My plants need iron and potassium

[lizard]

Hello!

In the last couple weeks, my Hygro haven't been growing as quickly, the new leaves are a yellowish/white color, and the older leaves have brown spots and/or pinholes (there's brown algae too, but that's not the only brown stuff on 'em). I read an article at "Chucks Planted Aquarium Pages" and it suggested my plants needed iron and potassium. Would adding root tabs be a good plan, or should I add only iron and potassium? My Amazon Sword is getting brown edges on its leaves, too. Can anyone recommend a good product (or products) that would help my plants out? Thanks so much!

Oh, and I seem to recall reading somewhere that CO2 isn't really needed if you have fewer than 2 WPG. Is that correct?

Thank you very much

Pamela
aka Married Lizard

 

[jordan barnhart]

Amazon swords are root feeders. Roottabs are perfect for them. Potassium and iron are what I and many others use.

I dont really have a good way to put this but if your plants arent getting enough light as it is for photosynthesis, co2 wont help much at all.

 

[George Farmer]

I used to use Waterlife's Tropiflora with good results. I'd recommend co2 in any planted tank no matter what light. You can do it cheaply using the DIY yeast method. I only have 1.8 WPG and without it I believe I'd grow more algae than plants, virtually all my plants are pearling after a couple hours of light. Here's a recent photo.

 

[Yenko]

I use Co2 in a 10 gallon with 28W of lighting. The java moss pearled so much it actually lifted off and floats now from the number of bubbles on it.

 

[Ste_J]

I've started to get better results after adding liquid fertilizer and turning the spray bar to point upward thus breaking the waters surface, i know that surface movement is not fantastic for Co2 but hey my plants are happy and my fish are loads more active than they were when the surface was still.
My lighting is on for 12hrs which is broken into 2 sections during the day, i also stagger my lights when they come on and (order is arcadia original tropical 18w starts the morning with a pinkish glow which is followed 1/2hr later by my 20w lifeglo which really brightens the tank up and last is another arcadia to fill in the gaps) the results are quite nice to watch as the colors change although i would like to finish off with a moonlight.

Also since i have started to split the day in two my hair algae seem to have been stunted but there are still some thick blankets in palces especially on soem leaves(think i'll trim these)