Bert's 30G Planted adventure.

[Delapool]

Looks good - what was the substrate again? (absent minded here).

 

[Bert2oo1]

Looks good - what was the substrate again? (absent minded here).

Left and right is Eco complete but has some white normal gravel I struggled to get rid of and the center is fluval stratum.

 

[Caliban07]

Looking good! Exciting tank is this one.

 

[Bert2oo1]

Looking good! Exciting tank is this one.

Thanks my plan now is to just grow everything out to thicken up the scape and then I'll be trimming it down to a nice looking scape

 

[Delapool]

Left and right is Eco complete but has some white normal gravel I struggled to get rid of and the center is fluval stratum.
View attachment 290740

Thanks! How is the colour in real life? It looks ok - I see some threads where people find high intensity lights wash the colours out a bit.

 

[Bert2oo1]

Thanks! How is the colour in real life? It looks ok - I see some threads where people find high intensity lights wash the colours out a bit.

Haven't noticed to be honest plant colour is nice. Most of my substrate will be covered soon anyway I still can't get my pink baby years to go pink though. The unders are but the tops are light green even at the surface

 

[Bert2oo1]

Hey guys I've noticed the leaves on my ludwigi have curled and the colour isn't overly strong compared to the ones I've seen on google images. They are nice a deep red at the top but about an inch down they are trying to turn red but are more of a patchy green/brown.

I was wondering if this is a sign of iron deficiency?

I dose 0.77 grams of aquarium mix micro 3-4 times a week

Co2 is a not the issue as I've moved my drop checker all around my tank and it's basically yellow everywhere (my spray bar has really good spread)

I don't think not enough light would be the issue either as my lights are rated at 125 par at substrate level at 100% power (currently running 90%). They ramp from 30% to 90 over 2 hours then 90 for 4 then ramp down to off over another 2 hours.

There growth rate is pretty slow compared to my other stems aswell (maybe growing an inch a week) however I have read that they are slower than most stems.

Any idea of what might be causing this?
Help is always greatly appreciated!
Thanks

 

[Delapool]

My experience is pretty limited. I find curled leaves associated with a lack of potassium (but I tend to notice more holes in lower leaves at same time). I have tried increasing calcium and magnesium but increasing potassium I think gives most benefit. In mine I dry dose a spoonful or two of potassium each night. Shovel it in pretty much.

Leaves going from red to patchy red/green I did notice when I cut back micros / iron dosing. Seemed to fix itself when I increased dosing again.

 

[Bert2oo1]

My experience is pretty limited. I find curled leaves associated with a lack of potassium (but I tend to notice more holes in lower leaves at same time). I have tried increasing calcium and magnesium but increasing potassium I think gives most benefit. In mine I dry dose a spoonful or two of potassium each night. Shovel it in pretty much.

Leaves going from red to patchy red/green I did notice when I cut back micros / iron dosing. Seemed to fix itself when I increased dosing again.

Hmm interesting! I do have a big bag here of potassium. Maybe I'll dose abit.

Think I'll use my micros abit too. Does overdosing micros cause any issues at all?

 

[Caliban07]

Hmm interesting! I do have a big bag here of potassium. Maybe I'll dose abit.

Think I'll use my micros abit too. Does overdosing micros cause any issues at all?

I'm not sure. There was a small movement in the forums that believed it can cause toxicity but I think it got nullified somewhat. I wouldn't worry too much about it yet if I were to be stingey with any of the ferts it would be micros.

 

[Bert2oo1]

I'm not sure. There was a small movement in the forums that believed it can cause toxicity but I think it got nullified somewhat. I wouldn't worry too much about it yet if I were to be stingey with any of the ferts it would be micros.

Interesting. I've heard adding more iron will give reds a deeper colour too. I'll give it a few more weeks to see if it gets worse but if it doesn't fix I'll have to try and play with a few things

 

[Delapool]

I'm not sure. There was a small movement in the forums that believed it can cause toxicity but I think it got nullified somewhat. I wouldn't worry too much about it yet if I were to be stingey with any of the ferts it would be micros.

