to see a pic of the tank.


believe me you don't wana see my tank, it isn't that great at all. i was going to increase my KNO3 doses but i have discus in my tank, am pretty sure it will impact them really bad. i am thinking about doubling the N, from 1/2tsp to 1tsp.


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

happi said:


> lol, maybe that's why he doesn't want to tell us about his secret ingredient.


I have seen Tom's tanks enough times that I can assure you that there are no secret ingredients in it, unless it is "green thumb essence". He makes sure his tanks are very well oxygenated, by using wet/dry filters on them and using lots of water surface turbulence. That is the nearest thing to a real "secret ingredient" that I have noticed. Another ingredient is that he does weekly maintenance on his tanks, without fail, and takes care of any beginning problems as soon as he sees them, which leads to another "secret ingredient" - he has a very good eye for seeing what is happening with his plants and fish.

Another ingredient is that he prunes his plants to avoid ever having a jungle of plant mass. The dense plantings in his tanks tend to always be "ground cover" plants, which don't interfere with water circulation in the tank. Other than that you don't see a jungle like many of us end up with.

The best part about seeing his tanks is that it is absolute proof that it can be done, no matter how many problems you run into, if he can do it so can we, by just working at it.


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## 150EH (Dec 6, 2004)

That's all true Hoppy's and a big part of this hobby that I thought was of little meaning in the begining but flow and oxygen are the key, but the OP stated the tank performed better with you out of town and now you want to dump in more KN03.

Sit back and do less and see what happens, it's worked once for you, so cut you dosing in half, let your Discus enjoy the cleaner water.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

Hoppy said:


> I have seen Tom's tanks enough times that I can assure you that there are no secret ingredients in it, unless it is "green thumb essence". He makes sure his tanks are very well oxygenated, by using wet/dry filters on them and using lots of water surface turbulence. That is the nearest thing to a real "secret ingredient" that I have noticed. Another ingredient is that he does weekly maintenance on his tanks, without fail, and takes care of any beginning problems as soon as he sees them, which leads to another "secret ingredient" - he has a very good eye for seeing what is happening with his plants and fish.
> 
> Another ingredient is that he prunes his plants to avoid ever having a jungle of plant mass. The dense plantings in his tanks tend to always be "ground cover" plants, which don't interfere with water circulation in the tank. Other than that you don't see a jungle like many of us end up with.
> 
> The best part about seeing his tanks is that it is absolute proof that it can be done, no matter how many problems you run into, if he can do it so can we, by just working at it.


I really believe strongly in basic common sense stuff.
Yea, I'm getting a PhD in aquatic plant Physiology and Management, but heck........that's very different than the hobby.* Many with plenty of education and knowledge are lousy aquascapers or aquarist.
*

Amano has no secret either. Folks share and help hobbyists to try to keep them focused on their goals.


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## happi (Dec 18, 2009)

150EH said:


> That's all true Hoppy's and a big part of this hobby that I thought was of little meaning in the begining but flow and oxygen are the key, but the OP stated the tank performed better with you out of town and now you want to dump in more KN03.
> 
> Sit back and do less and see what happens, it's worked once for you, so cut you dosing in half, let your Discus enjoy the cleaner water.


i thought keeping the tank oxygenated will gas out the co2 in planted tank?


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## darkoon (Nov 11, 2010)

happi said:


> *Darkoon, what else do you dose beside those nutrients, are you using RO water? are you dosing any Mg and Ca, tell me more about your setup please.
> *


no, i am not using RO water. NYC water is very soft, both KH and GH are <1, i do add little bit of baking soda and GH booster to increase both KH and GH by 1 degree. as I said, i am pretty much doing the same thing to the 72G, but just can't grow as good plants as I do in the 10G. don't know if that has anything to do with cyanobacteria in the 72G.


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## HD Blazingwolf (May 12, 2011)

i wasn't meaning to imply that there was a secret ingredient. it was more of a joke. some people get it faster than others. its taken me months to get where i am. for example and im not close to perfect yet just striving


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## happi (Dec 18, 2009)

darkoon said:


> no, i am not using RO water. NYC water is very soft, both KH and GH are <1, i do add little bit of baking soda and GH booster to increase both KH and GH by 1 degree. as I said, i am pretty much doing the same thing to the 72G, but just can't grow as good plants as I do in the 10G. don't know if that has anything to do with cyanobacteria in the 72G.


is it really important for the plants to have cyanobacteria? i mean i have 2x rena xp2 filters on my 50g tank, am sure there is enough good bacteria. 

could anyone explain better how filter bacteria help the plants. i had a small tank which did no use any filter and plant still grew under the PC light with some co2, no dosing of any ferts.


