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Althernantera curling up

KarinH

KarinH

Seedling
Joined
17 Oct 2018
Messages
7
Location
Buenos Aires
Hi all! I am trying to improve my tank and I have being dosing some salts lately. Just starting to look a little better. From one day to the other the leaves of Alternanthera get curled. Some macro/micro in excess? (I am dosing just by watchig)
 
Hi @KarinH I've had Alternanthera for a while in one of my low-tech tanks - some died early on but whatever remains grows, but very, very, slowly and is probably struggling, but I haven't noticed the leaves curling. Perhaps you could post a picture of the plant and provide more details about your tank, such as if you are injecting CO2 ? Fertilizer regime ? I highly doubt any fertilizer (Macro/Micro) in excess would cause this (I pummel my tanks with fertilizer), but it could be a sign of nutrient deficiency, lack of CO2 vs. light level etc.
Cheers,
Michael
 
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Hi @MichaelJ , thanks for your answer. Is there a chance that the addition of some KCl2 or CaCl2 could be the culprit? I have being adding these two salts from a new batch. I`ve noticed the leaves of my Java fern in a total different tank happened to suffer exactly the some bending from a day to another (I added those salts too...)
The Althernanteras are in a tank whith CO2 injection but the ferns are in a tank without CO2.

Cheers,
Karin
 

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KarinH said:
Hi @MichaelJ , thanks for your answer. Is there a chance that the addition of some KCl2 or CaCl2 could be the culprit? I have being adding these two salts from a new batch. I`ve noticed the leaves of my Java fern in a total different tank happened to suffer exactly the some bending from a day to another (I added those salts too...)
The Althernanteras are in a tank whith CO2 injection but the ferns are in a tank without CO2.

Cheers,
Karin
Click to expand...
@KarinH I doubt the addition of Potassium Chloride and Calcium Chloride would cause this (I am adding quite a bit of CaCl myself). Potassium deficiency is actually known to cause curling leafs. The curling leaves looks strange and I also notice quite a bit of algae so something is definitely off balance in this tank. Since the same happened suddenly with the Java Fern in your separate non-CO2 tank it might be helpful to know exactly what those KCl/CaCl product are and how much you added vs. tank size. Hopefully with the additional info an expert will chime in.

Cheers,
Michael
 
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KarinH said:
Hi all! I am trying to improve my tank and I have being dosing some salts lately. Just starting to look a little better. From one day to the other the leaves of Alternanthera get curled. Some macro/micro in excess? (I am dosing just by watchig)
Click to expand...
Hello,
Curling leaves and any other structural fault is caused by poor CO2.
Cheers,
 
ceg4048 said:
Hello,
Curling leaves and any other structural fault is caused by poor CO2.
Cheers,
Click to expand...
Hi @ceg4048 Well, the same thing happened to the OP in the non-injected tank with the Java ferns (!) a day after applying the KCl/CaCl I wonder what that is about, if anything but a coincidence ?
Cheers,
Michael
 
Hi guys, I must say the salts are dry KCl and CaCl I just added a small little stone of them… yes my planted tank was a mess lately and I finally got rid of cyano (almost) by correcting CO2 a flow. Cleaning and cleaning and dosing salts (in a non very strict way I must say😶)
 
MichaelJ said:
Hi @ceg4048 Well, the same thing happened to the OP in the non-injected tank with the Java ferns (!) a day after applying the KCl/CaCl I wonder what that is about, if anything but a coincidence ?
Cheers,
Michael
Click to expand...
Hi Michael,
Yes, this is coincidental. There is nothing in chloride that would result in deformation and certainly potassium does not cause deformation, even at very high levels. Plants are very rich in potassium, so this is all goodness. A good trim and lots of water changes/cleaning will help with this.

Cheers,
 
KarinH said:
The java fern at the non CO2 tank
Click to expand...
@KarinH Unlike the Alternanthera the fern actually looks ok to me - some of my Java fern leaves have a bit of a curl to them as well, and they are doing very well overall. You might want to trim the Alternanthera down to help it recover, and do what @ceg4048 suggests above.
 
Thank you you two guys!! I’ll follow your advice and let you know!
cheers
Karin
Ps: Althernantera is always tricky and difficult but I love it
 
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