Lower leaves of plants falling off

[jimwade6]

The lower leaves of my stem plants are constantly falling off and won't stay on I dose easylife profito weekly and easylife potassium weekly and I have nitrates around 10-15ppm. What am I doing wrong I've had this problem for quite some time. Some plants are weirdly not affected though like my limnophila sessiflora and some stems of rotala

 

[John q]

Hiya @jimwade6
Welcome to ukaps. 👍

My first thoughts going off those 2 pictures would be to suspect you have a co2/flow/distribution issue, but I could be wrong.

That's why it's so important to give as much information about your set up as possible. Read this link and add the details it suggests, that way folks will be able to better diagnose what's happening in your beloved tank.

Please read the guidelines for Algae help!

Dear Member Please give as many details as possible regarding your aquarium set-up, when requiring advice/help! The above will be posted at the start of each help request. Why do we ask these questions? It will stop the member posting multiple times, plus adviser's don't need to scroll through...

www.ukaps.org

 

[jimwade6]

Hiya @jimwade6
Welcome to ukaps. 👍

My first thoughts going off those 2 pictures would be to suspect you have a co2/flow/distribution issue, but I could be wrong.

That's why it's so important to give as much information about your set up as possible. Read this link and add the details it suggests, that way folks will be able to better diagnose what's happening in your beloved tank.

Please read the guidelines for Algae help!

Dear Member Please give as many details as possible regarding your aquarium set-up, when requiring advice/help! The above will be posted at the start of each help request. Why do we ask these questions? It will stop the member posting multiple times, plus adviser's don't need to scroll through...

www.ukaps.org

I'll go fill in. I don't use c02 in my tank as it is low tech

 

[jimwade6]

1. 64L tank
2. 8 months old
3. Superfish 200
4. Nicrew skyled+ 8 hours a day
5. Tetra active substrate
6. No c02
7. Easy life profito 7ml once a week+ easylife potassium 7ml once a week
8. 30-40% water change once a week
9. Hygrophila polysperma, limnophila sessiflora, rotala rountifola, cryptocoryne parva, limnophila hippuroides, bucephalandra theia green, bacopa Carolina, hydrocotyle tripalarta, valisneria tiger, anubias coin leaf, dwarf water lettuce, Brazilian pennywort, red root floaters, pogostemon stellatus octopus, pearl weed (added a few days ago in vitro), Alternanthera reineckii (added today as experiment), some pothos at top of tank
10. Drop Checker N/A
11. 6 pristella tetra, 5 cherry barb, 2 sparkling gourami, 3 nerite snail
12.

 

[John q]

Thanks for the info.

First thing that jumps out is the fertiliser.

Easylife profito despite being called a complete fertiliser is infact adding a fairly large dollop of iron, some potassium and very little of anything else. See attached picture.
The easylife potassium will also add 4ppm extra k.



So the first thing I'd do is change to a complete fertiliser. Tnc complete, tropica specialised etc would all work well, and more importantly will add some nitrate and phosphate. I'd also think about adding a ¼ of a teaspoon of magnesium sulphate (epsom salts) to the tank every couple of weeks.

Will this cure everything? Maybe, maybe not... your plant health in general looks ok, especially higher up in the tank, as we look lower down that's where we start to see issues.

The limnophila lower leaves are starting to yellow and the internodes (gap between the leaves) appear elongated, for me in low tech, with this plant it was always a sign that the plant was being limited by co2 and it bolts to the surface, you can see it corrects itself once it gets higher up the water column, this area coincidentally will have better flow and higher levels of co2. You can also see in some of the other stems that the leaf size reduces the further you go down the stem.

For me I'd change the fertiliser and see if there's any improvement in plant health. It might also be worth while seeing if you can alter the filter outlet to see if flow lower down in the tank can be improved in any way.

Hope some of that helps.

 

[jimwade6]

Thanks for the info.

First thing that jumps out is the fertiliser.

Easylife profito despite being called a complete fertiliser is infact adding a fairly large dollop of iron, some potassium and very little of anything else. See attached picture.
The easylife potassium will also add 4ppm extra k.

View attachment 200944

So the first thing I'd do is change to a complete fertiliser. Tnc complete, tropica specialised etc would all work well, and more importantly will add some nitrate and phosphate. I'd also think about adding a ¼ of a teaspoon of magnesium sulphate (epsom salts) to the tank every couple of weeks.

Will this cure everything? Maybe, maybe not... your plant health in general looks ok, especially higher up in the tank, as we look lower down that's where we start to see issues.

The limnophila lower leaves are starting to yellow and the internodes (gap between the leaves) appear elongated, for me in low tech, with this plant it was always a sign that the plant was being limited by co2 and it bolts to the surface, you can see it corrects itself once it gets higher up the water column, this area coincidentally will have better flow and higher levels of co2. You can also see in some of the other stems that the leaf size reduces the further you go down the stem.

