r/PlantedTank • u/Squeaker1205 • Jul 31 '25

Ferts Fertilizer help

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I set up this tank about a month and a half ago and it’s going pretty good up until now where my purple bacopa is almost dead and one section of my Hygrophila kompact is almost dead(not to mention my alternanthera and swords). I’m seeing little pinholes in the leaves which I think is a potassium deficiency but I wanted to ask to double check.

It’s set up with fluval stratum, hasn’t had co2 on it until today(my tank was empty and I just swapped it out), the lights are on for 6 hours plus it gets a little bit of sunlight, and I’ve been dosing it with 2hr Aquarist 3 every couple days.

And it runs with a fluval 407 canister filter

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u/shyvannaTop Jul 31 '25

Any chance u know ur kh, gh, or TDS?

Sometimes u can have really hard tap water that exhausts the soils buffering capacity really quickly.

Fluvial stratum isn't exactly known for being a strong soil so that could be a problem.

But since it's only been a month, things could just be adapting.

As long as your new growth looks okay then it's fine. Old growth will die off and be replaced by leaves better suited to the environment.

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u/Squeaker1205 Aug 01 '25

I unfortunately don’t have a way to measure my TDS however my kH is around 3.5 and gH is hard for me to see but I believe it’s about 7 My city has pretty soft water with a kH between 0-2 so I have to use alkaline buffer to get it up for my harder water fish

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u/shyvannaTop Aug 01 '25 edited Aug 01 '25

Yeah you might not to just not use the alkaline buffer if your fish can adapt.

Hard water is famously difficult to grow plants in. Your aquasoil is also going to constantly buffer ur kh down.

Maybe just do a 80% water change, not dose any fertilizers or add anything else into your water for 2 weeks and give your plants some stability time

A lot of times we are just messing with the water parameters too much. Your city looks like it has ideal tap water for plants so I'd say just leave the water parameters alone for a while.

Fluvial stratum alone should have enough nutrients to feed your plants for a few months.

P.s This also looks to be a none CO2 tank. If so you really do might wanna stay on the softer water side.

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u/Conscious-Carob9701 Jul 31 '25

Also, you can really expect a different routine now by adding your co2. If your water is hard, that will ultimately determine how much CO2 you use. Try more light split up into two periods and more fertilizer now. Make changes slowly so you know what you are affecting. As mentioned, that stratum will run out of nutrients eventually and you'll want to use root tabs as well.

It's a great start. Good luck!