Everything is Melting

So over the last couple days I've had crypts melting from the outer edges, echenodorous having major structural issues, and leaf melt/shed on star grass, L. cardinalis, and staurogyne. Nothing apparent has changed; my ferts are as usual, excel dosing caries on, lights and CO2 are good. The whole tank isn't turning to liquid, but there's a lot of leaf death going on despite maintaining good growth. No new algae outbreaks either.

The one plant unaffected is H. sibthorpoids, after that the crypt shows the least signs.

Any ideas?

-Philosophos

 

CO2 is as usual; the fish are obviously annoyed, the drop checker is limey, and the bubbles are everywhere. Plants are even perked up like they've got plenty.

I just did a KH test on the water column with a fairly fresh API kit; 2-3dkh which is probably actually 1-4 at worst. Well within bounds. *edit* AS would be reducing KH, and tap sits 7 most of the time; I'll check tap.

It's not as if everything is melting severely, but there's a sprinkling of melt here and there. Some of the staurogyne and star grass was recently trimmed/moved, and that's showing the worst of it. The H. sibthorpioides probably got the worst abuse, but as I said, it's looking good.

The real confusing part is where chunks are missing out of plants like they've been bitten then smoothed off without any signs of melt, but I'm sure my apistos couldn't have done that sort of damage.

So here's what I can think of:

- I'm adding the equivalent of 2.6ppm 100% HCL to 500ml of my trace, but that's been going on for a while.

- I just did a thorough filter cleaning, and replaced fine filtration. No algae though, no stress from sensitive fish, high plant density.

-*edit* looks like some hydras got in from another tank that has issues.

-Philosophos

 

CO2 would be the obvious but for the fact that I know how to get good CO2 in a tank. If I push my CO2 any higher, the fish will be gasping at the surface again. I have two powerheads and an XP1 on a 28 gal, and the biggest powerhead runs 180gph pushing CO2 out over some of the worst effected plants. Bubbles are everywhere. The plants are not twisting or stunting; the unaffected leaf growth is sticking out straight and green, like it's got plenty of CO2. I'm even dosing excel daily along side CO2 to slow hydra growth, since it seems to do something. BBA does not exist in my tank in any visible way right now either.

The melting has stopped its progression. No new leaves are wasting, some of the ones that showed mild signs are recovering. One of the advantages of pushing high light is getting fast response times.

If it's water quality issues, I'd suspect a line flush within the days of my last water change back on the fourth. Since then, as of yesterday, other plants in other places have received the same tap and been fine. If they show any symptoms, I'll be doing a few tests on my tap water. If it was a line flush, it's too late to do anything now except recover.

-Philosophos

 

The water department said nothing's happened in the area recently. I have a feeling it may have been some sort of random contamination. If it were anything essential, other tanks would be showing. Still, It was kind of amazing; like tank wide crypt melt for a day or two.

-Philosophos

 

Have you ever had it happen during a lighting decrease? The bulb is a 65w CF and probably hitting its 6 month mark.

-Philosophos

 

And the melt is back... I woke up to the sibthorpoides melting, and the staurogyne wasting even worse. The staurogyne is actually structurally integral enough to have leaves sticking straight out, completely devoid of chlorophyll.

I'm thinking it might be in the nutrients; my macro batch just spoiled, and it's showing tons of flakey, organic looking precipitates. I must've contaminated it with micros or something from an unwashed pipette.

Looks like I'll be spending a good part of today re-mixing all of my ferts.

If I'm leaving anyone hanging on any threads, please private message me as a reminder; I'll get back to you about it either later tonight or tomorrow.

-Philosophos

 

I'm pretty convinced it's something toxic as well. The end of that batch of macros was pretty gross looking. If you've ever soaked a wound in water that's shedding a lot of skin... it looked kind of like that but pure white. Water change tomorrow, for now I'm going to let my head relax.

-Philosophos

 

This is the first time I've had trouble with liquid spoiling. I use liquid ferts because I find weight to be about +/-15% more accurate than dry dosing in the ranges I use. The mix has been popular enough to sell through a LFS after turning around the owner's planted tanks from falling apart to pearling.

Interesting that it was C. wendtii bronze; that's exactly what's sitting in my tank. It caught the least of the melt, but was the most established plant to react.

Anyhow, hopefully things will turn around. Thanks for the post.

-Philosophos

 

*update*
Does anyone know what turns stargrass tips black? Even if I've potentially solved the problem, I wouldn't mind understanding the details of what happened.

-Philosophos

 

It's the tissue its self turning black, enough to see the detail of the fibers on the leaf. It's not on most of the tips, but I figured it'd be a hint at least. It seems to go along with the deterioration, and only appears on the melting tips.

The L. aromatica seems to have one spot of it on one leaf, nothing else.

I doubt there's enough to get any smell off of the black areas.

-Philosophos

 

it doesn't scrape off; the leaf disintegrates. It really does appear to be from within the leaf. I can't say there's any discernible smell, and I've got a fairly good nose from wine tasting/cooking.

The blackness definitely doesn't add any sort of extra texture to the leaf.

And before you ask, no, I'm not going to taste it

-Philosophos