Koi
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Posts posted by Koi
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47 minutes ago, Solidus1833 said:
I find them digging deep and searing up the tabs
I was a little jealous of your stocking since I always wanted to get clown loaches....this makes me feel a little better that I don’t have to deal with that!
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I personally think classifying plants as root feeders or water column feeders is sort of a misnomer since most plants do both but for simplicities sake, yes.
I think of root tabs as a back up for nutrients that the roots can access when nutrients aren't available in the water column. Bulb plants in general tend to consume a lot of nutrients because they are trying to store as much energy before they go into a dormancy stage during the winter (at least this is the case outside when a plant has to weather different seasons). When I owned a madagascar lace, it was planted in dirt with no extra ferts and it grew like crazy so I think root tabs would be a worthwhile venture for you.
Hopefully this helps, update us on your progress!
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@Solidus1833 It could quite possibly be the case since you are running co2. You could be driving the growth so fast that plant consumes itself to the point where it can't recover.
By the way your tank looks great, I love the rainbows and loaches! It looks like you have a decent sized bio-load so adding nitrates is probably a non issue for you. That being said, when your tank reaches 10ppm nitrates that could possibly mean you bottomed out on the rest of your nutrients. Maybe try maintaining your nitrates from 20-30 ppm nitrates with easy green and see if that helps.
I use to have these big boom and bust cycles of plant growth and usually it was because used the same amount of fertilizer even thought my plant mass doubled and needed more (If I'm being completely honest, I still suffer from dosing incorrectly). Maybe you're experiencing the same thing.
I just noticed your anubias and it looks like you have black beard algae. If the anubias is able to be pulled out of the tank, you can treat it with hydrogen peroxide or excel to kill it.
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From what you described it sounds like you need to dose more easy green. Holes in leaves is usually symptomatic of a potassium deficiency but more than likely you are low on several nutrients and since your nitrates are relatively low, that means adding another dose of easy green should be no problem.
As a general guideline when you see the bottom/older leaves start falling apart it usually means your plants are pulling nutrients from its own leaves to grow because there is none available in your water column. You could stand to even do 2 extra doses of easy green but try one for now and see if there is progress keeping in mind that as your plant mass grows you will need to adjust the amount you feed to sustain the plants.
From this point focus on your new growth and ignore the dying leaves because they will not grow back. Since you mentioned that you see new growth in your plants I would cut the tattered leaves of your aponogeton and bacopa. If you'd like, it might be better to just cut the tops of your bacopa and replant.
Also when was the last time you added a root tab for your aponogeton? You said you noticed its rate of growth has slowed down substantially which could indicate that its time to put another one in.
On a side note, I've found that madagascar lace plants consume a considerable amount of potassium and I would assume that would be the case for many aponogetons. But no need to go buy extra potassium since easy green has a considerable amount in it and you still have a lot of extra room (nitrate wise) to dose more when you need to cross that bridge.
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Usually most people will start it from the background and as it grows tall, they trim the tops and plant right in front of it. That way the nice looking top of the the rotala hides the stems with all the the roots behind it. Eventually the stems that are in the back will grow 2 more shoots and over time you get this bushy effect. Not sure if that makes sense.
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Yea your parameters look ideal, I would up your dose a little more. Unfortunately all those affected leaves will not come back so you could either remove all the tattered leaves or replant the tops. From there, focus on the new growth and see if those leaves start developing holes over time.
On the bright side your alternanthera's new growth looks healthy and vibrant so I don't think it will miss a beat once replanted.
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It's natural for rotala to have lots of aerial roots, nothing to worry about. The best way I understand it is that when it gets taller it will produce roots along its stem as a closer source to pull nutrients for the top of the plant.
I also think it might be an adaptation for the plant since its commonly found in riverbanks or rice paddies. I assume the aerial roots are somewhat of an anchor as it usually is found in large clusters. Also since the stems are rather fragile and if it ever gets uprooted or breaks, it seems like the aerial roots offer more surface area for the plant to get caught between rocks or entangled with other plants as it floats around in the water. But I really don't know its just what makes the most sense to me.
