microsorum trident melt??

[Iain Sutherland]

Any ideas what would cause this?
Tank has been running since beginning of the year, trident was going great guns then just in the last week all the front leaves are dying off? I havent made any changes to the tank in that time that might trigger it...
As always co2 is likely the first consideration... will this cause this kind of melt on microsorum??
The trident to the right seems to be fine, just the left hand section dying... where the gap is was full of lush green leaf... crypts below it are fine, waving around, no co2 related holes etc
I have a lot of microsorum and bolbitus, are they heavily dependent on any particular nutrients?

 

[BigTom]

Any swings in water chemistry/lighting?

I've found when moving trident from one tank to another (low tech) that it often produces a load of plantlets then dies off. Seems pretty robust once established though. Can't really help more than that, sorry.

 

[Guest]

Old age?

 

[Iain Sutherland]

couldnt say for sure as dont test my water but there is no real reason for any change, maybe a touch of ammonia as a chocolate disapeared but did a couple of extra WC.
Its been in the tank 4-5 months since set up, when i set up i removed almost every leaf as i found they were not transitioning well, but since has filled out lovely.

Id hope its not old age troi, every leaf is less than 4 months old...

If a few leaves die off in the plant mass and arent removed does this 'spread' so to speak?? I had a clean out of the trident today and removed all damaged leaves and hoovered the rhizomes which was fairly clogged..??
Its something i will be more aware of anyway now but didnt know if its related??
Looks a bit thin now 🙁

 

[Iain Sutherland]

So the first thing that i thought to look at was the possibility of a dead spot which was causing the melt may now be ruled out as the melt is spreading the the other side of the trident. I have had a little fiddle and also looked a little closer at the microsorum windelov, sadly this is now showing signs of melt after 4 months of strong growth.

Any more ideas that might help throw some light on this problem? Nutrient deficiency??

thanks

 

[ceg4048]

Well, don't throw any more light at it. Throw more CO2 mate.

Cheers,

 

[Iain Sutherland]

I knew that you'd say that clive and guess i know that was answer 😳 I have tweaked it up some a few days back and DC borders yellow where ever it is in the tank and all other plants doing well including crypts under/in with the microsorum so i was considering other possibilities....
So next culprit is flow and how to increase it... trouble is the spray bars at the back push to the front but as it hits the glass it seems to V off down each side of the island leaving a slightly lower flow area at the front.


I have always had slower growth on the tennelus in the front/middle, as you can see, but wasnt causing any issues so left it.... microsorum now disagrees. If i add a power head at the back middle it seems to make the V even stronger and plants at the very front of the island pretty much stop moving at all.


So a plan - will increase liquid carbon dose by 5ml and raise lights another 5cm, give it a week and report back.
Any other suggestions always welcome.

 

[ceg4048]

Yeah mate, it's a little bit of a problem because you might be getting some blockage from the general shape of the scape. It's a jigsaw puzzle to figure out how to solve distribution. Everybody seems to think that the tanks stays the same but it doesn't. The plant mass is thicker both above the substrate and below. More trimming and pruning might help. If you had unlimited pumping power it might have been worth mounting the bar on one of the side panes instead of back glass. It might still be worth trying depending on what your got.

Cheers,

 

[foxfish]

I have found that a single outlet set low down and pointing across the back works well with an island design scape.
Combined with an in line C02 source this causes a circular movement, certainly worked for me anyway.

 

[Ady34]

Hi Iain,
this may be a case of the plant starving itself due to its good growth. Ive just removed a huge portion of my microsorum petite tonight and it looks like i havnt touched it! Maybe the plant mass it developed blocked the necessary passage of c02/ferts over the leaves/roots and importantly the rhyzome to the point it effectively suffocated? Melt and leaf deterioration sounds c02, but with you citing good flow in that area maybe this could be the cause. Im going to try and thin my microsorum more regularly as the detrius build up within the plant is surprising and it gets very tight knit.
Cheerio,
Ady.