On Sun, 03 Jul 2005 09:48:22 -0400, Dustin Holmes
wrote:

I have a small water garden, maybe a foot and a half by a foot and a
half, with a few plants, a fish and a snail. The leaves on the the
plants are turning yellow and dying. I don't know why. My books suggest
nitrogen deficiency but they aren't specifically about water plants. If
I fertilize with a nitrogen fertilizer, will my fish and snail still be
ok? Anyone else experience this?

The smaller the pond the more difficult it is to keep one stable. I
have the same problem with water plants, but their purpose is to
remove fish waste products. If you don't have enough fish to
fertilize the plants you can use water soluble fertilizer, plant
stakes, like tomato stakes, the kind for small pots. I wouldn't use
the tree stakes the are sometimes made with ammonium sources.
Ammonia is not good so read the label of the fertilizer and get a
nitrogen source other than ammonium nitrate. I would use small
amounts of a good flowering soluble fertilizer like 1-2-1 (type, like
6-12-6) for floating flowering plants. If your plants don't flower a
1-1-1 type fertilizer is a general fertilizer and works well in water
plants too. You may experience an algae bloom from using too much
fertilizer, so I would start small and check every 3 days for
improvement in color.

Or you can go to a pond place and pay more for pond fertilizer.

Regards,

Hal