What am I missing?

[dIggO]

After running good for a few months, my tank has started showing issues for the past few weeks. See my H. Siamensis and L. SuperRed. Two weeks ago, I drastically thinned and trimmed the tank, but it now seems like the resilience is gone. Weekly, I dose the following according to EI: NO3 20 ppm PO4 3 ppm K 18.33 ppm Mg 3.71 ppm S 6.75 ppm The aquasoil Amazonia v2 is now almost a year old, to which I added root tabs (Seachem flourish) two months ago.
I have a Chihiros WRGB2-60 at 55%. Could it be light fallof at the side?
I hope anyone can help me with this...
Forgot to mention that I have a stupid ammount of red cherry's. I got 10 of them 8 months ago. Now I have about 150 - 200. Could they be an issue?
Here's the tank before trimming:


Here some pics of the Siamensis and Super Red:





Thank you in advance!

Richard

 

[Luciën]

Your dosing looks more then sufficient, maybe a flow/CO2 related issue is all I can think about.

 

[Cornelius]

Do you check the quality of the water using a TDS meter?
I suspect that it is way too high.

 

[dIggO]

TDS is 245

 

[Cornelius]

Those are good values. Then we can rule out too much pollution when solving the plants problem

For me personally the limit is around 200. At higher values there are too many organic and inorganic substances in the water, which can cause problems.

 

[dIggO]

To come back at the TDS; My tapwater is 235...
Could a too high TDS value cause this kind of trouble?
At first i thought it would be PO4 or K related, but those values are good. So I'm a bit lost...

 

[Cornelius]

TDS is not the problem

At first i thought it would be PO4 or K related, but those values are good

Nope, your plants shows otherwise.
You have aquasoil and dose NO3 25ppm, PO4 - 2.5ppm, K - 20ppm, thereby filled up with nutrient capsules is asking for a nutrients lockdown. imo

 

[martinjcxn]

I don’t think you have a problem just yet - at least not an obvious one. The L Super Red will wither at the substrate level if it grows too dense and you skip trimming for a while.

I can’t speak to the H Siamensis as I haven’t cultivated this plant before but pinholes are usually an Iron/ Potassium issue. From what I can see the pinholes aren’t on the new growth - so it may also result from skipping trimming.

For now my approach would be to trim the withered growth and replant healthy tops, then monitor closely.

 

[bazz]

The aquasoil Amazonia v2 is now almost a year old, to which I added root tabs (Seachem flourish) two months ago.

Nothing to do with your problem but rather than sporadically adding a lot all in one go just add 1 or 1/2 or 1/4 depending on the contents and brand in different areas each week after the water change, plants love stability and will not be adapted to take in a sudden massive influx of nutrients but we know who might.

I have a Chihiros WRGB2-60 at 55%. Could it be light fallof at the side?

I wouldn't have thought so unless they are being overshadowed by other plants as well, they would just grow more slowly with less light, is your light sitting on top of your tank or is it suspended well above it?
A FTS after the trim would be interesting to see, new plant growth looks pretty good and if your existing plants are all still healthy and densely growing personally my first port of call would be to begin troubleshooting flow and distribution, it's quite a long tank and most of the return could possibly be skimming over the canopy rather than back along at substrate level.
It's also possible that the plants will fully rebound, I don't think many plants enjoy being snipped in half and then replanted without any roots until they get over the shock and regain their footing.
It seems strange that your tapwater is 235 TDS and your tank 245, I would have expected a higher value in the tank dosing pretty much full EI, just curious.

Forgot to mention that I have a stupid ammount of red cherry's. I got 10 of them 8 months ago. Now I have about 150 - 200. Could they be an issue?

You must be feeding them well.

Cheers!

 

[hasan66]

How do you dose your micro fertilizer? There is a lot of potassium nitrate and phosphate in macro. Here you need to look at the micro.

 

[Gorillastomp]

I have H. Siamensis in my tank for over a years or so and everytime i get pinholes similar to yours in older leaves is when i don't dose enough potassium.

I do not use an active substrate so they can't get potassium from there like you.

You seems to have a great plant mass aswell so you might need to up the dose a little bit.