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Problem with yellow leaves?

S

stan1973

Member
Joined
10 Sep 2011
Messages
78
Hi

I have a tank which I set up a couple of weeks ago.
the new growth is pale green, on my amazon swords the new leaves are the biggest so kind of a good sign but the leaves are much paler green like lime green and you can see through them, Its similar with the other plants.
The tank is 5'x18"x18" with tesco cat litter substrate, I have 3 x 58W T8 lights and have been adding ferts roughly following EI dosing method.

Does anyone have an idea of what can be causing the yellow colour please?
 
Hi

Can you post your tank spec, lighting periodicity and the quanitity of ferz been added, instinct tells me that you might be not adding enough fetz, swords are greedy.

Regards
Paul.
 
The tank is about 75 gallons and I give it 12 hours light per day. I don't add CO2

To be honest I haven't followed EI properly, I used some stuff called nourish that I got from aqua essentials for the first week adding 17 mls per day and then I started looking into solid ferts. On the second week I added 1 g of urea every other days (3 doses) plus one day I added a couple of grammes of potassium carbonate and a pinch of potassium phosphate which I got from work. I eventually found another site that sells dry ferts and have recieved them so have done a 70% water change, added lots more plants and have started following their EI instructions, see link. I didn't have many plants for the first couple of weeks.

http://blog.fluidsensoronline.com/calcu ... ive-index/

I'll see what happens in the next couple of weeks with it.
 
In the calculation I used 300 litres for my tank volume, I only added 30 g of magnesium sulphate to the stock solution instead of 74 g as my water is fairly hard anyway (GH 11), its actually MgSO4.7H2O that I recieved too, I dont know if the calcualtion is meant for that?
 
Hi all,
I only added 30 g of magnesium sulphate to the stock solution instead of 74 g as my water is fairly hard anyway (GH 11), its actually MgSO4.7H2O that I recieved too, I dont know if the calcualtion is meant for that?
Click to expand...
I'd be very surprised if there is much magnesium in your tap water. All magnesium sulphate will be the heptahydrate form ("Epsom Salts") unless it has been heated and stored in a desiccator. The calculator at "James' Planted Tank" is based upon MgSO4.7H2O <http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/calculator.htm>.

Both Iron and magnesium deficiency lead to yellow leaves, but they tend to cause "interveinal chlorosis", where the leaf veins remain green. If the leaves are generally yellow it is much more likely to be a deficiency of either nitrogen (N) or potassium (K), (although you usually get interveinal chlorosis with K deficiency as well). So in this case probably N. If you have some KNO3? I'd dose it, but I'd be wary of upping the dosage of urea too far if you have live-stock.

cheers Darrel
 
Hi all,
Also if your running lights for 12 hours a day, I'd consider supplementing with a liquid carbon or pressurised co2 otherwise you'll run into big algae problems.
Click to expand...
Good point, I should have said that light drives CO2 and nutrient uptake and if you have unbalanced amounts of light - CO2 - nutrients you may have problems.

My personal approach wouldn't be different, I wouldn't supplement the carbon with CO2 or Excel etc. but I would be to slowly lower the nutrient input, from the full EI, until you reach a level where the balance between plant growth and plant health was acceptable to you. I run all my tanks at 12 hours light and I'm not convinced that it is too long a photo-period, although I now realize that I have much larger plant masses, and more structure, in my tanks that most other people, which may diffuse the light.

cheers Darrel
 
flygja said:
Do you add any Iron at all? Yellowing leaves may be due to iron deficiency.
Click to expand...

Yes, the nourish will have iron plus after i went onto solid ferts i added trace ferts. I tested my water and it came out at 0.5ppm iron.
 
Alastair said:
I' agree with darrel, Also if your running lights for 12 hours a day, I'd consider supplementing with a liquid carbon or pressurised co2 otherwise you'll run into big algae problems.
I wouldnt bother with the urea though.
Click to expand...

According to Yorkshire water I have some magnesium, here's the report although I'm not sure what level Im aiming for so i just guessed a bit. I don't think my tap water is particularly good for most plants being fairly hard.


