Ammonium aquatic plant fertilizer?

Question

What type of ammonium do aquatic plants like?

My aquatic plant ( Marimo Ball ) has a reaction to sudden changes in the water from NH4.

They release their spores quicker.

Marimo Balls aren't really plants. They are a slow growing multiple celled algae plant.

I just don't know what type of NH4 to use like ammonium sulphate, ammonium chloride, ammonium nitrrate etc.

And where would I be able to get it and in what form.

Answer 1

In general, it a bad idea to introduce any ammonia products into your aquarium if you have fish.  Even aquatic plant fertilizers don't contain it.  Why?  Because it's toxic to fish, and causes algae to overgrow your tank.

Even so, if you have fish in your aquarium, they release ammonia themselves in their excrement.  So if you already have fish in your tank, you don't need to add ammonia.

You might not be able to detect any ammonia, though, if you test your water.  It gets used up by plants and algae and converted to other forms by bacteria.  But rest assured, it gets produced.

If you don't have any fish, you could add a liquid fertilizer that you would use for houseplants, but you would want a much lower concentration that would be recommended.  Houseplant fertilizers will contain ammonia or ammonium as well as phosphates.  You only want maybe 1/10 of what the directions say or you'll be scraping algae off the sides of your tank to see the moss balls.