Plant Problem (Help)

[drobertson]

This is out of my 10 gal planted tank.
I noticed this about 6 days ago, and this is what it looked like today.

Numbers
PH 8.0
Ammonia 0
NitrIte 0
NitrAte 0-5
KH 10

Any Help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[dapellegrini]

What are you dosing? Are you using Excel? Looks like your NO3 is too low. K may be part of the problem you are having here...

Here is a good resource for IDing plant deficiencies:

http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_nutrient.htm

 

[JDogg]

This is out of my 10 gal planted tank.
I noticed this about 6 days ago, and this is what it looked like today.

Numbers
PH 8.0
Ammonia 0
NitrIte 0
NitrAte 0-5
KH 10

Any Help would be greatly appreciated.

well some more info would be nice?

what kind of bulbs and how much light do you have?
CO2?
What are you dosing?
what plant is that?

off the top of my head i would say most likley K deficency...maybe Fe is it old growth or new growth?

0-5 ppm NO3.... that is way to low.. planted tank you should have atleast 20 ppm NO3 IMO...

 

[drobertson]

Plant type, not sure was told it is a Sword. The plant is 10 inches tall with a far amount of new growth at the base. It has been in the tank for about 6 weeks now.

Lighting: 32 watts cf
Dosing:
Flourish Comprehensive 3ml 1 time a week after waterchange.
Flourish Excel 1ml every other day.
Flourish root tabs

What are K and FE, and how do I get my NO3 up?

 

[dapellegrini]

K = Potassium, FE = Iron...

Are you using fertilizers? Many people here use dry ferts for these... You can also buy different Seachem liquids Nitrogen, Potassium and Phosphate. Iron is usually part of a trace mix, like Seachem Comprehensive.

** EDIT **

BTW, that is a sword.

 

[drobertson]

The list above is all that I have been adding.

 

[dapellegrini]

You should pick up some Potassium, Phosphate and Nitrogen. Seachem sells each of the separately in liquid form, and it can get a little spendy. Alternately, you could pick them up in dry form from gregwatson.com. You would get KH2PO4 (Phosphate), K2SO4 (Potassium), and KNO3 (NitrAte).

 

[JDogg]

Plant type, not sure was told it is a Sword. The plant is 10 inches tall with a far amount of new growth at the base. It has been in the tank for about 6 weeks now.

Lighting: 32 watts cf
Dosing:
Flourish Comprehensive 3ml 1 time a week after waterchange.
Flourish Excel 1ml every other day.
Flourish root tabs

What are K and FE, and how do I get my NO3 up?

Welcome to the world of Planted Aquarium...Let the Education Begin!
32 watts total?
probabaly do not need CO2 and by dosing Excel you are going to need to start dosing ferts....

i would pick up GH/KH test kits as well as Phosphate test.

start dosing nitrate, potassium and phosphate...
if you go with flourish i would start out with about... 10 ml NO3, 3 ml PO4 and 15 ml K

i would also double you Comprehensive dose (do not dose this on the same day you dose the other stuff)...

why are you only dosing Excel every other day? if you do not have one of the planted that melt in Excel might as well dose everyday once you get your ferts inline...

you said you are using root tabs... how long since you last added new ones? if this a a 10"+ sword you might need two root tabs under it :?

 

[drobertson]

Root tabs changed Dec 2nd.
I really like the way this tank is going and do not want to mess it up.
I know this was going to be a learning experience, but did not realize that I was going to have to be a chemist. LOL

Thanks for all the info!!!!

 

[dapellegrini]

Yep... I actually ended up learning the atomic weights of each compound in the dry ferts before realizing that I could just use Chuck calculator application to figure out how much K I was dosing in 3/4tsp of KNO3... LOL

I think you will have most of your bases covered once you start dosing your macro ferts... Do you have a pic of the tank?

 

[drobertson]

dapellegrini;
Yes, to the full tank shot. This was taken tonight right after they were fed so you will see leftovers in the mosses that is cleaned up now. The Pennywort in the middle is part of that which you sent me.