For me I'd change the fertiliser and see if there's any improvement in plant health. It might also be worth while seeing if you can alter the filter outlet to see if flow lower down in the tank can be improved in any way.

Hope some of that helps.

Thanks for the super helpful reply I will look into getting a complete fertiliser and adjusting the flow to be lower in the tank, would light be an issue at all or is it purely nutrient deficiencies

 

[John q]

I'm very much of the opinion that aquarium plants can manage with fairly low light levels, others differ and suggest more light is needed.
Anubias and limnophila can practically grow in the dark, so for those plants not having enough light isn't the issue.
Is the tank receiving to much light? Its a possibility.

 

[MichaelJ]

Thanks for the super helpful reply I will look into getting a complete fertiliser and adjusting the flow to be lower in the tank, would light be an issue at all or is it purely nutrient deficiencies

Yes, proper distribution, especially towards the substrate level which is often overlooked, of nutrients including fertilizer/O2/CO2 (even that little bit of CO2 you have in a low-tech tank) is super important. It's really easy for a densely planted tank as it matures to develop stale areas that are underserved in terms of nutrients. And switching to a complete fertilizer as @John q suggests will be a boon for your plants as they appear to be relying on whatever Macros (NPK) the substrate, fish and possibly your tap water supplies.

I think your light levels seems ok, your have good coverage there from the floating plants and the Vals. but dialing it down a tad might help.

Cheers,
Michael

 

[jimwade6]

I'm very much of the opinion that aquarium plants can manage with fairly low light levels, others differ and suggest more light is needed.
Anubias and limnophila can practically grow in the dark, so for those plants not having enough light isn't the issue.
Is the tank receiving to much light? Its a possibility.

I've turned down the light considerably since I've had it due to brown algae problems, which do seem to be slowly be going away but will a light increase cause increased algae?

 

[MichaelJ]

I'm very much of the opinion that aquarium plants can manage with fairly low light levels

I agree. Case in point: In my shrimp tank where the surface is perpetually covered in floating plants, in some areas of the tank that appears to be almost totally dark the plants are thriving surprisingly well (including Crypts, Boca's, Anubias). This is of course to an extent plant depended, but most in the easy category wont require much light at all.

Cheers,
Michael

 

[jimwade6]

I agree. Case in point: In my shrimp tank where the surface is perpetually covered in floating plants and some areas of the tank that appears to be almost total darkness the plants are thriving surprisingly well.

In another tank I have that seems to be the case there some parts that are very dark and seem to have minimal problems

 

[MichaelJ]

which do seem to be slowly be going away but will a light increase cause increased algae?

Yes, that is very often the case - but not always, as it depends on type of plants, dosing regime and water parameters that many hobbyists may not be inclined or able to provide. Because of that, we usually recommend dialing down the light intensity - not necessarily the number of hours you have the lights on - or add more floating plants to provide coverage.

Cheers,
Michael

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Easy life profito 7ml once a week+ easylife potassium 7ml once a week

So the first thing I'd do is change to a complete fertiliser. Tnc complete, tropica specialised etc would all work well, and more importantly will add some nitrate and phosphate. I'd also think about adding a ¼ of a teaspoon of magnesium sulphate (epsom salts) to the tank every couple of weeks.

What @John q says you need to add a complete fertiliser, plant growth is like <"an assembly line">, you need all the nutrients to be plant available to get plant growth.

I've turned down the light considerably since I've had it due to brown algae problems, which do seem to be slowly be going away

Personally I'd turn it back up. Light levels are incredibly difficult to judge by eye. If you have <"relatively bright light and a floating plant"> you have taken both CO2 and light out of the list of potential deficiencies and that only leaves the mineral nutrients if grow is still poor. I do the same with light period I never go below ten hours light.

I will look into getting a complete fertiliser

Have a look at <"Solufeed 2 : 1 : 4 mix">.

cheers Darrel

 

[MichaelJ]

Personally I'd turn it back up.

Yes, especially as it sounds like diatoms (which we almost always get in new tanks)... But yes, up the light, but compensate with floating plants which, if successful, will net out to be a decrease in light hitting the water column 🙂

Light levels are incredibly difficult to judge by eye.

Yes, it definitely is - I really have zero idea about what PAR levels I run my tanks at... One is quite dim and one is quite bright (without considering it high light) ... As long as I have healthy plants and some good growth and no algae in either tanks and livestock seems cozy and happy I am a happy camper as well... I pretty much just go moving floating plants around between the tanks to adjust my light levels if needed.

Cheers,
Michael