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Signs of deficiency , E.I, floating plants.

Then there shouldnt be any shortage of any nutrients really. But you might have done too many water changes lately? If not then I doubt its nutrients. I you really want to know youd need to leave everything else the same and just dose more.
How long have you been dosing EI for on this tank?
 
Jose said:
Then there shouldnt be any shortage of any nutrients really. But you might have done too many water changes lately? If not then I doubt its nutrients. I you really want to know youd need to leave everything else the same and just dose more.
How long have you been dosing EI for on this tank?
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Nope following the schedule to the letter, one 50% waterchange every sunday. I actually like that part.

About three months.
 
BexM said:
Nope following the schedule to the letter, one 50% waterchange every sunday. I actually like that part.
About three months
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Mmmm. Quite interesting. Are you sure the floating plants have a defficiency? It might be how they are under bright light.
 
Hi all,
The new leaves on the Water Lettuce (Pistia stratiotes) look fine. It naturally has a pale green leaf (because of the hairs diffusing the light). That was one reason why I preferred Amazon Frogbit (Limnobium laevigatum) for the <"Duckweed Index">.

My suspicion would be that things will sort themselves out on their own.

Options you could try are:
More nitrogen (N) and potassium (K).
More magnesium (Mg).
Rain-water (won't contain much calcium (Ca))
an iron chelator for harder water (<"Chelated Fe">).

It definitely could be light damage to the older leaves, or it may-be chlorosis induced by the high calcium:magnesium ratio. Basically the plant would withdraw magnesium from the older leaves and transport it to the new leaves. It can do this because magnesium is mobile within the plant.

The one thing you can discount (for a floater) is CO2 availability.

cheers Darrel
 
I suppose they could be burns but a lot of the leaves remain some distance from the lamps because of the flow, they get pushed to the front of the tank which has a thick glass brace.

I will try an increase in potassium nitrate first for a few weeks and see how it goes.

Thank you all for the help.
 
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I was just thinking. If my lighting is now lower, do I still need to be dosing e.I at all? The only reason I tried t5s was I was told on another forum by quite a few people that t8s were not powerful enough my tank. All of these problems came about when I started adding ferts afters I removed the dirt.
 
BexM said:
I was just thinking. If my lighting is now lower, do I still need to be dosing e.I at all? The only reason I tried t5s eas I was told on another forum by quite a few people that t8s were not powerful enough my tank.
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Simple answer: Yes.
The true answer is no one can know. Easiest way is to try different ammounts of ferts. Which I dont recommend.
 
I really would like to make this tank as low tech as possible without inducing a massive bba outbreak and ruining all my hard work.
 
If you want to go low tech (no co2 not even diy) then you can dose 1/10th or 1/5th of EI.
But too much nutrients wont cause algae. Too little will. Also fluctuating co2 levels will. Organics, low o2 etc etc.

If you just took the reflectors out but kept the diy co2 then this is not low tech. This is probably a middle groung, middle tech. You can probably try and dose half EI or even 1/4 but if you go too low youll get algae.
 
Jose said:
If you want to go low tech (no co2 not even diy) then you can dose 1/10th or 1/5th of EI.
But too much nutrients wont cause algae. Too little will. Also fluctuating co2 levels will. Organics, low o2 etc etc.

If you just took the reflectors out but kept the diy co2 then this is not low tech. This is probably a middle groung, middle tech. You can probably try and dose half EI or even 1/4 but if you go too low youll get algae.
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Dosing half makes sense. I would like to ditch the diy but it's the only thing I've found to keep the bba under control.
 
For the bba thing: You need to do little water changes. When you do them try to let the water to sit for at least a day. Low tech are very easy to keep and you shouldnt run into any problms.

Ive never had bba in any of my low techs. If you do then it might be too much light. You should also stock low and feed little.
 
Jose said:
For the bba thing: You need to do little water changes. When you do them try to let the water to sit for at least a day. Low tech are very easy to keep and you shouldnt run into any problms.

Ive never had bba in any of my low techs. If you do then it might be too much light. You should also stock low and feed little.
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Ok, let the water stand so it contains less co2? I do have a 5 gallon bucket I could use for that.

I don't think I'm lightly stocked but I could probably skip a day or two feeding or feed smaller amounts.
 
BexM said:
Ok, let the water stand so it contains less co2? I do have a 5 gallon bucket I could use for that.
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Yeap

BexM said:
I don't think I'm lightly stocked but I could probably skip a day or two feeding or feed smaller amounts.
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Thats not very good. Then youll have to keep up with water changes, maybe a 20-30% once a week should be fine, I cant really know.
Also you dont have to add food less frequently but less ammount in total. So the idea is that fish can eat for around 30 seconds or so (check if they all eat). You can feed more frecuently but less. So.. no leftovers etc.
And pack with as many plants as you can from start.
 
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Isnt it recommended EI fertiliser used with pressurised CO2 leaning to high energy set ups. DIY CO2 and EI not sure?I would lean towards Tropica Premium or Pro -Fito with DIY CO2. Check Practical Fishkeeping two articles Nathan Hill interview with APFs John Whelan about EI DOSING AND George Farmer article on substrates, the latter is a interesting one as George concludes substrate choice is not that big a deal providing root tablets are in the gravel or sand
 
Just thought i would update. I think Darrel may have been right but i really did not fancy messing around too much with the dosing and upgrading co2 to find out.

My lighting is now much lower and i've removed the diy co2, added some more of the plants that are doing well and removed some of the ones that looked too far gone, like the limnophila aromatica, which melted.

I'm just adding a 1/3 of the ei ferts once a week and i'm going to see how it goes with reducing water changes.
 
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