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It looks like symptoms of potassium deficiency but that would depend on certain factors. What are you tank parameters and what does your dosing look like?
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Beautiful tanks! I’ll be honest, I’m a sucker for that galaxy background!
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3 hours ago, gardenman said:
As long as it's reasonably healthy and growing, I'd just accept it for what it is. It's pretty no matter what. At some point it may decide to put out floating leaves, or it may choose not to. Plants tend to have minds of their own and do what they want.
I agree with this, I have multiple bulbs created from the same lily and they all grow and variable speeds. One constantly races to the surface of the tank and another never reaches the top.
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33 minutes ago, Elizabeth Power said:
Also, I know a NPK imbalance can cause problems and without a general fertilizer
Your degree in horticulture just saved me from writing a whole paragraph about that haha.
Jokes aside, I am having a little trouble in confidently pinpointing what I think the main issue is. I think foregoing the general fertilizer is a good move since your nitrates are high and I think you are right about the potassium and phosphorus being part of the issue.
Firstly, sorry to hear you are sick hope you get better. Whenever you feel better, doing a decent size water change to reset your levels would be a good start to reduce your nitrates unless your tap already has high nitrates. But you can get to that whenever is best for you and at least for now I have some ideas to tweak your dosing just a little if you are interested.
But before I get into that, could you tell me your ph/gh/kh?
And if possible could I see pictures of any of your plants that are showing the deficiencies? I can sort of see some of the yellowing you are talking about on some of your plants (like the rightish middle behind the crypt) but I don't have a clear look. But don't worry too much if you can't get the pictures, it might not me useful but sometimes having the full picture will give us a better idea whats going on.
Your Dosing
I broke down the dosing into milliliters so don't worry about the values too much, it is more so for me to keep track of the numbers.
Phosphorus - 2.5 ml = .13 ppm
Potassium - 3.3 ml = 2 ppm
Iron - 2.5 ml = .3ppm
I would definitely want to raise both P and K. The amounts will vary if you prefer dosing everyday/every other day or if you would rather dose one day in the week but I'll try to keep it simple. I think the easiest way to start is to set a standard of what 1 dose is for phosphorous and potassium. Since I'm very lazy, I think 5ml (1 capful) would be an easy metric to use.
Phosphorus - 5 ml = .26 ppm
Potassium - 5 ml = 3 ppm
Usually I would suggest introducing fertilizers really slowly but in your case I think adding 10ml of both potassium and phosphorous to start off would be good. That dose will bring your tank to around .5 ppm P and 6ppm K.
After the first initial dosing you can just do one dose of P and K every week. I think this is a decent routine that you can stick with for a while until you see some progress.
For iron, I think that amount is fine but it might be more iron than your tank will be able to use in one day. I think 1ml every 2-3 days serves the same purpose just do not dose this the same time you dose phosphorus.
For your traces I wouldn't worry about it too much at this point. You could definitely use a little more but at least for now stick to the recommended until you begin to see progress.
Try aim for around 1 ppm phosphorus and 10 ppm potassium and maintain it there through water changes. Don't worry about testing water or trying to figure out how much nutrients your plants use. A simpler way to to think of it is measure the amount of P and K you put in and replace what you take out it water changes and assume your plants didn't use any of your nutrients.
If all this doesn't make any sense, basically add a capful of and P and K a week and ignore everything else I said. If you can't do as much water changes you can do half a cap of phosphorus instead. I would keep the potassium dose the same just cause extra potassium doesn't hurt and and it would be extremely hard to reach a point of buildup where it is detrimental to your tank.
