P. Helferi Albino

[jonny_ftm]

Hi,

On my Nano that I dry started (see signature), the new leaves of P. Helferi were white. They looked healthy so didn't bother at first. Now, I notice that those white leaves tend to show on the long term signs of weakness/transparency

Not all plants are affected, but mainly those exposed the most to light. Increasing my TPN dosing and decreasing lights reduced the problem but is still here:



I dose 1.5ml TPN 3x/week on my 12 gal (7 gal real volume)
Also, just discovered that I have probably some stones adding GH and Kh to my water as I ended up with GH 8 and KH 5 (source water is GH 5 an KH 2)

Do you think with my EI dosing that it could be iron deficiency? CO2 is really constant, mist, nice color on drop checker, no algae and good flow on all parts including the bottom (P. Helferi leaves moving). Measuring Fe with two kits gives me a 0 ppm concentration (wehere my 60gal shows 0.1ppm with same kits)

Many thanks for your help

 

[Gilles]

Most likely it is iron in case of white leaves with the P helferi.

 

[Philosophos]

TPN or TPN+? If TPN+ your weekly dosing looks like this:

Nutrient PPM
NO3 7.305633306
PO4 0.377625673
K 1.268526316
Mg 0.480315789
S 1.120736842
B 0.004926316
Cu 0.007389474
Fe 0.086210526
Mn 0.049263158
Mo 0.002463158
Zn 0.00002

presuming about a 38L column. If you're using TPN, just ignore the macros for a fairly accurate approximation (maybe .001 off or something)

Odds are it's the iron, and the deficiency is pretty bad. Everything else I know of that causes whitening would also create some obvious stunting/twisting.

I'd up the dose to 6ml a day and keep an eye out for potassium deficiency.

 

[deucebiggss]

Too bad they couldn't be healthy and white it would look cool. Maybe they are a fluke, like the albino deer or tiger!

 

[jonny_ftm]

I googled Helferi and white and there are many reports of this strange issue. Most suggest micro problem. The leaves look so healthy that one don't bother the issue at first, they're even lovely looking. But some reported that after few weeks, if left that way, they will die

I use TPN, 1.5ml 3x /week, as per EI directions, and even more. Real water column is only 26L (7 gals)

I find 6ml /day very high on such a little volume, fear about my CRS and RCS

Any other suggestions?

 

[Philosophos]

Updated ranges with a 26 gal column would be:

Nutrient PPM
NO3 10.67746406
PO4 0.551914446
K 1.854
Mg 0.702
S 1.638
B 0.0072
Cu 0.0108
Fe 0.126
Mn 0.072
Mo 0.0036
Zn 0.00002

That still looks pretty light to me. Either your iron chelate is breaking down fast, or your plants are sucking up a ton of it. Usually .1ppm dosing avoids deficiency if nothing else.

Even 3ml a day would help. I've dosed over full EI with RCS and no problems. CRS are something I don't have experience with, and I've never been able to find good LC50's for. I think someone needs to do the testing though; there are a lot of miserable myths passed around through guess work with these shrimp.

 

[jonny_ftm]

Sorry, but this is not a 26 gal tank, just 7 gals real volume ( 26 Liters, not gals).

I dose only 20ml /week on my 40 gals real volume. I don't see why I shoud dose 4x EI recommendations for high light tanks on my rather very low light setup 0.9W/gal (or 1.5W/gal if real volume is considered).

Also, my substrate is earthworm castings topped with Flourite Black Sand, so should be iron rich in the roots

Maybe a high PH is the issue. I'll try to get some EDDHA Fe chelate maybe to see if this is the cause

Also, I'm now progressively making water changes with softer water to lower my KH to 2-3 and my GH to 5

 

[Philosophos]

Typo there; should've read 26L not 26 gal. The calculations are all for your tank's volume.

I checked the Seachem site. Newer fluorite black sand should be supplying more than enough Fe, and pH shouldn't have much of anything to do with it. Minimal column dosing, even at high pH, along side a product like that should keep iron well supplied.

Maybe it's something else? Perhaps this plant is showing white where most would show yellow under deficient conditions; some plants do this. Old growth is what seems to be affected on yours, where as in this thread it's all new growth:
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/general-aquarium-plants-discussions/53364-ever-seen-downoi.html

Just throwing things out there.

 

[jonny_ftm]

No, really new growth only is affected, the green plants are usually at dimmer locations

Also, the nerves on leaves are green, like the iron deficieny descriptions. When I immersed the tank, all new leaves from the P. Helferi were white. Things started this way, end November:



Really strange aspect. Now, many leaves are getting back their green color after 2 weeks

Could also be Nitrogen deficiency as I got some BGA bloom on start!!!

