Help with staurogyne repens.

[Najjklas]

Hello!

To begin with, I´m from Sweden and my english is not excellent so if something I write is hard to understand, please let me know and I will try to find the right words
I started a planted tank a couple of months ago and I´m still a newbie so feel free to treat me like one

I have a 180 L Juwel Vision tank with 2x 35w and 2x 39w T5 (though one 39w tube is shut off because I got a lot of GDA when I ran at full power)
So three tubes 1x Philips Aquarelle, 1x Sylvania Aquastar and 1x Sylvania Grolux. All with reflectors. They are turned on for 8H per day.

I have pressurised CO2 supplied via an aquamedic am1000 reactor inline with my Eheim 2217 canister filter.
A Dubla controller with a good quality probe controls the magnetic valve on the CO2 regulator.

A couple of weeks ago I read an article about the Co2 chart (that I found out is not that accurate) and decided to forget all I knew about it and instead just slowly increase the CO2 and observe
the tank.
My PH controller is now set to PH 5.9 and I cant se any affected animals in the tank. I have rummynose tetras, otocinclus and SAE together with a lot of red cherry and some Amano shrimp.
At this PH my reactor starts getting a gas build up so I dont think I can supply much more with this flow.


I have lilypipes wich seem to decrese the flow, so I might try disconnecting the inlet lily and just add a Eheim inlet to get more flow to be able to supply more co2 if you suggest thats needed.

I currently dose (per week) about:

20 ppm NO3
3.5 ppm Po4
0.35 ppm fe
13-15 ppm K
8ppm MG (I have 16ppm CA from the tap, is my mg dosing to much?)

This is dosed via a dosing pump that doses everyday when the light turns on.


Are you missing some info on the setup, please let me know


The tank is doing pretty god and I have a lot of nice pearling

The problem is my staurogyne repens wich is pretty pale, like a light greens/yellowish tone. (Looks greener on the pics than in reality)
The leaves are small and the older ones get holes and seem to die off.

I really whant it to looks as nice as I've seen in pictures from other tanks

Any thoughts of what could be wrong?


And sorry if I wrote to much

Regards
Niklas

 

[dutchy]

It seems to me there's a mild deficiency. 20 ppm for a week might not be enough, also Fe is a bit low. For now I'd increase both by 100%. Then wait for around two weeks to let the plants adapt.

Because of the CO2 increase the plants will grow faster. This might result in a nutrient deficiency if you don't compensate.

 

[Najjklas]

Thank you for your reply! I'll try your suggestion. Would it hurt to double the po4 as well? I have kno3 and kh2po4 mixed in one bottle.. Otherwise I'll make a new bottle and dose manually from that one every second day or so.

Thanks!

 

[dutchy]

No, it doesn't really matter, although a PO4 of 7 is quite high and a bit overdone. But it won't be the reason for algae.

 

[Najjklas]

I just realised that I dont have that much fertilizers left in the bottles for the dosing pumps, so I will start trying your suggestion as soon as I get new ferts wich should arrive in the mail any day now.

Since I dont have that much ledt in the bottles, I might as well mix new ones that will last for two weeks.

Do you suggest any other changes now when I have a chance to custimize them?
Or should I go with your first suggestion of 40ppm no3, 0.7ppm fe, 3.5ppm po4?
Should I put in some extra khso4 or should I be satisfied with the K from kno3 and kh2po4?

Sorry about all the questions, just whant to make shure I do this properly..

Niklas

 

[Gerryd]

Hi,

I have kept this plant now for 2-3 years and that looks more like c02 deficiency.....remember too that this plant grows very thickly and MUST be thinned and pruned regularly or the inside/lower leaves get deprived of light and die off.

When you get your new ferts, don't be afraid to increase your dosing. You are most likely okay or close to it but will do no harm to increase some say 1 to 1.5 x your current dosing. Do an extra water change every week as well and adjust c02 slowly every few days and observe fish and critters in between.

Run your fingers through the plants and allow all the old leaves to come out. Don't be afraid to pinch off or top those stems that are bare of leaves. They will regrow if conditions are good. You are close, be patient, keep up with maintenance and dosing/c02 and you will be happier in 2-3 weeks I would think. Give it at least a week to guage impact..

I like your tank BTW.

 

[Yo-han]

Looks like a micro shortage... You said you dose 0.35 Fe. Just Fe or other micro's as well? Maybe you are short on something like boron, tips look small.

 

[Najjklas]

I dose a micro-mix so its not just fe

Thanks for all the replies.
I'll get back to you guys in a week or to. Got my new ferts today, so now I can increase my dosing.

I will give the staurogyne a hard trimming as well

 

[Najjklas]

Hi,

I have kept this plant now for 2-3 years and that looks more like c02 deficiency.....remember too that this plant grows very thickly and MUST be thinned and pruned regularly or the inside/lower leaves get deprived of light and die off.

When you get your new ferts, don't be afraid to increase your dosing. You are most likely okay or close to it but will do no harm to increase some say 1 to 1.5 x your current dosing. Do an extra water change every week as well and adjust c02 slowly every few days and observe fish and critters in between.

Run your fingers through the plants and allow all the old leaves to come out. Don't be afraid to pinch off or top those stems that are bare of leaves. They will regrow if conditions are good. You are close, be patient, keep up with maintenance and dosing/c02 and you will be happier in 2-3 weeks I would think. Give it at least a week to guage impact..

I like your tank BTW.

I have now changed the intake to a regular eheim one instead of the lilypipe.
I have better flow and no gas build-up in the reactor so i increased the co2 some more.

My ph now swings between 5.8-5.9.

No affected animals.. Should i continue the co2 increasing or could there be any harm to have a very low ph? (Not talking about the co2, but the ph value itself)

Regards