Koi

Ah thats cool man. I figured you were trying to create some sort of all in one fertilizer, I don 't doubt you'll eventually figure something out. I'm kind of doing the same thing right now mixing my own solutions to dose everyday. Alot of my applications are based off of EI and i'm slowly trying to see how much i can lower my fertilizer concentrations without causing deficiencies. Its funny you mention the goldfish, cause I'm currently running a tank with guppies and my tap comes in around 10-20ish ppm. Just like you nitrates is the least of my worries, I'm 2 months in and I'm still trying to dial in my solution.

If you don't mind by me asking, what is it that you're working on that requires such intense research, I'm genuinely curious. My head is still spinning from your first post

I'm not even gonna pretend I can even understand 3/4 of what you just said but I think this might help you a little. This is per dose. I'll at least mention that growing plants/fertilization is much easier than you think its just comes down whatever method you choose to pick. I take it your strengths are in science and since you seem accustomed to using the nutrient calculator, dry ferts sound like something more your alley. Anyways, I hope the analysis has the information you need.

Totally normal, I like to believe that when you notice those kinds of motions the plant is happy and growing. If you look up Rotala species, they all tend to do that as well. My rotalas begin to close up and start growing about an hour before lights shut off.

If it were me I would cut all leaves that have the algae off on your next water change. Your tank looks healthy otherwise so I doubt they'll have problems growing. Now I realize maybe you don't want to trim the anubias leaves since they take so long to grow so if you could, take the anubias out of the tank and you can spot treat with excel with a pipette or syringe (you can save more excel instead of having to dip). If you can't take the anubias out of the tank, lower your tank water so that the plant is out the water (if possible) and treat it that way

I was very much the same way when I started to try to grow plants excited and anxious. I would stare at my plants for hours as if i could physically see the plants growing haha. I also always looked for something wrong in my plants when nothing was there so I completely understand what you're going through, we've all been there. I hope the progression pictures will help alleviate some of that anxiety and give you an idea how long it takes for this plant to start thriving. You definitely have all the pieces to making a beautiful tank just try to sit back and enjoy the process a little more Would love to see an update (hopefully a successful one)

Man i've never had any of my plants completely melt off like that, but hey you never know it could still come back. I think you'll be fine with regular dosing and the root tab. Especially since your crypt can still be transitioning it wont use alot of nutrients

I was confused at first of how you were able to see the roots because i was assuming the crpypt was planting but that fact that its potted makes alot of sense to me now haha. Everything you've mentioned sounds great and I think you're plant is on track to recovery. I just wanted make a few suggestions which may sound obvious but not sure exactly where you are level wise with plants. Crypts are heavy root feeders and I think i saw mentioning that you had a few different types of crpyts so I feel root tabs would be a good addition to your liquid ferts. Leave space around your plant so that it can grow out real big Patience is key for this plant. Once you decide to plant it I would definitely leave it alone for at least a week without trimming it or moving it. Allow the plant to absorb its leaves so it can make new ones. After maybe two weeks you can help trim the rest of the melting leaves but i just want to emphasize that all these changes will shock the plant and you would actually help the plant more by giving it time to heal. I also wanted to share a few pictures to maybe give you an idea of the speed of growth you can expect and you dont necessarily need constantly prune melting leaves. In this tank you can barely see where i planted the crpyt wendtii, its under the anubias and planted around the rocks. I actually completely that the plant was there for a good time i just let my snails eat all the die off This is a exactly a month after and it hasnt really grown at all and this is 4 months from planting I think regular dosing and a root tab will go a long way , its just you gotta give the plant some time to adjust.

I wouldn't worry too much, crypts and some other plants tend to consume their old leaves to create new leaves that are better suited for your tank conditions. Crypts are rather slow growers so definitely give them some time to anchor themselves in your substrate. Within a week you should be able to see new growth coming from the middle of the plant. I know at least from my own crypts, after being moved, it takes at least a month for the roots to really grab hold and settle in. Also I'll ask these just in case (but i think you already know this): 1. are you dosing liquid fertilizers or root tabs? 2. are you burying the plants past the roots?

Hey Ben it sounds like your tank has gone through several changes within a matter of a few months since you've mentioned changing from dry ferts to an all in one down to nothing. In that regard your plants may still be adjusting to the variable doses of macro/micronutrients. I wouldn't necessarily cut off completely dosing fertilizers because the green water can occur from an imbalance of nutrients. What I mean by this is there is a possibility that the plants are being limited by a specific nutrient which prevents your plants from uptaking the rest of your fertilizer. First thing I would suggest is to have solid regime as far as dosing, water change schedule, and photo period. It can take some time for plants to adjust to being fed different fertilizers just because of the different nutrient concentrations. So if you plan to just use easy green just stick with the recommended dosing for a few months so we can establish a baseline. Its much easier to make 1 small change to a tank when everything else is running the same because small changes in nutrients could take a few weeks before you see the result of that change. In regards to the natural sunlight, it could be one of the factors for an imbalance of nutrients since you can't decide on duration or intensity of light you get from the sun. I'm not positive how much the direct sunlight is specifically affecting your setup I just wanted to point out that is a variable factor that you may want to look into. What is your water change schedule like? (do you remove decaying leaves or gravel vac excess organics?) Also I dont think you really need to grab the phosphate test kit. If you're really set on buying look into buying the api pond test kit. Pond test kit is the same as the master test kit except you get phosphate instead of nitrate. Unless you are doubling or tripling EI dose from dry ferts or going way over the suggested easy green dosing there shouldn't be a need to test for it. Regular water changes every week or two should combat it. I'll mention that you could use API algaefix which will clear it up for you but I don't recommend it for 2 reasons. 1. Killing all the algae will give you an ammonia spike 2. It will clear up your tank but unless you solve the underlying issue it could always come back This is all speculative by the way, Im just commenting on what stood out to me in your setup. Hopefully I gave you some other options to look into. Good Luck.

HI Larry, What I think you're going through shares the same symptoms as Old Tank Syndrome. I think you should if possible start doing weekly water changes to atleast keep your nitrates within 20-30 ppm. I don't think it would be the case for your water sprite but I do notice for some of my stem plants, high nitrates tend to stunt them. Organics like the old decaying leaves or excess food that aren't removed from your tank can cause nitrate build up but since you say you do gravel vac you could possibly look into testing how much nitrate is in your tap water. That could also explain why you might not see your nitrates coming down because you could be adding some into your tank during the waterchanges. As far as the growth of your water sprite, it looks like its growing well so I wouldn't worry about the die off and just focus on the new growth. From that picture it looks about time to cut them anyways so I would definitely uproot the plants and just plant the new tops maybe with some space in between them so they can grow without shading each other. And for the last part, this is what I personally would do to reset your tank parameters is to do a 50% water change and do another 50% in 2-3 days for the first week. That should hopefully bring it within 20-30 ppm and then 50% weekly changes to keep nitrates below 40. This last part is just a suggestion to try to get your tank back on track, in the end do whatever is most comfortable for you.