# Planted Tanks > Plant Talk >  elatine question.

## loupgarou

I'm having problems with app.

in some parts of my foreground, the elatine is a nice emerald green. in other parts its yellowish.

and of course the most annoying is those that are brownish cos they look algae infected..

I've already cleared up my entire foreground of the algae infected ones, but I still don't know what to do with the yellowish ones. (and if its nutrient difficiency its quite weird..since they are side by side with the nice colored ones)

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## bclee

Mine too looked yellowish. I made a check and found my tank to be lacking in K. I added K2SO4. The leaves turn more greenish in 1 to 2 days.

I dunno about yours. Maybe you can check what fert you add to the tank, it may be lacking in one of the elements.

BC

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## DEA

how do you check for K?

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## Alfa Low

What's your tank temparature? Elatine prefer lower temparature.

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## bclee

Can't really measure K easily.

I have been dosing only Flourish &amp;amp; Flourish Excel &amp;amp; some root tabs. After a while, my Hygrophila start to have holes in them. It looks like K defiency. (At that time, I thot that the color of the Elantines were like that.) I checked the contents of Flourish and discover that it contains insignificant K.

I added K separately and wala... all my plants including Elatine turns greener. :Smile: 

BTW, my Elatines has no problem at 30&#176;C. But have to watch out for the trace elements at higher temperature. They tend to get depleted or broken down faster. I am dosing Flourish at slightly higher than the recommended dose.

BC

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## DEA

that's what i thought
the turbidity test for K is damn sickening to see
i have a lot of flourish potassium of which i dump some into the tank from time to time
i also use bioplast's fert which has K, on an automatic fertiliser
can't overdose on K, really  :Smile:

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## BFG

DEA, u have an automatic fertiliser? How does it looks like n wat brands are available?

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## DEA

i got the eheim one
looks exactly like the autofeeder except for the dispensor
works on a gravity feed system
the thing rotates and dumps a certain level of fert (independent of fert level in the container)
any liquid fert will do
got mine at petmart for ard 85 iirc

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## BFG

Thanks DEA.

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## hwchoy

my glosso was growing thick and solid when it suddenly slowed and developed holes, not much new growth etc. Something similar happening to the frogbits (leaves melting leaving a circular rim). However the E. osiris, red tiger lotus, gratiola and blyxa all growing like no tomorrow.

Is this K deficiency? I do daily dose of JBL Ferropro only and JBL base fert.

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## bclee

> ----------------
> On 5/30/2002 1:29:25 AM 
> 
> my glosso was growing thick and solid when it suddenly slowed and developed holes, not much new growth etc. Something similar happening to the frogbits (leaves melting leaving a circular rim). However the E. osiris, red tiger lotus, gratiola and blyxa all growing like no tomorrow.
> 
> Is this K deficiency? I do daily dose of JBL Ferropro only and JBL base fert.
> ----------------


According the Ferropol's information, it contains K. But how much of it is not known.

Anyway, slightly higher K do no harm, you can add some K2SO4 to see if situation improve.

Do check for Mg deficiency too? Test you GH if possible.

BC

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## hwchoy

> ----------------
> On 5/30/2002 12:21:25 PM 
> 
> According the Ferropol's information, it contains K. But how much of it is not known.
> 
> Anyway, slightly higher K do no harm, you can add some K2SO4 to see if situation improve.
> 
> Do check for Mg deficiency too? Test you GH if possible.
> 
> ...


thanx BC, how to test for GH? I have KH and pH testkit only. So where can I get K2SO4?

Incidentally my BBA also went away COMPLETELY! And very little green spot. I assume this is due to some deficiency as I doubt the algae army can do such a thorough job. So I am afraid to play with fertilisation. Recently I also started 2 caps of Gold 7 (23 gal).

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## bclee

I have some K2SO4 and MgSO4 which I can pass to you. Just let me know how you would like to get it from me. I live in Bedok and working in Woodlands.

BC

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## hwchoy

> ----------------
> On 5/31/2002 12:21:58 PM 
> 
> I have some K2SO4 and MgSO4 which I can pass to you. Just let me know how you would like to get it from me. I live in Bedok and working in Woodlands.
> 
> BC
> ----------------


Hi BC, thanx. I live in Tampines, can arrange to drop by and pick up in the evening? My mobile is 98571222.

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