Plant deficiency and melting plants ...

[kolossi]

Hi all.

I had over the last year several more or less unsuccessful trials with a 30L and 45L - 4 weeks ago I moved the usable plants to a new 60L and added also some new plants.

Some of the new plants (Alternanthera Reineckii 'mini', Echinodorus Tenellus, Micranthemum Monte Carlo - all tissue cultures) started melting after a week or so (see picture - this was an early stage, meanwhile not much of the plants is left ...) - most of these plants did not really survive, only some Echinodorus are still in the aqua and look ok.

I am dosing CO2 with an inline diffussor, approx 1-2BPS. I have 2 filters, which have a combined turnover of approx 800L/h, the outflows are in the back left corner and front right corner, shooting along the long glass sides. Both outflows are lily pipes, flow is ok - there is of course always room for improvement, esp in the lower levels ...?!?
I see however tiny bubbles flying almost everywhere around in the tank, but I would admit it might be less in the area of the affected melted plants (lower levels).

Since some days now I also detected holes and dark/black spots in the Microsorum Pteropus 'Trident' (see picture).
Additionally the Echinodorus Bleheri has a similar issue and 1(!) leaf (not necessarily the most recent one!), which looks rather pale. The Bleheri is one of the survivor plants from a older small tank - the plant looked in this tank already a bit troubled, but overall pretty usable/ok.

All other plants (stem plants, some Bucephalandra. Cyperus Helferi) look rather ok (see picture).

I am dosing ferts, adding the defined dosage of ADA green brighty neutral K, green brighty mineral and brighty iron every 2nd or 3rd (should be more often, but sometimes I simply forget or so ...).

Ammonia and Nitrite and 0, Nitrate is approx 15ppm.
KH is 0-1 (not sure if thats a measuring error or really that low..), GH 4.
pH is around 6.4, T=23degC.

I am assuming I have maybe a deficiency, or lack of CO2 distribution or maybe something else?
Hoping for your support!

Thanks a lot in advance
kolossi

 

[DutchMuch]

Melting is generally a pretty normal thing, especially and most frequently spotted when the addition of new plants occurs in the scape... Now this part is pretty normal, but the not coming back part is the oblong thing. I wonder why? From the images you posted, not including the java fern, i visually cannot spot to many health issues if any at all... but then again it IS 12pm at night for me and im laying here sideways in bed trying to focus my eyes on the image. I hope someone else can assist you with this problem and i wish you safe passage on that journey, nice scape btw (what i came here to originally say lol).

 

[Edvet]

Light, lighting hours, CO2 timing?
(in general when there are problems: up the ferts, lower the light)
I don't know wether you are adding N and P? ( Don't know the ADA ferts)

 

[kolossi]

Thanks @DutchMuch - appreciated!
Of the melted plants not much survived ... only 2 or 3 stems of the Alternanthera and basically nothing of the Monte Carlo.

@Edvet: Lights come on at 1430 till 2100, CO2 from 1100 to 2100.
I already reduced the lighting period by 1.5h after reading here it might too much light intake ...
I furthermore reduced the light intensity to approx 60% of max (using an ADA Aquasky G).

Below you can see the description from ADA, not a lot of information, but at least something ... I am thinking of using other ferts, once these are gone ...

By supplying potassium to planted aquarium, GREEN BRIGHTY NEUTRAL K promotes plants photosynthesis and healthy growth without increasing pH and Carbonate Hardness (KH). It is suitable for long-period maintenance of most planted aquariums preferring mild acidity.

GREEN BRIGHTY MINERAL is a liquid fertilizer supplying iron, magnesium and other trace elements, which are easily depleted in a planted aquarium. These elements are used for growth and pigment synthesis, and the promotion of healthy growth in aquatic plants.

A lack of iron results in chlorosis of leaves and poor plant growth.Supplying GREEN BRIGHTY IRON improves the color of leaves and promotes growth of plants.

Thanks a lot once more for looking into this.

kolossi

 

[Edvet]

No nitrogen?

 

[kolossi]

Apparently not ... this would be another fert, which I unfortunately dont have...will add that asap!

Would you think the issues can be traced back to a lack of N?

 

[Edvet]

No nitrogen, no growth.
N,P and K/Mg are the ''macro''s, nutrients needed in high amounts, the rest are 'micro's, needed in trace amounts.
https://www.ukaps.org/index.php?page=dosing-with-dry-salts

 

[Konsa]

Hi
Ada fertilisers are developed in partnership with their aqua soil that has gigh nutrient content.I have used ADA system on my first two ever planted tanks and really they work a charm ,couldn't trim the plants enough every week and they were always growing like crazy even with zero skill from my side and dodgy CO2 implementation .
Without the ADA aqua soil U need to add N and P as their ferts(Not familiar with the new names atm but old steps 1 to 3) were micros of different strength.
Regards Konsa

 

[Jack Reilly]

If you're forgetting to dose, maybe buy an autodoser? I bought the JEBAO autodoser with 3 outputs and use it with ADA ferts. Once calibrated it's extremely accurate, and it's really cheap too. I couldn't go back to dosing manually everyday. Even though now and again I miss pumping the ferts in (there is something satisfying about it).

 

[AndreiD]

All problems bellow are related to poor co2 injection or poor/bad flow of co2

What you say here "A lack of iron results in chlorosis of leaves and poor plant growth" is correct but if you rule out the co2

Low co2 injection has the same effect in plants growth

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

What you say here "A lack of iron results in chlorosis of leaves and poor plant growth" is correct but if you rule out the co2

Low co2 injection has the same effect in plants growth

One difference would be that iron (Fe) deficiencies would effect new leaves, while CO2 problems would tend to effect older leaves first.

The complications added by CO2 deficiency in submerged plants was the reason for looking at the leaf colour and growth of a floating plant to help <"diagnose nutrient deficiencies">. Floating plants have access to 400 ppm of atmospheric CO2, and to the available PAR.

cheers Darrel