Deformed Hygrophila Polysperma growth

I also have this plant, and it will often be the first to show symptoms of a deficiency since it's such a fast grower. The only times I've ever had serious problems have been when co2 levels have been out of whack/fluctuating. Since you are dosing EI, I would say that co2 is your problem. Do you have 4KH water in your drop checker? Does the color fluctuate? How many bottles of co2 brew do you have? What are you using for a reactor? I have the same size tank as you and I have two 2L bottles running, one of which has to be changed weekly to keep co2 steady and I also have to add an additional 1 tsp of yeast to the bottle I don't change. The output runs into an internal filter which chops it up into tiny microbubbles and dissolves most of it. In this way I keep my drop checker at a yellowish green.

The two times I've had serious issues with my hygro was:
1. I stopped co2 injection - got pinholes that enlarged slowly until the whole leaf fell off. I was pulling out a net worth of leaves every day for a month until I started co2 again, problem went away within a couple of days.
2. CO2 was fluctuating due to poor maintenance - this time, new growth looked like pieces were sort of missing, and the leaves were a bit deformed like yours, and algae started growing on them which normally didn't happen. Kept co2 stable at greenish yellow for a week, after that time new growth was looking normal again.

I also only have 2wpg with poor reflectors.

 

Where is the drop checker in relation to the co2 ladder? If it’s near the ladder then you’re not getting a very good indication of overall co2 saturation.

 

In that case I'm sure it's a co2 issue. I can't imagine trying to maintain sufficient co2 levels in that sized tank with only one bottle and 1/2 liter at that. It's just impossible. Even on a 10g I had to use 1-2L bottle. One 1/2 L bottle would only be sufficient for maybe a 5g tank, if that. Even when I totally restart both bottles with fresh yeast and sugar, and there are literally co2 microbubbles flying all over the place continuously to the point where I can hear them over the TV, my drop checker never gets above greenish yellow. What you should do is make up some new 4KH solution using distilled or RO water and baking soda, and add bromythmol blue to it. This will give you an accurate reading. I have no doubt that you are not getting sufficient co2 with your setup.

The mix I use is 2c sugar, 1 tsp yeast (bloomed before putting it in the bottle), fill the bottle to within 3" of the mouth. After one week, I add 1 tsp of additional bloomed yeast. After two weeks, I change out the whole bottle. I stagger them so that every week I'm adding 1 tsp of yeast to one, and changing the other. I also keep a 25 watt incandescent bulb in a desk lamp shining on the bottles 24/7 to keep the bottles heated hotter than room temperature. This maintains my drop checker in the green range. Any hint of blue, and I know something went wrong and change out both bottles immediately.

Do you have a hob filter or a canister? In either case, if you run your co2 output line to the intake of the filter so that it sucks up and at least partially dissolves the bubbles, you will probably do better with dissolving and circulating your co2.

 

I used to have that same ladder set up for one of the 10 gallon tanks. You should try another method to diffuse your CO2. Search here for CO2 diffusion or distribution...you should find how to use a power head to diffuse the CO2 around the tank. I'm using it and growing many plants with this method. You will see a huge difference
One example: a friend of mine has a CO2 tank without a solenoid and using the ladder set up on 24 hr with no problem.. He changed the ladder for a CO2 reactor. When he changed to a reactor the next morning found his discus almost dead. Why? more CO2 distribution during the night - that he did not use to have with the ladder- and, well he bought a solenoid and a timer.

 

Look on the articles board for the DIY internal reactor. This evidently works to nearly 100% efficiency. But you'll still need to upgrade your bottles.

 

Hi,

This may be true, but it may not be sufficient for your tank's NEED.

It also does not mean that it is DISTRIBUTED throughout the tank as needed.

Just things to keep in mind.

 

I agree with Gerry. Plus you can have 30 ppm of CO2 near the CalAqua but not where it counts: near the plants.

 

I would suggest replacing your solution to see what happens. Both your method and your plants are telling you that your drop checker is giving you a wrong reading. It can go 'bad' after a while, and it's also possible that it got contaminated from tank water or condensation. If a very small amount of condensation got into it, the KH would decrease, and then it would be telling you that you had enough co2 when you really had maybe 10 or 20% of enough.

Something else you can try to see if you're near the ballpark - take a sample of tank water and test pH and record it. Shake it up over and over, uncapping it in between shakings to allow the co2 to offgas. Once it stops changing color (it may take a while, you can even let it sit overnight uncapped to be sure), look at the color and check pH again. You should see about a 1.0 - 1.2 pH RISE after the degassing if you are anywhere near the ballpark of enough co2.

The co2 ladder is probably working to dissolve the small amount of co2 you are adding. But what will happen when you increase the amount of co2 you are adding by 5x? You can try it and find out.

 

Try ADA AS.

 

You can make your own solution easily by simply adding a very small amount of baking soda to distilled water and then diluting it down until you get a reading of 4KH with a test kit. You can increase the accuracy of your test kit by using double the amount of water, if it's the type where you add drops to it....for instance, with mine it says that each drop added to 5ml of water = 20ppm of KH. I use 10ml of water, then each drop = 10ppm of KH, to get a finer result. But it's not a very exact thing, I mean if you have 4.2 or 3.8 KH it will still be within the realm of practically accurate.

Your overnight test suggests that you are within the ballpark of appropriate co2 levels. However this isn't a failsafe method, with an extremely low KH this method can be off as well. Plus it basically depends on whether it's coming to true atmospheric equilibrium or not, which is a topic of some debate; and then it also depends on what atmospheric equilibrium is where you are.

But for the sake of argument lets assume that your drop checker is reading accurately. Do you have very good circulation in the tank? Hygro goes through nutrients very quickly, so very good circulation is needed to provide the co2 they need as they use it up.

I think I would try increasing co2 anyway, just to see the effect on your plants.

Are your plants pearling?

You could also increase your fertilization. If you have a large mass of hygro, it can burn through nitrates like crazy. At one point, I was adding 1/4 tsp KNO3 per DAY just to keep up with demand, before I pruned it back a lot. And that was under 1.25 wpg! So increasing your EI by 50% or something like that, couldn't hurt. But just for the sake of learning what's going on, I would try the co2 thing first since that seems the most suspect.

How often do you change your brew?

 

One thing that I used to do - run your co2 output line directly into the intake on your filter. I did this with my hob filters by just squeezing the airline and pushing it through the slats on the intake. It really works quite well for diffusing co2, and it's free. It's probably not 100% efficient, but another advantage is that it will put the co2 into the output water of your filter which will be sort of shot around the tank.

The thing with circulation is that plants use co2 at a very fast rate. If you have been reading the thread that Tom posted about co2 measurements, you see that it's really amazing what the difference is in co2 if you go from just the general water column, to next to a leaf or in a plant bed, since the plants are actually using the co2 up faster than it gets to them. So just because you seem to have co2 at your drop checker, doesn't mean you have co2 at your plants where they need it, if you have poor circulation, since the plants will be carbon limited based on how fast more co2 gets to them.

I think if you get a couple of bottles going and put the output into your filter intake, and add some more circulation via a powerhead or even an airstone or two if you like, you'll see a big difference shortly if that's the issue. Plants are quick to respond to more co2.

 

How are your Hydrophilas doing nowadays?
I have a similar situation. Pressurized CO2 with timer and JBL Vario/Taifun-spiral and H. corymbosa is looking kind of "tired".