These are links for potassium and phosphorus and under the directions will tell you how much a dose treats. It also has a calculator you can use to start targeting certain ppms.
https://www.seachem.com/flourish-potassium.php
https://www.seachem.com/flourish-phosphorus.php
My math isn't the strongest and I like using this nutrient calculator just because it is all on one page. I can help you navigate through the calculator if its confusing.
https://rotalabutterfly.com/nutrient-calculator.php
That sums up pretty much how I would go about dosing your tank. Those are rough estimates of what each dose consists of and you can choose wether what increments you want to dose at. At this point focus on the new growth of your plants and ignore all the old leaves. Once you begin to see new growth appearing and the leaves look healthy, I would start trimming away at some of your older dying leaves. One last thing I'll mention is if you don't like water column dosing, using root tabs especially under your lily and crypts would be a good way to offer nutrients to those plants so it will not have to compete for nutrients with your water lettuce.
I hope this wasn't too long or too confusing. If there is anything that doesn't make sense feel free to ask and let me know if I am rambling too much! Please update us on your progress wether things are working or not and good luck!
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Wow, I can't even begin to describe how impressed I am that you made a whole tutorial within one picture!
Not gonna lie, I have never used photoshop before but I'll be able to figure it out. I feel like I have to try this now since you put took time out to make this, but thank you!
I have only one question though... You really don't like using liquid test kits huh??? haha
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Looks like a dwarf lily to me.
From looking at some of your other plants it seems like you have a fairly strong light which might be why it’s not reaching for the top of your aquarium. No need to worry about that though, as the leaves begin to crowd each other, your lilies will begin to compete with each other reaching for the light.
I’m seeing some yellowing on some of the leaves which could mean there could be something missing/lacking in nutrients. Are you using any kind of fertilizers? If so which one are you using and how much are you dosing?
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I think it is just an extra precaution to prevent molding. But really I think it's more so for Seachem to cover themselves in case of the off chance someone mishandles their products.
8 hours ago, TheDukeAnumber1 said:I mix my own ferts and use 1 drop of methylene blue per ounce so I don't have to refrigerate and it has worked well.
I never thought to do that, thats really slick!
Vinegar, sorbic acid/potassium sorbate or flourish excel are also good mold preventing additives just in case anybody was curious.
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Planting three to four stems/strands at the same time could give it a little more grip to grab the substrate. I find the a deeper substrate helps a lot in anchoring in plants. Two to three inches should suffice, three to four makes it even easier.
A way I like to establish most of my plants, especially carpeting types, is to actually to completely bury it into the substrate. If you are not confident your lighting is strong enough you can allow a few leaves to show above the substrate.
Heres a shot where I have the leaves barely above the substrate
Here is a picture where you can see exactly how deep I planted my glosso and the leaves above the substrate is what grew.
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@Anita I actually started trying to use my test strips again when I saw that post on your journal! What a clever method! I had some idea how you did it but wasn't fully sure so thank you.
For the last picture, did you mean API ammonia test or is the photo just an example? But if you also use the Tetra Ammonia Test Strip I would love to know what your experience was with it. At this point I'm not sure if I might have contaminated my test trips or if they were faulty to begin with. I even dipped my test strip into a cup of water with windex in it just to see what an ammonia reading would look like and the color did not come out as dark as I expected it to.
I definitely will have to try your method for my ph liquid test kit to see if helps me hold my ph steady.
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Has anyone tried using the ammonia test trip and it showing detectable amounts of ammonia? If so, how clearly does it show and is the color gradient clear to see the difference from each range?
I tried using the tetra ammonia test strips and have yet to see detectable ammonia show up. Fortunately for me I haven't had to deal with too many ammonia spikes but it would be nice not having to double check with a liquid test kit every time. Even so, looking at the color chart, the transitions from each color aren't that apparent to me for both the ammonia and 6 in 1 strip. I'm starting to think my eye sight is going bad...
Curious to know if the results come out clearly for the multi test strips as well but at from the pictures it seems each unit is clearly visible. Ph is the only one that looks like it might give me some trouble in trying to read. I would love to hear your guys experience with it.