 

[dapellegrini]

Looks good! Everything looks pretty happy with exception of that leaf... a bit of macro fert dosing and you should be pulling most of those plants out of there in no time. LOL The sword alone will get larger than your whole tank (twice over), not to mention the pennywort... and is that cabomba in the back right? Do you have any fish in there (I think I see a guppy)?

 

[drobertson]

Do you have any fish in there (I think I see a guppy)?

Lets see
3 Panda Cories
6 Neon Tetra
and my LFS thought they were being funny or something, when I picked up the Neon's the put 4 Guppy fry in the bag, and I did not realize it until I got them home. Then my GF decides that she likes them. So they will end up in the 20 gal that I am cycling now.

Oh Yeah, I think you can see the hitch hiker that came with I think the Brazilian Pennywort that was donated to the cause.

and It is Asian Ambulia in the back right corner, also donated by a member of this site, while I am at it the moss was donated by a third.

 

[fish_4_all]

Nitrates, nitrates and more nitrates, lol. You need to dose about 10ppm every other day and this should take care of the problem. It will create a new problem with massive growth and a tank that is a plant monster.

You don't have to be a chemist to dose this stuff, the most important thing is to remember that you never want to run out and soe to that. with the plants you have, you are porbably at 0ppm NO3 and that is causing the leaf problems, that or K and that will be dosed also.

Stump remover is a good source for NO3 and fleet enema is also used for PO4 where NoSalt is used for K. All available at a hardware store or grocery store. I don't know the dosing but someone else will if you decide to get them. I got mine from Gregs so everything was easy with Chucks Calculator.

In my 10 gallon tanks I dose this:
10ppm NO3, .77ppm PO4 every other day 3x a week.
CSM+B to .27ppm on the other days 3x a week.
MgSO4 10ppm and Ca to ~35ppm after a water change.

 

[drobertson]

Plant type, not sure was told it is a Sword. The plant is 10 inches tall with a far amount of new growth at the base. It has been in the tank for about 6 weeks now.

Lighting: 32 watts cf
Dosing:
Flourish Comprehensive 3ml 1 time a week after waterchange.
Flourish Excel 1ml every other day.
Flourish root tabs

What are K and FE, and how do I get my NO3 up?

Welcome to the world of Planted Aquarium...Let the Education Begin!
32 watts total?
probabaly do not need CO2 and by dosing Excel you are going to need to start dosing ferts....

i would pick up GH/KH test kits as well as Phosphate test.

start dosing nitrate, potassium and phosphate...
if you go with flourish i would start out with about... 10 ml NO3, 3 ml PO4 and 15 ml K

i would also double you Comprehensive dose (do not dose this on the same day you dose the other stuff)...

why are you only dosing Excel every other day? if you do not have one of the planted that melt in Excel might as well dose everyday once you get your ferts inline...

you said you are using root tabs... how long since you last added new ones? if this a a 10"+ sword you might need two root tabs under it :?

Ok, got the Seachem florish, Nitrogen, Potassium, and Phosphorus, trying to make sure I have the recommended doses right.
Nitrogen 10ml/week
Potassium 3ml/week
Phosphorus 15ml/week
I just think I have something messed up here, Thanks for any help.

 

[Purrbox]

Nitrogen 10-20ppm (1-3x per week)
Phosphorus 1-2ppm (1-3x per week)
Potassium 10-20ppm (1x per week - can dose all at once or several smaller doses)
Comprehensive 0.1-0.2ppm fe (1-3x per week)

Lower Light tanks usually only need one dose per week on the low end and Higher Light tanks often need dosing every other day on the high end. Make sure to dose the Phosphorus and Comprehensive at least 4 hours apart, although alternating days is usually easiest.

 

[zenkatydid]

why is it recommended to dose trace and macros at different times?

 

[drobertson]

OK, now I am going to show how bright a guy you all are dealing with.

How do I figure out how many ml to use to get the ppm that Purrbox suggested?

Ok, Found a site to convert from a link in the sticky's.

Thanks for all the Help

 

[Purrbox]

why is it recommended to dose trace and macros at different times?

The reason is that the Phosphate and Iron in the Trace Fert will interact causing the Iron to precipitate out of solution making it unusable to the plants. By dosing at least four hours apart you avoid/minimize this problem.