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Nutrient deficiencies?

Thanks zenith, that explains it.
I'm just looking for zinc with an alternative chelate to see if that helps as well as splitting the micro and macro, I use Fe eddha, but struggling to find anything other than edta.
 
Regent said:
I wonder how @LondonDragon avoids this as my aio is based on his recipe.
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I have not seen any difficiencies in my plants to be honest and I do not test my tap/tank water or even look at the water report for my area.
I pretty much started with the standard EI formula and over time have reduced certain salts to see how the plants react, I usually go via what the plants tell me.
I find that when I have difficiencies on plants almost every time is due to fluctuations of CO2 rather than any fertelizer (i have in the past dozed 10x the recommended EI levels just for the sake of it and had no algae issues)! I have struggled for a long time to get a constant flow of CO2, I have tried 5 different type of stone diffusers (ADA, Twinstar, Tropica, CO2 Art, unbranded), and have tried two in-line diffusers too, they all start getting clogged quickly and are not reliable. I only resolved this with the Reactor as there is nothing to get clogged other than the filter itself but that is at a much slower rate than the actual diffusers. If you having issues I would recommend also looking at the CO2 distribution and consistency.
 
X3NiTH said:
I would shield that side of the tank from ambient light first to see if that works first, obviously stop dosing phosphate you have enough out the tap. No need to go looking for rare chelates for one overdriven plant!

🙂
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I already have a blind for that side of the tank for the middle of summer, I'll deploy it early this year..
 
LondonDragon said:
I have not seen any difficiencies in my plants to be honest and I do not test my tap/tank water or even look at the water report for my area.
I pretty much started with the standard EI formula and over time have reduced certain salts to see how the plants react, I usually go via what the plants tell me.
I find that when I have difficiencies on plants almost every time is due to fluctuations of CO2 rather than any fertelizer (i have in the past dozed 10x the recommended EI levels just for the sake of it and had no algae issues)! I have struggled for a long time to get a constant flow of CO2, I have tried 5 different type of stone diffusers (ADA, Twinstar, Tropica, CO2 Art, unbranded), and have tried two in-line diffusers too, they all start getting clogged quickly and are not reliable. I only resolved this with the Reactor as there is nothing to get clogged other than the filter itself but that is at a much slower rate than the actual diffusers. If you having issues I would recommend also looking at the CO2 distribution and consistency.
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This what I find interesting about this hobby and why I mentioned you! There were and are flow issues in that area of the tank which I've addressed with a short-term wavemaker fix. Hopefully a pair of gyres such as those @Zeus. uses will be the long term solution.

Turning over 400l in a deep peninsula tank has proved very tricky though total flow is at 8000lph ((theoretical) 2x aquael ultramax 2000 plus power heads) at the moment. I still get dead spots.
Co2 is injected via the same reactor as you use, I believe. It's vastly improved delivery. I was struggling with other methods as well.

I'm trying to be logical and not change too much all at once!

If I'm honest my best results are still in my low tech soil tanks..
Happi said:
@Regent have you tried adding some DTPA Fe yet?
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I use a mix of Fe edta, Fe dtpa (from chempak sequestered iron) and Fe eddha mainly the last as it's light and pH stability are best yet it is still available to plants at lower pH (at least in terrestrial crops!)
 
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More frustrating 😂
I think can see why though. The soil/low energy tanks have much better controlled lighting, and far lower flow, though they're much shallower.

I switched this tank to high energy in the hope it would help with the crazy amount of natural light it receives. As you can tell I'm having mixed success!
 
So I thought I'd post a little update on the s.repens in case anyone else has similar issues.
Here is what has changed for the last two weeks.
I've simplified my dosing after getting more detail from the water company. I'm dosing dry salts as a single front loaded dose straight after a water change to bring my macros to my ei targets and so I can remove phosphate from an AIO. I've leaned them out based on the water report (essp the phosphate and removed all extra Mg)
My dosing pump is now adding just micros on a daily basis.
I've but the summer blind on the side of the tank getting most of the sun.

All new growth looks healthy. Some of the older leave have greened up to some extent.
Growth throughout the tank is faster and looks healthier.

Thanks, everyone for the help. Feel like I'm making progress!
 

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Hey thought i might contribute to this thread as noticed a few small issues with plants showing nutrient deficiencies - i have identified them as potassium and magnesium deficiency (maybe even some manganese because of pin holes... but then im still relatively beginner in plants). I am currently daily dosing Tropica Premium on a heavily planted tank with some fast growing plants... and then realised it is like the completely wrong thing for the job 😅. Tbf my plants were doing fairly well until fairly recently on it, but it clearly isnt cutting it any more.

Id probably prefer to go down the path of getting a good 1 or 2 general ferts for a heavily planted tank rather than trying to navigate lot of different nutrient value combinations to get exactly the required doses, but im certainly open to learning. Does anyone have any recommendations?

Thanks
 
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