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To keep it short because co2 is kind of a whole can of worms to open up. The chart isn’t set in stone, it’s more of a guideline. There’s a lot of things like buffers that can skew your true results (like the crushed coral) which gives you a false co2 reading.
The chart will always say you have more co2 even when it is actually lower. But luckily it will never be the other way around so you will never run into a situation where the co2 will be higher than what the chart says.
I agree with what @ChefConfit said about your plant stocking. With such slow growers reaching a 30 ppm benchmark probably shouldn’t be the main priority. Even at half that, they will have more than enough provided you have good circulation.
Beautiful tank by the way! I’m really jealous of your Java fern, I can’t grow them that big or green for the life me. I’m struggling to see any algae on your tank so it seems (at least from the picture) that you only need to do some minor changes to get you on track.
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I think using a reactor dissolves the co2 into your water the most efficiently and you don't really get the bubbles flowing around your tank. The claim usually is that reactors dissolve 100% of co2 being used but I think that comes second to having good circulation.
I have never ran side by side experiments on this but I think there is some value to the bubbles floating around the tank. My thought on is this is that you could potentially have more co2 present in the system without needing to fully dissolve it all. So in a sense even at 30ppm of co2 you could technically be offering more co2 as the bubbles are touching the leaves as they flow by. But I don't have any evidence to support this claim, it is just something I've noticed in my experience. I personally just use a in tank glass diffuser with a powerhead/wave maker to spin the bubbles around my tank a few times before they breach the surface.
Something to note, I find that having "30 ppm" of co2 doesn't necessarily mean having good co2. What I mean by this is that when plants begin to fill out a tank, they begin to dampen the water flow and consume more co2 but I think it is more prevalent when trying to push growth in tanks with very high plant mass. In my case, since my tank is relatively taller compared to its other dimensions, increasing water flow and direction has helped in maintaining adequate co2 at substrate level.
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1 hour ago, Biotope Biologist said:
Remember nitrate is 4x denser than water so good flow keeps it from "settling"
I never knew that, thats interesting. So does that mean when testing it is better to pull water from the bottom? Or is this only something that occurs if there is no water circulation?
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My tap water is around 40 ppm nitrate and .5 ppm nitrite, so pretty similar to yours. I don't think you necessarily need an RODI unit If nitrates is the only reason for getting it but theres nothing wrong if you want to get it.
80 ppm nitrate isn't ideal but it isn't as critical as ammonia or nitrite. If you want to lower it down a considerable amount quickly, 50% water changes or above probably would resolve that in one water change. But if you would rather do smaller water changes, you could probably bring it down in a couple of weeks (depending how often you are changing out the water)
Also I just wanted to add that completely cutting off easy green might not help with reducing your nitrates. I know it sounds counterintuitive to add fertilizer to you tank to reduce nitrates but you need the all the other nutrients from easy green for the plants to be able to consume nitrates. Try considering adding a fast growing plant like hornwort , water sprite/wisteria, elodea, or some kind of floating plant.
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It looks like you have a decent sized cap but I think its still worth trying to feel around the sand for soft spots. Especially in areas that you planted where sand could have been displaced making your cap layer thinner.
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It could be iron but if you are dosing less than recommended I'm not sure if it is the culprit. Only one of my tanks gets like yours by the end of week but I'm dosing a pretty large amount of iron everyday and I'm using different forms of iron. But I have another tank that only uses easy iron at 1-2 doses a day without water changes and It doesn't stain my water. The staining of your water could also indicate that you might not need to dose iron yet, but thats just a wild guess from me.
Did you dirt your tank?
Also when you are dosing iron are you adding any other fertilizers at the same time?
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Not gonna lie, I’ve been trying to figure out the size of your snails this whole time haha. I didn’t think it was that big!
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Trouble in paradise! (unhappy plants)
in Plants, Algae, and Fertilizers
Posted
It’s probably no more dangerous than liquid fertilizer in the water