Help with stunted Rotala growth

[Vishnuvarthan]

We are seriously living in a mad world where similar effects (hardness etc.) can be obtained by the fraction of the price.

I'd vote for lack of Iron (by the hardness of water overall and inability to consume enough of Fe at the early stage of growth) covered by Darrel anyway.

@Vishnuvarthan
There are some Fe ferts which are making Fe available at higher alkalinity (EDDHA maybe?). If you're afraid of shrimp bodies decomposition, they can be kept in rather low GH (2-4-ish) while additional Ca is provided by bits of snails/molluscs shells - but they will raise GH anyway.

Would reducing the GH dosing to say 4-5 help ?
i have another 180Liter tank that has 7 GH and 5KH ( due to seiryu rocks ) and I dose with the same APT complete, if it is the Fe at high alkaline water , would it not be an issue in this tank too ? Just curious. 180L tank has more stems compared to this tank too.

 

[Vishnuvarthan]

@dw1305 , I am planning to reduce the GH from 8 to 6 during my next water change. Will that help with the issue ? Will the drop in GH affect the live stocks ?

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

@dw1305 , I am planning to reduce the GH from 8 to 6 during my next water change. Will that help with the issue ? Will the drop in GH affect the live stocks ?

Give it ago and see what happens. I'm pretty sure you don't need that much hardness. I'm not too worried about ratios and, in terms of plant growth 5ppm Ca & 5ppm Mg would do.

Cheers Darrel

 

[_Maq_]

i have another 180Liter tank that has 7 GH and 5KH ( due to seiryu rocks ) and I dose with the same APT complete, if it is the Fe at high alkaline water , would it not be an issue in this tank too ? Just curious.

Iron is a peculiar element and one never knows. In general, yes, the higher pH (usually bound with higher alkalinity - KH), the more restricted access to iron for plants. But many factors of which we hardly get accurate evidence may influence it.
Similarly, people often turn to strong & expensive iron chelates. My experience suggests that in many cases (not in all!) iron chloride would do. The good news is that trivalent iron (Fe III) is fairly harmless, so you don't have to be too concerned about overdosing. That's one of the reasons why I strongly suggest dosing iron individually - as opposed to mixtures of all micronutrients, which are pretty toxic (except iron and molybdenum).

 

[Vishnuvarthan]

I totally forgot to mention that I have been using a liquid product to add about .5 ppm of PO4 twice a week ( for GSA on glass)along with my daily Apt complete dosage. I don’t add extra PO4 on my big tank which don’t have any stunted growth.

Would that be a possible issue for Fe bonding with PO4 and making it difficult for plants to use Fe.

 

[Vishnuvarthan]

Hi all,Give it ago and see what happens. I'm pretty sure you don't need that much hardness. I'm not too worried about ratios and, in terms of plant growth 5ppm Ca & 5ppm Mg would do.

Cheers Darrel

Thanks @dw1305 I am in the process of reducing the gh to around 4-5 over a week , hoping it would make Fe available to plants.

 

[Vishnuvarthan]

That looks like an issue with iron, or possibly manganese (Mn), purely because it has <"effected the new leaves"> and it is only <"non-mobile nutrients"> that do this

Would PO4 deficiency also cause the plants tips to be stunted and irregular, I read about it in some forums, I have some minor GSA on glass too.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Would PO4 deficiency also cause the plants tips to be stunted and irregular, I read about it in some forums,

If it was PO4--- deficiency the plant would start back into growth as soon as you added phosphate, because PO4--- is <"highly mobile within the plant"> and can be shuffled to the newer tissue. Severe phosphate deficiency would effect newer leaves, but they would be the last leaves to show symptoms.

cheers Darrel

 

[erwin123]

Do u suggest if I change the outflow from front of the tank to the back corner ? Flowing directly toward the stems

if you have established that poor flow is the cause of plant growth problems in your tank, then you would have to set about fixing the flow. I really can't say whether moving the outflow is the solution - because you might create a dead spot elsewhere and plants in that deadspot will start to stunt.

However, as I have pointed out... the positioning of your outflow is rather strange - I presume it is a deliberate attempt to reduce flow. However, in UKAPS I learnt that 'flow is king'. So setting the outflow to a more 'traditional' setup might be the starting point.

 

[Vishnuvarthan]

So setting the outflow to a more 'traditional' setup might be the starting point.

Can you explain this a little more ?

 

[erwin123]

Can you explain this a little more ?

Surface agitation & gaseous exchange in CO2 injected tanks

Surface agitation in a planted aquarium - yes or not ? This page explores why having some surface agitation and turnover is actually useful in planted tanks and actually makes tuning CO2 to optimal levels more easy.

www.2hraquarist.com

This is the "normal" way to point the outflow...

You are using a flow reducer. Remove it and point the outflow like in this photo from 2hr aquarist.

 

[Vishnuvarthan]

You are using a flow reducer

Ah , yes got it . Thank you