Plant issues

[Ryan1988]

Hey Gang, 

Hoping to get some insight since my plants are struggling

As you can see from the photos a lot of wholes in my plants. some yellow discoloration which leads me to believe its a nutrient deficient combined with pest snails that like to eat even new fresh leaf's. 20 gallon tank I does with easy green 3 times a week 2 pumps each time and 1 root tab per the following plants. amazon sword, aquarium lily amazon sword. The tank also has valisenaria and java moss. Fish 6 glow tetra's 1 nerite snail. lots of pest snails. nutrient test stip shows the following as far as i can tell (partial color blind) 25-50 Nitrate, 0 nitrite, GH 300, KH 120, PH 7.2-7.6, 0 Chlorine. 

When water changes since its 0 chlorine I never use the fritz complete binding because their shouldn't be chloramine if their is no chlorine?

If there is any other information you need just ask 🙂

Thank you, 
Ryan

[Kurt Brutting]

How old is the setup? New aquariums need time to settle in. What is your light schedule? So far your setup doesn’t look to bad, your on the right track. Do you dose any extra potassium? Sometimes that helps with pin holes in leaves. I dose Easy Green and Seachem Postassium in all my tanks and I have similar water parameters as you. 
How often are you dosing root tabs? 

[Ryan1988]

@Kurt Brutting Not new, 2 + years old. Light schedule is 6am to 6pm. Fluval 3.0. I have never dosed extra potassium outside of what is in easy green. Lately because the amazon sword has looked so rough i do root tabs on the same days as easy green liquid so 3 times a week. 

Edited October 23, 2023 by Ryan1988

[Kurt Brutting]

My light schedules are between 8 and 9 hours, but that wouldn’t hurt your plants especially a Fluval is a good plant light. Just be careful with the root tabs they could leach into your water column and start throwing things off. I don’t have Amazon swords but I do have crypts and Val and I dose my root tabs every couple months, but I know swords are heavy root feeders. 
Maybe try a little extra potassium. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 10/21/2023 at 8:36 AM, Ryan1988 said:

Fish 6 glow tetra's 1 nerite snail. lots of pest snails. nutrient test stip shows the following as far as i can tell (partial color blind) 25-50 Nitrate, 0 nitrite, GH 300, KH 120, PH 7.2-7.6, 0 Chlorine. 

When water changes since its 0 chlorine I never use the fritz complete binding because their shouldn't be chloramine if their is no chlorine?

Even if you don't have chlorine or chloramine, the dechlorinators do other things as well.  Some help with heavy metals and other things that aren't good with your water.  It's entirely your call on what you want to use, but I think it's something where I would still use it for my own tanks, especially for something like shrimp and snail tanks.

That being said if we dive into individual issues, there are a few things we need to keep in mind.  First of which is always going to be water changes, how much and how often, as well as your fertilizer regime, substrate, and CO2 setup.  Considering that the plant in question is a very low demand plant, I think we can rule out a lot of issues and move it down to specifically nutritional. 

If a broad leaved plant gets too much light, then that ends up with algae on the leaves and that isn't what you're seeing.  Pinholes and wilting leaves usually ends up with it being either old growth (emersed, not submersed growth), missing a nutrient that is required, or not getting nutrients in the right way.

 

 

On 10/21/2023 at 8:36 AM, Ryan1988 said:

This photo says a lot to me.  The plants should be growing long right up to the light and be doing ok.  I see algae on about 60-80% of the leaves and it's definitely not helping them to thrive.  The usual method here is to fix the issue as well as manual removal.  Manual removal for val usually leads to a pretty good trim and then letting the plant regrow.  I can't say where is best to cut, but again it all ties back to that nutrient issue and the plant not really having what it needs.

As a general rule for ferts and for root tabs, each one has it's own recipe.  This usually leads to adding a secondary bottle of something.  For some, it's iron, for others it is potassium.  I would suggest adding root tabs to the tank as a lot of these plants in question are root feeders and will want a lot of nutrients from the roots.  Secondary to that, let's add in potassium to the dosing regime for pinholes.  In terms of your fertilizer you are using, check what potassium levels compared to other nutrients.  You might need to be dosing more often than you currently are.  Based on what your substrate is, the root tabs you're using, and keeping up with plant maintenance, then that would indicate maybe there is a need for a different substrate or for a different tab to be used.

Hopefully the above makes sense and there is some adjustments you can make that improve things!
 

On 10/21/2023 at 8:36 AM, Ryan1988 said:

20 gallon tank I does with easy green 3 times a week 2 pumps each time and 1 root tab per the following plants.

Verify that the fertilizer is shaken up as well as the amount that is being dispensed.  Here's a thread on that topic.  In my own tank I have been trying to do everything right, but seemingly underdosing a little bit.
 

 

[Ryan1988]

@nabokovfan87 Hello, Thank you for the reply. Given the make up of easy green it has a significant amount of potassium in in 9.21%. Is your solution to the above photo to just add in an extra pump per dosing? As stated above the current fertilizing regiment is 2 pumps of easy green 3 times a week (20 gal) with 1 easy green root tab for each of the following plants. Amazon sword, aquarium lily, amazon sword. The below is the break down of easy green liquid nutrients. Or what is a secondary bottle of something you think i should add? 

 

[nabokovfan87]

On 10/24/2023 at 6:41 AM, Ryan1988 said:

The below is the break down of easy green liquid nutrients. Or what is a secondary bottle of something you think i should add? 

Do you have some way to verify the amount of liquid being put into the tank per each dose? Something that measures mL so you can verify the amount you're putting in is what you think it to be. (i.e. 2 pumps)

One thing that a lot of hobbyists do is add potassium for specific potassium heavy plant feeders. That being said I can't say anything you're doing is seemingly not enough. You're dosing 3x a week. The best place to start might simply be with tracking your nitrate levels over a week or two with daily testing in the afternoon.  This will give you an idea of how much the plants are using and adjust from there.

Just to give you an idea, here is another all-in-one fertilizer and it has slightly different things added. It's all about what the plant needs and sometimes it can be hard to tell. All we can really do is test levels and verify that certain nutrients are "enough".