- Nitrogen: old leaves appear to be yellowish. Slow growth.
- Phosphor: old leaves appear to be yellowish. Stunted growth. Leaves fall prematurely.
- Calcium: edge of the leaves turn yellow. Damage / death in the tops and leaves will be. Differentiate with damage due to attacks fauna.
- Magnesium: spots appeared in the old leaves or small holes with yellow color.
- Potassium: yellowish leaves. The edges of the leaves and shoots shrunken.
- Sulfur: similar to nitrogen deficiency.
- Iron: new leaf damage, especially in the yellow color, but green leaves for the bone system.
- Manganese: the meat leaves (the bone between the leaves) is yellow / off.
- Cuprum: leaf edges and shrunken / off.
- Zinc: the leaf yellowing starting from the shoots and leaves’ edges.
- Boron: a new leaf will die. Seedling leaves will die.
- Molybdenum: yellowish spots on leaves meat, browned edges. Prevent the growth of flowers.
Does conventional fertilizer suitable for aquascape?
In aquascape there will be many water biota such as fish, shrimp and other invertebrates are quite sensitive to changes in water chemistry parameters. When there is a sudden change that originates from fertilizers, among others, then this fauna will suffer from poisoning, which can effect in damage to a temporary or permanent, and even death.
Conventional fertilizers are created with good content for earthly plants, but such materials are not suitable to use in the aquascape because, they are:
– Poisoned water biota
– Besides it contains excessive concentrations in most time and cause to uncontrolled growth of algae
– Content and high levels of contaminants that are in a free atmosphere such as urea, cuprum, salt, heavy metals are some substances that need to be aware
– Frequently cause the turbidity in water
So it required a complementary source of nutrients in the form of specifically formulated fertilizer for the aquascape plant so it will not impact to the growth itself, while the fauna contained still remain healthy for long term period and aquascape display remains clear and relatively free of distractions algae.