 

[deucebiggss]

I know that when I would put my tomato plants outside for the first time the new leaves would turn white. Hardening is what they call it I believe. You dry started the tank, so maybe thats what is going on there? You said they are turning green, which is what happened to my tomato plants after they adjusted. I don't know if you should go nuts with fertilizers.

 

[Philosophos]

It may be worth looking to nitrogen if it's new growth. It's too bad you've got sensitive shrimp in there, otherwise I'd say dose EI in standard quantities and see if it goes away.

You'll see persisting veins from more than just iron deficiency.

Your first pic showed old growth white though; did they fill in green from the top?

What about deficiencies in the rest of the tank? Are there any other species that are showing symptoms?

 

[jonny_ftm]

No, other plants are very healty (C. Parvula, Eleocharis, R. Wallichii, P. Stellatus, Anubia var petite, mosses)
No algae in the tank as you can see from link in my signature

With CRS, I really don't like being agressive in dosing. They are really sensitive, far more than RCS or Amanon S

About old leaves, again they are healty and never were affected. What you see in the first pic is new leaves now growing green, while those that grew white are slowly getting green again, from bottom and center to the top and edges.

The P. Helferi went through a deep metamorphose: During dry period, it turned into an emersed unstructred ugly form (healthy though). Once submerged, many leaves died while all new leaves were white and had a closer aspect to submerged form. Now, new leaves look like the submerged form we all know.

Maybe I shouldn't change anything and wait as the white aspect is rather going away without any loss/melting in leaves.

By the way, just found on google a feedback of someone having had same issue moving it from emersed to submerged. And now, with all this going on, I'm more and more sure it doesn't have anything to do with dosing. Indeed, during emersed phase, they looked healthy. So, soil should be more than adequate. Once submerged, soil is unchanged while surrounding atmosphere changed from air to water. Maybe it is than just an adaptation phase to CO2/O2 shortage as it is the only thing that changed

 

[Tom Barr]

Yes, they are really pretty lacking in nutrients.
I have a lot of this plant and never have it look weird unless I forget to dose.
It will get a little pale in the new growth, but then greens up once I dose good.

I've seen this coloration in other tanks however.
Mostly from going too lean. I'm not certain which nutrient dose this for this plant, however, general very low nutrients do seem to cause it.

ADA AS or some enriched sediments would help also to reduce such effects, once well rooted, the plant will get a fair amount from the sediment if there's none in the water column, so that(sediment) adds a back up.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[jonny_ftm]

As I said above, the plants did well above 4 months during dry start period, so it shouldn't be nutrients in soil. Once submerged, all new leaves had this aspect. What changed is air turning into water. SO could it be CO2/O2 concentrations that changed and the plant needs time to adapt? I also found another post where someone got same aspect after a dry start.

My CO2 once submerged was very high, 4x what I have now and strong yellow on drop checker

 

[Tom Barr]

They take awhile to switch from emergent to submersed growth. I did not see that initially in your comments, so that's more likely what is going on.

So take your time and be patient.
It's not any nutrient issue(other than maybe CO2 etc and some adaption to submersion).

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[jonny_ftm]

Thank you for the confirmation Tom,

In deed, this post helped me think at it again and again to better understand what happened

I'll post a picture later on how they are getting. All new leaves are now green. White leaves improve visually every day. I didn't see any of the white leaves melting

 

[Tom Barr]

Thank you for the confirmation Tom,

In deed, this post helped me think at it again and again to better understand what happened

I'll post a picture later on how they are getting. All new leaves are now green. White leaves improve visually every day. I didn't see any of the white leaves melting

Well if the new growth is good, then it's likely just the transition.
Not confirmation, but strong suggestion.

Anyway, the issue seems resolved for now.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[jonny_ftm]

New growth green, white leaves getting back slowly green

 

[BigFlusher]

kinda agreeing with dan here.

makes me think of zinc deficiency and iron. either way increase in micros

the nutrient ppms dan listed appear really lacking in zinc plantex csm+b really delivers a bunch more (chelated) zinc, relative to the iron

if it is soft water i think added calcium is not bad

 

[Tug]

Calcium is interrelated with nitrogen metabolism and is known to enhance uptake of nitrate nitrogen in some plant species. Maybe P. Helferi is one of these. While I doubt this was the cause (seams to be better anyway), Calcium deficiency can cause some distorted leaf growth and white edges on new growth as well. I only mention it because I don't see any mention of calcium, probably because your water has a GH of 5.