Salvinia auriculata disintegrating?

[mess17]

Hi there,

I have a planted tank and it has been up and running for just under three months now (details below)

1. Tank - Fluval Flex 34L (9g)
2. Filtration - Mixture of the built in mechanical and biological filter media, with an added bag of fluval biomax
3. Lighting - Built in tank lighting - 09:00 - 19:00
4. Substrate - Tropica Powder soil
5. Co2 - Non-dosing Co2
6. Ferts - One pump of Tropica premium nutrition every other day
7. Waterchange - 20% once weekly
8. Plants - Hygrophila Polysperma, anubias nana bonsai, bacopa compact, rotala rotundfolia, marsilea hirsuta, ludwigia mini super red, Eleocharis acicularis and Salvinia auriculata
9. Livestock - 10 red cherry shrimp, 7 chilli rasbora, 3 amano shrimp, 1 nerite snail
10. Hardscape - Seriyu stone (3 pieces), redmoor wood (2 pieces)

Water params as of 23/03/21:
PH - 7.6
Amonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 10
GH - 3.5
KH - 13
Temp - 25 C

Atttached a full tank photo and also a close up of the salvinia. The salvina started off absolutely thriving and covered the whole tank, but nowas you can see the leaves are disintegrating to nothing. There is still new growth appearing which is a good sign i think, but the excess waste organics from the rapidly decaying/melting leaves can't be great news for potential algae blooms etc. Just wondered if anyone had seen this before and why it might suddenly have started happening after starting so strongly.

 

[mess17]

Sorry I should add, other than the Salvinia, all other plants are thriving and even the red plants without Co2 are retaining quite a strong red colour

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
I should have said welcome, so I will now. Plant health looks pretty good, other than the Salvinia.

The salvina started off absolutely thriving and covered the whole tank, but nowas you can see the leaves are disintegrating to nothing.

Tropica Powder soil.............One pump of Tropica premium nutrition every other day

They've run out of one of the nutrients that isn't supplied by <"your fertiliser">. Because the Salvinia are floating plants their growth isn't CO2 limited, and they can't benefit from nutrients in the substrate.

My guess would be phosphate (PO4---) is the nutrient. It is <"highly mobile within the plant"> so it can be moved to new leaves.

If you want to stick with Tropica fertilisers? I think the <"Tropica Specialised"> should improve things. If you want <"a cheaper option"> then there are various <"DIY options using dry salts">.

cheers Darrel

 

[mess17]

Thanks Darrel

Will have a look into the specialised nutrition, from having a look at people comparing the two, I wonder/worry the added nitrates in specialised could push my nitrate level too high? Does the fish/shrimp waste not help with providing some level of nutrients too?

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

I wonder/worry the added nitrates in specialised could push my nitrate level too high?

You honestly don't need to worry. A lot of what you will read about nitrate (NO3-) needs a bit of interpreting. Have a look through the <"linked threads"> (and all the links in them) and it might help.

The really good news is that NO3 - ion isn't toxic to fish, until you get <"into the hundreds of ppm">.

When people talk about high nitrate levels being bad for fish they are measuring that nitrate as the <"smoking gun"> of previous transitory high levels of ammonia (NH3) and nitrite (NO2-).

I like to approach the problem from a slightly different angle. I want to get rid of <"any ammonia and nitrite"> as rapidly as possible, because they are toxic to your livestock at very low levels. After that I don't worry too much, I just aim to keep the <"floating plants in active growth"> and <"they do the rest">, all the <"heavy lifting"> for me.

cheers Darrel

 

[sparkyweasel]

A lot of what you will read about nitrate (NO3-) needs a bit of interpreting.

Putting it politely. 🙂