Lots Of Holes In My Leaves!!!
- Thread starter Lucy155
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Not sure what happened!! My pictures got posted first!! Sorry! How do I fix? My entire text is not posting...says I have inappropriate content. I can't figure out what's inappropriate. Any clues?
Here’s what was to be my opening post....
Hi. I am new to Barr Report Forum. I am very impressed with the level of knowledge that is on this site. Thank you for sharing. I have been involved in the aquarium hobby for over 35 years. I started with a 55 gallon tank and had as many as 9 tanks at a time when I was breeding angel fish. About five years ago I decided to focus more on plants and began adding them to my original 55 gallon! Now I have a 75 gallon low tech tank full of plants, some that are NOT doing very well. I am getting a lot of holes in the leaves of my Anubis and swords. I'm stuck and hope you can help me. I have attached pictures. See “above!”.
Particulars:
75 gallon heavily planted
Elive Track Lighting (48 Inch - fully loaded w/modules)
Fertilize with Thrive twice/week
Use Enhance twice/week
PennFlex 1200 Canister Filter
79 degrees
Nitrates: 20
Amonia: .25 (tap water)
Nitrites: 0
PH: 7
GH:120
KH: 0
No Co2
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Hi. I am new to Barr Report Forum. I am very impressed with the level of knowledge that is on this site. Thank you for sharing. I have been involved in the aquarium hobby for over 35 years. I started with a 55 gallon tank and had as many as 9 tanks at a time when I was breeding angel fish. About five years ago I decided to focus more on plants and began adding them to my original 55 gallon! Now I have a 75 gallon low tech tank full of plants, some that are NOT doing very well. I am getting a lot of holes in the leaves of my Anubis and swords. I'm stuck and hope you can help me. I have attached pictures. See “above!”.
Particulars:
75 gallon heavily planted
Elive Track Lighting (48 Inch - fully loaded w/modules)
Fertilize with Thrive twice/week
Use Enhance twice/week
PennFlex 1200 Canister Filter
79 degrees
Nitrates: 20
Amonia: .25 (tap water)
Nitrites: 0
PH: 7
GH:120
KH: 0
No Co2
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Hi, I’m not of much help, but I am also seeing this problem in my swords. From a long time ago when I used to do planted tanks I recall that I would see a similar issue when my diy co2 would slack off. Currently my guess on my issue knowing my situation is too long of a photo period or too much intensity of light with not enough co2 to match. But hopefully someone else will chime in.
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Thank you helping. Unfortunately, I don’t know what is in that GH number. I haven’t added anything but the fertilizer mention. Would appreciate more about the GH number. Thank you.
Critters could be tiny snails. I have been catching them in a water bottle poked with holes with cucumber as bait. Not getting any lately, so I think they are under control. I didn’t realized they could chomp down on my plants like that!!!! They are really tiny! Possible??
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Critters could be tiny snails. I have been catching them in a water bottle poked with holes with cucumber as bait. Not getting any lately, so I think they are under control. I didn’t realized they could chomp down on my plants like that!!!! They are really tiny! Possible??
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CarrissaT, thank you. I think it is interesting your explanation of the possible CO2 Connection. I have been holding back from getting CO2 fearing it’s too complicated to set up and am afraid of killing my fish!
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You can figure out exactly how much nitrogen, potassium and phosphate your dosing regimen is adding to your water by looking at the specs on your ferts and then using a calculator to see how much actual water is in your tank and then figuring out the actual ppm of each that your regimen is adding. If you post those results, it may clarify if one of those three macros may be dosing too low and causing a deficiency.
GH is the total measurement of calcium and magnesium. Using a Ca test kit would tell you what of that number is calcium and the rest would be magnesium.
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GH is the total measurement of calcium and magnesium. Using a Ca test kit would tell you what of that number is calcium and the rest would be magnesium.
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Typically snails do not attack leaves unless they are damaged or dying.
Some catfish/suckers can cause extreme plant damage, they find a tasty one and trash it overnight.
I use THRIVE NPK+Micros. 2 x week, 8 pumps (75 gallon plus canister = approx 80 gallons at 1 pump per 10 gallon)
I use 8 pumps of ENHANCE... 1.5% glut
I have one smaller pleco... bristlenose. I have had him for 6+ years. Don’t think he’s doing it.
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I use 8 pumps of ENHANCE... 1.5% glut
I have one smaller pleco... bristlenose. I have had him for 6+ years. Don’t think he’s doing it.
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Amanda Adkins
aquariumfertilizer.com
I am reading up on the KH, GH, and pH to understand their relationship and how they affect the bioavailability of the nutrients you are adding. The KH of the water affects the stability of the pH. I am wondering if your KH being at 0, does your pH vary widely over time? Somewhere in my brain I have the idea that very high GH makes the nutrients less absorbable by the plants. The pictures of the holes in the plants make me think that they are not getting the structural or macronutrients they need to build strong cells for leaves and stems. This would be true if though you have lots of calcium and magnesium in the water, the plants are unable to use them. This may also be affecting their ability to make use of the other macronutrients: nitrates, phosphates, and potassium. I hope these thoughts are helpful.
I’m in Pittsburgh and our water source is the Monongahela River and it is very hard. The site says heavy magnesium and calcium.
My ph doesn’t seem to fluctuate. I only take it monthly. It’s always near 7.
How do I soften my water? Baking soda? That would raise my PH , right?
What additive impacts KH?
I have a hard time with stem plants and jungle Val in particular. These are suppose to be easy.... could this hard water issue impact stem plants?
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My ph doesn’t seem to fluctuate. I only take it monthly. It’s always near 7.
How do I soften my water? Baking soda? That would raise my PH , right?
What additive impacts KH?
I have a hard time with stem plants and jungle Val in particular. These are suppose to be easy.... could this hard water issue impact stem plants?
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Last edited:
To add to the above .... Julia, I was reading your in depth website information on various topics...https://aquariumfertilizer.com/. Thank you. So many levels of information!!!
After reading your articles....and before trying to consistently chemically alter the hardness of my water...
1. I am removing my coral reef T5 lights, Keeping only the Elive modular LED strip system. I want to see if reducing the intensity impacts the pitted-like dark algae problem. (Not mentioned above)
2. I added a root tab at each SWORD to help get more frets to roots.
As a side note...I have two other tanks, a 10 and a 30, where I “throw” starters (Anubis and water sprite) from big tank. They are a beautiful green, no algae, no holes! I never fertilize, never add liquid carbon. ????? My goal is to have my truly planted aquarium plants look like the “tossed” plants!
After reading your articles....and before trying to consistently chemically alter the hardness of my water...
1. I am removing my coral reef T5 lights, Keeping only the Elive modular LED strip system. I want to see if reducing the intensity impacts the pitted-like dark algae problem. (Not mentioned above)
2. I added a root tab at each SWORD to help get more frets to roots.
As a side note...I have two other tanks, a 10 and a 30, where I “throw” starters (Anubis and water sprite) from big tank. They are a beautiful green, no algae, no holes! I never fertilize, never add liquid carbon. ????? My goal is to have my truly planted aquarium plants look like the “tossed” plants!
Here’s pictures of “tossed”, ignored water sprite in 30 gallon and the source water sprite in 75 gallon.
I have the identical problem! Your pics could be mine. Hope someone can give us a hint. Two tanks and the "toss" tank has better looking plants!??
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