Ah, interesting. I got a bit worried on the copper levels dosed in micro mix so picked up a bag of iron ferts to dose separately.

I think it was in a general order of ferts I made to make up weight. I used to dose a lot of iron but found some fine leaf plants like foxtail get a terrible brown muddy colour in my tank. Plant still looked fine, just didn't like the colour. So I've cut back dosing iron specifically to just a little pinch a week. Plus the iron that is in my normal PMDD dosing.

When I was dosing the micros specifically I was putting it all on one day (plus normal PMDD daily dosing). I never noticed any issues, it was just the copper level seemed to getting on the high side for dosing.

 

[Bert2oo1]

Ah, interesting. I got a bit worried on the copper levels dosed in micro mix so picked up a bag of iron ferts to dose separately.

I think it was in a general order of ferts I made to make up weight. I used to dose a lot of iron but found some fine leaf plants like foxtail get a terrible brown muddy colour in my tank. Plant still looked fine, just didn't like the colour. So I've cut back dosing iron specifically to just a little pinch a week. Plus the iron that is in my normal PMDD dosing.

When I was dosing the micros specifically I was putting it all on one day (plus normal PMDD daily dosing). I never noticed any issues, it was just the copper level seemed to getting on the high side for dosing.

Do u use aquarium mix from Aquagreen by any chance?

 

[Delapool]

Do u use aquarium mix from Aquagreen by any chance?

Yes, everything from aquagreen for ferts and glut. Usually order once a year or so. Cheapest I've found.

 

[Bert2oo1]

Yes, everything from aquagreen for ferts and glut. Usually order once a year or so. Cheapest I've found.

That's what I use aswell! did u say u dose iron aswell as the aquarium micro mix?? Maybe I need to get a pack of iron aswell

 

[Caliban07]

Ah, interesting. I got a bit worried on the copper levels dosed in micro mix so picked up a bag of iron ferts to dose separately.

I think it was in a general order of ferts I made to make up weight. I used to dose a lot of iron but found some fine leaf plants like foxtail get a terrible brown muddy colour in my tank. Plant still looked fine, just didn't like the colour. So I've cut back dosing iron specifically to just a little pinch a week. Plus the iron that is in my normal PMDD dosing.

When I was dosing the micros specifically I was putting it all on one day (plus normal PMDD daily dosing). I never noticed any issues, it was just the copper level seemed to getting on the high side for dosing.

I've never seen any direct micro nutrient deficiencies in my tank (from the charts you see on the web. But I don't know where they come from) The only deficiency I see is other than co2 is a paler green leaf on some of the faster growing plants. At that point I put some micros in just in case but I always keep up with the macros.

 

[Bert2oo1]

I've never seen any direct micro nutrient deficiencies in my tank (from the charts you see on the web. But I don't know where they come from) The only deficiency I see is other than co2 is a paler green leaf on some of the faster growing plants. At that point I put some micros in just in case but I always keep up with the macros.

Yea I can't see any deficiencies at all and my par is actually far more than most on the forum (well should be according to my light manufacturer) so I'm really at a loose end. I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and let them transform themselves when there ready .
Basically all plants I buy from my lfs are grown emerged (leaves change dramatically once in my aquarium) so maybe they are just taking there time to adjust

 

[Bert2oo1]

Did abit of a rescape today. Took a few plants out and put in some more ludwigi.
Moved a few plants and added a hair grass carpet.
Split my front crypt to make it a lot neater.

Will be filling the front gap left side with ST repens once I get some trimmings.

Will be my final scape for a long time while I let plants grow right out for a jungle effect.



Sorry it's abit cloudy at the moment as I disturbed a few clay root tabs.

 

[Caliban07]

Really starting to come along this. Let the grow in commence.

 

[Bert2oo1]

Really starting to come along this. Let the grow in commence.

But worried about my AR mini. Seems to be rotting at the stem. It's a tissue culture plant is there something I should have done before I added it? I rinsed off all the gel it came in.
Hoping it recovers.