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## 2in10 (Feb 8, 2011)

happi said:


> is it really important for the plants to have cyanobacteria? i mean i have 2x rena xp2 filters on my 50g tank, am sure there is enough good bacteria.
> 
> could anyone explain better how filter bacteria help the plants. i had a small tank which did no use any filter and plant still grew under the PC light with some co2, no dosing of any ferts.


Cyanobacteria will not help with growth of the plants. It hinders since it competes for the same nutrients as the plants.


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

happi said:


> i thought keeping the tank oxygenated will gas out the co2 in planted tank?


No, it doesn't reduce the CO2 in the water, although the process of getting O2 dissolved can lead to loss of CO2 from the water surface, so you just raise the bubble rate to compensate for that. One big benefit is that it enables the fish to live with more CO2 in the water, so you can use more and benefit the plants more.


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## 150EH (Dec 6, 2004)

Hoppy said:


> No, it doesn't reduce the CO2 in the water, although the process of getting O2 dissolved can lead to loss of CO2 from the water surface, so you just raise the bubble rate to compensate for that. One big benefit is that it enables the fish to live with more CO2 in the water, so you can use more and benefit the plants more.


Here, here!!!


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## happi (Dec 18, 2009)

Hoppy said:


> No, it doesn't reduce the CO2 in the water, although the process of getting O2 dissolved can lead to loss of CO2 from the water surface, so you just raise the bubble rate to compensate for that. One big benefit is that it enables the fish to live with more CO2 in the water, so you can use more and benefit the plants more.



make perfect sense Hoppy, thanks


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## JoraaÑ (Jun 29, 2009)

darkoon said:


> no, i am not using RO water. NYC water is very soft, both KH and GH are <1, i do add little bit of baking soda and GH booster to increase both KH and GH by 1 degree.


We both have same water source. How come you need to add BS to increase KH and GH. I don't....everything grows like a weed. 
Going thru all the post.. I remember reading a post by Tex Gal where she wrote "Plant has their own mind to grow as they want to grow and want to get in shape" or something like that. 

100% agreed with "Hoppy". If you can do I can do too. Little patience ..Also as always "Tom" suggests Pump more co2..their a logic behind this, I don't know why pple are afraid to pump more gas than less...(Maybe price tag, for me it cost less that $1 a pound) Slowly but surely is the k3y. As we human need o2 to breath plants need co2 to survive tho' we need 24/7 where as weed can preserve and use later.

I don't agree that having extra K in water is bad, as a matter of fact if coloration of any sp. fades in my tank I dose extra K and/or Mg or both.


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## darkoon (Nov 11, 2010)

Joraan said:


> We both have same water source. How come you need to add BS to increase KH and GH. I don't....everything grows like a weed.
> QUOTE]
> 
> I want to increase the co2 buffering capability, so that PH will not fluctuate too much with CO2 on and off. a friend of mine can also grow good plants without adding any BS and GH booster.


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## barbarossa4122 (Jan 16, 2010)

darkoon said:


> I want to increase the co2 buffering capability, so that PH will not fluctuate too much with CO2 on and off. a friend of mine can also grow good plants without adding any BS and GH booster.


I also add BS with my weekly WCs for the same reason.


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## happi (Dec 18, 2009)

after i cut down the K2SO4 to once a week, i can see that plants started to look better and seems to be growing bit faster now. i also have my koralia ripple the water surface very well along with the filter. water being rippled is kind of annoying, but it seems to help the plants and the fish, so why not leave it that way.

the only problem i see is that the plant stem looks twisted, maybe Ca deficiency?


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## happi (Dec 18, 2009)

some pics:

























*panantal, i had to hold it down to take a pic, not sure how to trim this plant correctly.*


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

darkoon said:


> Joraan said:
> 
> 
> > We both have same water source. How come you need to add BS to increase KH and GH. I don't....everything grows like a weed.
> ...