Water quality report



Substance

Typical value

UK/European limit

Unit



Calcium

58.5000

-

mg Ca/l



Magnesium

6.4575

-

mg Mg/l



Residual chlorine - free

0.20

-

mg/l Cl2



Residual chlorine - total

0.29

-

mg/l Cl2



Coliforms

0

0

no/100ml



E-coli

0

0

no/100ml



Aluminium

14.132

200

µg Al/l



Colour

1.04

20

mg/l Pt/Co Scale



Conductivity

287.14

2500

µS/cm



Fluoride

0.062

1.5

mg F/l



pH (Hydrogen Ion Conc.)

7.68

6.5 - 10.0

pH Units



Iron

25.71

200

µg Fe/l



Manganese

2.22

50

µg Mn/l



Nitrate

13.7633

50

mg NO3/l



Nitrite

0.0093

0.5

mg NO2/l



Sodium

15.83

200

mg Na/l



Turbidity

0.152

4

NTU



Copper

0.0230

2

mg Cu/l



Lead

0.400

25

µg Pb/l
 
Alastair said:
I' agree with darrel, Also if your running lights for 12 hours a day, I'd consider supplementing with a liquid carbon or pressurised co2 otherwise you'll run into big algae problems.
I wouldnt bother with the urea though.
Click to expand...

How many hours would you recommend please? I recently heard about people giving their tank a siesta period. That sounds good as a way of keeping the light on when I'm there without giving the plants too many hours and so I can still see the tank on an evening when Im in, its a bonus if its good for the plants.

The reason i used urea is I got it from work for free while i was waiting for my ferts to arrive and thought it could get my tank cycled without fish. I haven't put any more in. I dont plan to use pressurised CO2, I dont know whats in the liquid carbon or how much it would cost but don't really fancy that either.
 
dw1305 said:
Hi all,
Also if your running lights for 12 hours a day, I'd consider supplementing with a liquid carbon or pressurised co2 otherwise you'll run into big algae problems.
Click to expand...
Good point, I should have said that light drives CO2 and nutrient uptake and if you have unbalanced amounts of light - CO2 - nutrients you may have problems.

My personal approach wouldn't be different, I wouldn't supplement the carbon with CO2 or Excel etc. but I would be to slowly lower the nutrient input, from the full EI, until you reach a level where the balance between plant growth and plant health was acceptable to you. I run all my tanks at 12 hours light and I'm not convinced that it is too long a photo-period, although I now realize that I have much larger plant masses, and more structure, in my tanks that most other people, which may diffuse the light.

cheers Darrel
Click to expand...

That's a good point, I do have some floating plant in there already, it grows like mad in my other two tanks and I'm forever thinning it down but its good because I swap it for stuff at the tropical fish shops or sell it at the local tropical fish auctions.
 
So should I just give the full amount?
I'm surprised at how much magnesium they recommend, I thought NPK were the three main ones. I'm new to all this EI business.
 
Hi all,
Yorkshire water says I have some magnesium
Click to expand...
That is actually quite a lot of magnesium in UK terms, but the magnesian "Sugar" limestone belt runs down through co. Durham across Yorkshire <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology_of_Yorkshire#The_Magnesian_Limestone_Belt>. From the analysis, your tap water looks quite good.
I'm surprised at how much magnesium they recommend, I thought NPK were the three main ones.
Click to expand...
Yes plants need most carbon, followed by nitrogen and potassium, then a lot less phosphorus, magnesium, iron etc. A lot of the problems with both phosphorus and iron deficiency come from them forming insoluble compounds and becoming unavailable. With magnesium problems can occur if the calcium/magnesium ratio is very high. An excess of magnesium isn't damaging to the plant, so it would be better to have too much, rather than too little. Magnesium ions will contribute to both the dGH and the conductivity, although this is only likely to be a problem if you keep very sensitive soft water fish.
I'm new to all this EI business.
Click to expand...
Probably best to read the sticky http://ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=13

cheers Darrel
 
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