Is this normal?

[CrimsonBlayde]

My hygrophila is dropping its lower leaves like mad. First they get holes and then they drop. This is happening in both my tanks. They were planted last April and grew like weeds. All my other plants seem well enough. Is this normal?

Below are my stats and pictures from one of the tanks.

ph 7.6
ammonia and trite 0
trate 5
2 wpg for 11 hrs daily
pwc weekly (5 gallon 50% and 30 gallon 40%)
excel half dose every day except pwc day
pps pro micro and macro solution at half dose daily except pwc day (full doses took the trates too high)

Thanks!

 

[aqua_chem]

Hmm, that looks like classic potassium deficiency to me. I don't know anything about PPS dosing regimes, so you'll have to tell me what's in it, but I would suspect potassium is not... Depending on what kind of light you have on it, you might be experiencing a lighting issue as well, unless the deficiency is so severe that it's causing the plants to shed the leaves entirely.

 

[CrimsonBlayde]

The PPS Pro has potassium, but I have not been dosing the full amount out of concern over nitrate levels. At half the dose, the tanks hold at 5 ppm. At the full dose, my tanks were closer to 15 ppm.

Today, I added a 75% dose of the ferts. I also added a full dose of Seachem potassium. Hopefully that will help.

So two questions...1) By lighting issues, did you mean too much or too little? Wattage or photoperiod? 2) Where should I be holding my nitrates? Would the 15 ppm be awful for the fish?

I am new to planted to tanks, so please forgive the questions. I have so much still to learn.

Thanks!

 

[aqua_chem]

1) Yes, too little lighting might have caused the bottom leaves to fall off (which may be the case if we have two issues at work rather than just one).

2) 15 ppm should be fine.


Are you buying a premade PPS solution? This is one of the reasons that I like making my own solutions/mixtures of premade ones. I can increases or decreases individual components very easily.

 

[CrimsonBlayde]

I made my own. This is my first batch and I made it to specs. Perhaps I need to make some adjustments?

 

[adadkins1]

15ppm nitrates is not that bad IMO. Generally 5-20ppm nitrates is what you want to shoot for, or at least that is what I've read.

 

[CrimsonBlayde]

Maybe I am too paranoid! Will increase to full doses slowly over the next week and see what that does.

 

[adadkins1]

Yeah, I wouldn't get worried unless your nitrates start getting up past 30ppm. Mine got up to 30+, so I think I will scale down to half dose.