I was just wondering if anyone had any ideas as to why my plants would be so brittle and slow to grow.... I have been working on getting my tank in shape, and have gotten a lot of help over at the AGA forums and things have improved since I started. I havnt changed anything for about 2-3 weeks now and this is how things have been running...
75 g. 194 watts of lighting
50% weekly WC, 1 t. epsom salts added after.
GH is 5.5 (water company told me that it Ca is 26 ppm, and Mg at 6 ppm)
Ferts:
1/2 t. KNO3 3x/week
1/8 t. KH2PO4 3x/week
15 ml. flourish traces 3x/week
15 ml flourish Iron 3x/week
CO2 between 30-40 ppm... seems to raise all through the day peaking around 40 ppm or so....
I just stopped adding the extra iron because I dont really feel I need it, I originally started adding it because on some plants leaves are coming in pale, a cream color, to light yellowish. but after adding iron for a few weeks there was no change at all in that so i figured it wasnt iron related. and other than new leaves coming in like that on Anubias, Echinodorus, and Marsilea.
All of my stem plants are affected by pretty much the same syptoms which is mainly very slow growth (i know this tank isnt very high light, however I have seen much quicker growth out of it in the past) and extremely brittle stems and leaves, so brittle that if they are bent past 90 degrees or so they will simply break. Then on some of the stem plants but not all, they show deformed new growth... leaves coming in that dont even look like leaves on A. reineckii, and other plants that simply have cupped leaves, or folded leaf edges.
Any ideas of what could be causing this? possibly to much of a nutrient? or not enough of something else? At first I though it was Ca, but after reading Toms article... and with a GH of 5 that just doesnt seem possible, then I thought maybe Mg could be causing it for some reason.... but I have been adding a pretty large amound of epsom salts at WC... maybe to much Mg? or not enough traces? i have read boron is similar to Ca def.
I really dont have a clue.... but something seems off.... i dont remember my plants being so easily broken before.... and the growth just seems so slow..... its taken about 2 weeks for H. polysperma to reach the top of my tank..... and in about 3 or 4 weeks time R. rotundifolia has grown only about 4" if that after I pruned it about a month or more ago...... Maybe im expecting to see to much out of this tank..... i just remember it growing better when i read the PMDD paper and mixed everything into a solution and dosed a few ml of that each day..... i cant figure out what I did to make things slow down so much.
thanks for any help
Matt
75 g. 194 watts of lighting
50% weekly WC, 1 t. epsom salts added after.
GH is 5.5 (water company told me that it Ca is 26 ppm, and Mg at 6 ppm)
Ferts:
1/2 t. KNO3 3x/week
1/8 t. KH2PO4 3x/week
15 ml. flourish traces 3x/week
15 ml flourish Iron 3x/week
CO2 between 30-40 ppm... seems to raise all through the day peaking around 40 ppm or so....
I just stopped adding the extra iron because I dont really feel I need it, I originally started adding it because on some plants leaves are coming in pale, a cream color, to light yellowish. but after adding iron for a few weeks there was no change at all in that so i figured it wasnt iron related. and other than new leaves coming in like that on Anubias, Echinodorus, and Marsilea.
All of my stem plants are affected by pretty much the same syptoms which is mainly very slow growth (i know this tank isnt very high light, however I have seen much quicker growth out of it in the past) and extremely brittle stems and leaves, so brittle that if they are bent past 90 degrees or so they will simply break. Then on some of the stem plants but not all, they show deformed new growth... leaves coming in that dont even look like leaves on A. reineckii, and other plants that simply have cupped leaves, or folded leaf edges.
Any ideas of what could be causing this? possibly to much of a nutrient? or not enough of something else? At first I though it was Ca, but after reading Toms article... and with a GH of 5 that just doesnt seem possible, then I thought maybe Mg could be causing it for some reason.... but I have been adding a pretty large amound of epsom salts at WC... maybe to much Mg? or not enough traces? i have read boron is similar to Ca def.
I really dont have a clue.... but something seems off.... i dont remember my plants being so easily broken before.... and the growth just seems so slow..... its taken about 2 weeks for H. polysperma to reach the top of my tank..... and in about 3 or 4 weeks time R. rotundifolia has grown only about 4" if that after I pruned it about a month or more ago...... Maybe im expecting to see to much out of this tank..... i just remember it growing better when i read the PMDD paper and mixed everything into a solution and dosed a few ml of that each day..... i cant figure out what I did to make things slow down so much.
thanks for any help
Matt