EI doesn't address Na and Cl requirements

Both of these nutrients are required for plant growth but aren't addressed. Sodium is required for proper ionic balance and certain physiological processes. Chlorine is also required for many physiological processes including the uptake of potassium. So why aren't they addressed? What are the consequences of low sodium and chloride levels?

 

Yes, I know it's easy to add table salt but that's not my question. My tap water can have less than 3ppm of chloride which may be used up rather quickly. It's also sometimes low in sodium, less than 3ppm. What are the minimum levels that tanks should have to prevent deficiencies? What does Na and Cl deficiencies look like in aquatic plants? If we don't know what it looks like, we don't know when to add table salt.

 

I ask about these two nutrients because I've been having perpetual problems with Hygrophila pinnatifida and the appearance of potassium deficiency (pinholes, necrosis) that no amount of potassium dosing (even as much as 150+ppm/week) has prevented. Hygrophila "Compacta" also suffers from this issue. So it's unlikely that it's a potassium deficiency and I've ruled out every other nutrient and CO2 as the cause. The only thing I haven't ruled out are sodium and chloride which is why I ask about it. I'm currently adding NaCl to see if there are any improvements in growth to see if this ameliorates the problems.

 

I've ruled out CO2 as the factor. After more than a year of experimenting with and eliminating every variable I knew of, I was at a complete loss to the point where I thought of getting rid of the Hygros completely. Then it occurred to me that sodium and chloride were ones that I've never even considered because I thought plants didn't need them and were detrimental to growth. It doesn't grow vigorously in my tanks as it did when I first got the plant.

 

It's the same water and I've never had much fish in the tank. I didn't think Na and Cl were even required for plant metabolism and actually thought they were detrimental. Crop studies indicate otherwise and experiments using KCl vs. K2SO4 showed that KCl had much higher crop yields, indicating that it was chloride that provided the improvement in growth. In one study, it found that of the four fertilizers tested, it was NaCl that resulted in the highest crop yield, followed next by KCl.


I did notice a correlation between adding excessive amounts of micronutrients in the form of CSM+B and it appeared to exacerbate the pinholes with massive necrosis. By excessive, to the point where it killed all of the shrimp (nerve damage: shaking, unsteady movements) and snails (lethargy), probably due to the high amounts of copper, and caused swollen gills in some fish. So I backed off the CSM+B and it seemed to improve growth. But the issues still persist. So CSM+B is probably not the primary cause but there may be a correlation between high levels of CSM+B and pinholes/necrosis in H. pinnatifida.


I've also tried reducing all nutrients except for K. It didn't help and only caused the plants to stunt and GSA to quickly appear. Experiment quickly abandoned.


There are many other experiments to test various fertz and CO2 over the past year and none helped. So by a process of elimination, I was left with only two nutrients that I didn't test.


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Chlorine is necessary for the uptake of potassium because it activates several enzymes and is necessary for the transport of cations such as Ca, Mg, and K.


Source: http://fritind.com/pdf/CHLORIDE,%20MOLYBDENUM,%20COBALT,%20VANADIUM_nutri.PDF


So if chloride is low, then it can't transport these cations as effectively which may be the reason for the appearance of K deficiency (even though it's surrounded by more than 150ppm of potassium ions). How do you pick up a billion jelly beans if you don't have hands? So I'm really hoping that chloride is the issue. Also, by using NaCl as opposed to KCl, I'm able to eliminate potassium as the cause of the pinholes, if indeed it's a chloride deficiency mediating a potassium deficiency. If I used KCl, then I wouldn't be able to deduce which ion is the problem.

 

Pikez, were the pinholes there from before adding CaCl2 or did they occur afterward?

 

Pikez, So how much ppm of chloride is added with CaCl? Did you also add enough potassium?

 

17ppm isn't very much. If Hygrophila's tend to be chloride hogs, then that could explain the appearance of K deficiency, because it's running out of chloride.


My tap ranges from <3-15ppm of Cl, averaging 9ppm. Sometimes, H. pinna grows great for no reason. Then they peter out. It doesn't seem to correlate with anything I've done which makes it even more confounding.


Since adding NaCl, Rotala wallichii, which has been struggling severely for months (new leaves grow but then die back to the stem and turn black), is growing new leaves. Maybe chloride (or sodium) is the cause...

 

Na=349ppm


Cl=533ppm


Not safe. You'll kill all your plants.