confused about dosing

Re: confused about dosing

Curled leaves are a symptom of potassium deficiency, among other things. Perhaps try adding some for a week or so and see how that works?

As far as changing water is concerned, there is a lot here about the EI method. You can reduce the frequency of water changes to some extent, but the archives will tell you much more than I can about that.

I will add that a minority of us change water about once a month or so, and then perhaps 5 percent. But we take a different approach to growing plants.

Good luck!

Bill

 

Re: confused about dosing

Matthew,

Interesting that you have the same problem as me. I have a 90 with 3 WPG, CO2 and high plant load. I started EI about 3-4 weeks ago and have seen major improvements (little green dust algae persisting... otherwise all is good), except my Ludwigia Glandulosa grows very curly leaves.

My dosing is mostly the same as you, except that I add 1 tsp of KNO3 3x per week and give 1 day break before water changes. My water has a GH of 9, but I add a GH to it at water changes (Seachem Eq).

I will also try adding K to see what happens. Please post back if you solve the problem.

On occasion I have read that Tom recommends adding TMG or Flourish instead of CSM + B. Does anyone (hint) know exactly why? Before I switch to TMG I would like to know what benefits it has.

 

Re: confused about dosing

Same here. I can only get the L. glandulosa to become pretty with less PO4 keeping it under 0.5 ppm thus restricting it's growth-rates. It also get's pretty in the shadow of other plants also restricting it's growth rates. But near the light when PO4-levels are high it get's very curly. It seems to love PO4 though - when the PO4 are high it keeps it's lowest leaves and have phenomenal growth. Perhaps to good growth? I'm thinking of some "bitter pit"-phenomenon but with PO4 instead of ammonium.

I thought it was Calcium deficiency but CaCl2/Dolomite/CaCO3 didn't help. It just made me have to dose more micros.

Like me in my 300-litres (78 gallon) but I have a GH of 2.5 with about 22 ppm Ca and 2.5 ppm Mg.

 

Re: confused about dosing

Ditto. I have beautiful growth in the shade but not in full light, the only problem is that it grows green leaves in the shade. Obviously it becomes limites in something at higher growth rates under light. I just got over GSA problems so I am hesitant in reducing PO4, I'll continue the K treatment for a while to see if it helps...

 

Re: confused about dosing

Yep my java fern goes incredibly twisty if I don't dose calcium and a lot of it. There's 30ppm in my tapwater and I have to add enough CaCl2 to take it to 90ppm otherwise my tank looks dreadful very fast.

 

Re: confused about dosing

That nutrient lacking could very well be Ca at higher growth rates. I have a KH of 4-5 and have added some Ca (in form of CaCO3) to the tank in the past without results. If what reiverix says is right, I would have to add a lot more CaCO3 that I had in the past.

I will try the K for a week or so and if not, I will give the Ca a try...