GH seems to color up the plants quite nicely if you use soft water, eg, OR, WA, NYC, SF, Sac etc....we all have low GH, KH really does not matter........as long as there is SOME KH................

Different sediments, different light intensity etc, other limiting factors on growth .....well of course some will not add some things to the water column and be okay

But......are adding them benefiticial versus not for many?
Different question that which was asked, not whether Bob and Sarah can get away without adding some............

Without addressing the other possible issues that slow or limit growth, comparing is rather...........difficult. The other thing is to simply add some to those tanks and note any improvement.


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

darkoon said:


> Joraan said:
> 
> 
> > We both have same water source. How come you need to add BS to increase KH and GH. I don't....everything grows like a weed.
> ...


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## darkoon (Nov 11, 2010)

Hoppy said:


> darkoon said:
> 
> 
> > Once you have about 1 dKH water, the pH fluctuation with changes in CO2 content is the same for any KH. With higher KH the pH is higher, but the change per 10 ppm of CO2 is the same as at lower KH.
> ...


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

darkoon said:


> Hoppy said:
> 
> 
> > thanks Hoppy.
> ...


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## darkoon (Nov 11, 2010)

i have experienced myself and also seen others reporting that some of the easy growing rotala species grew small leaves under what was considered to be sufficient light, and the cause turned out to light deficiency, as well as under low light, when plants grow dense, the older leaves at the bottom will also likely suffer from light deficiency, will these situations cause algae?
sorry for taking the discussion off topic, now back to K. I just had an interesting observation regarding K, i had skipping dosing KNO3 after measuring consistent 20+ppm of NO3 in the water of my 72g even without dosing KNO3, the tip of Limnophila repens 'Mini' came out normal but lost the vivid purple/red color, looked dull. I first thought it was the iron, so dosed extra iron, no improvement, never really made any connection to K. last weekend after water change, I realized i needed to dose some K2SO4 since I skipped dosing KNO3, by the end of the day, the tips of L repens "mini" became normal again. I will try to see if I can replicate this.


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## JimG (Aug 26, 2011)

So K2SO4 is off the EI dosing regime now? When did that happen and why? Does it matter if I am also not dosing PO4 as well (plenty of phosphates is not my problem)? So basically I am down to KNO3 and Trace on alternate days.


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## darkoon (Nov 11, 2010)

K2SO4 has always been stated as optional since there should be plenty of K in KNO3 if you follow EI.


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## happi (Dec 18, 2009)

ok here is a new update:

after adding K2SO4 3x times a week along with the KNO3, the plant started to slow down its growth and some of them did not even show any improvement and simply stop growing. i was also dosing the same amount of Mg 3x week (1 tsp) along with CSM+b, still no improvement. 

starting tomorrow am going to do 80% water change and add 80% ro/di and 20% tap water and i will just dose the 1/2 tsp kNO3 and 1/8 KH2P04 3x week along with my other ferts, no K2so4 at all this week and see what happen to the plants. 
am running very high co2, much as fish could handle. 

i tested the Nitrate couple of days ago and i find it to be in red color, looks like it was over 40ppm, and that test was done on the 3rd day and 1st day was the water change day and i added 1/2 tsp of kno3 during that time. wonder how come it was reading so high, which brings another question to my mind, am not sure if high Nitrate could reduce the plant growth and stop the other nutrients from being uptake? 

last thing i could blame is the t5ho light for many problems, am thinking about going back to PC lights if things don't improve.


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## tetra73 (Aug 2, 2011)

happi said:


> ok here is a new update:
> 
> after adding K2SO4 3x times a week along with the KNO3, the plant started to slow down its growth and some of them did not even show any improvement and simply stop growing. i was also dosing the same amount of Mg 3x week (1 tsp) along with CSM+b, still no improvement.
> 
> ...



Did you notice additional, sudden growths with reducing your potassium dosing? I am in the situation as to if I should or should not additionally dose potassium. Using EI dosing at the moment.


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## happi (Dec 18, 2009)

here is the new update:

i take back whatever i said about the K. after adding the new PC lights and cutting down the K, the thread algae took over all the plants within the 2 days. am not sure if this is due to new lights also. co2 was same as it was before. 

am going to dose my regular doses, 1/2 tsp of kno3 and k2so4 3x week and 1/4 tsp P 3x week. 

lesson is that dosing K is more important than i thought, plants did not look as they were before and algae took over.


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