Hello everybody,
This started after starting to follow @Pikez Kill tank journal and noticed stunning in Ammania (Nesaea) pedicellata similar to what I had seen in my tank before. I got the impression that microferts or even iron could induce the stunning based on some observations I made over time. But impressions can be wrong, so I decided to try to overdose iron and see whether I can replicate my impressions and contribute a little bit to the puzzle of stunning in the Lythraceae. Please keep in mind that this is one trial based on the conditions in my tank.
· Tank size 90 gallons – subtracting unused space and soil approximately 300l
· Relatively high light LEDs
· Little macrofert fertilization
· RO water tip off without water changes for 2 years
· Occasional siphoning of debris with pumping back of the water
· 2 year old ADA AS with Osmocote+ root tab fertilization in some plants
· Additional occasional macro- and microfertilization
· I do not have specific doses as I adjusted it to a level that seems to work for me.
Conditions before test:
Almost no macro or microferts due to having been away for three weeks prior to the test.
I added 4 times 0.33ppm Fe2+ to the tank in 48h intervals (10ml of Flourish iron, 10.000mg/l iron)
Ammania pedicellata: Before treatment – one stem after first treatment
After 4 treatments, almost all stems were affected. However, they already seem to recover and the effect was not as strong as I have seen it before.
Cuphea anagdalloidea:
Only after treatments: Affected stem - affected and unaffected stems
Less than 20% were affected. You also see Pantanal in both images. I could not see any adverse effects on this plant. I did not see the leaf deformation in Cuphea any time before. Given that it was so conspicuous, I doubt that I missed this previously.
I did not observe any adverse effects on AR mini, AR variegated Rotala “mini butterfly”, Rotala sp “red”, Rotala macrandra, Ammania gracilis.
In fact, AR variegated changed from a dull grey to a more reddish coloration. Certainly appreciated the iron.
The day before the last treatment, my CO2 ran out leading to a high CO2 concentration as a consequence of end-of-tank-dump. Almost gassed my fish and shrimp!
Subsequently, I noticed whitening of leaves in Blyxa japonica and stunting in some stems in P. erectus. Unfortunately, I added a root tab to the erectus the day before, so I cannot really tell what affected the stunting: iron, root macros, or the CO2 spike. Four days later, the affected stems had not yet recovered.
So, what is the conclusion?
Even though this was a single test and I do not have any replicates, I would tentatively say that the iron dosing affected A. pedicellata and C. anagdalloidea UNDER my tank conditions. There is the possibility that this effect is only present together with the conditions of my tank at the time and that this kind of short-term high dosing has no effect in other tanks with different conditions. Others may have made similar observations, so this might not be novel. Nevertheless, the more we see these effects, the better is the understanding of the effects leading to stunting or growth of our plants. Therefore, I hope this little test has some value for some people.
Update 3 weeks later:
Unfortunately, the results are inconclusive. The conditions of pedicellata and anagalloidea remain the same despite no further iron dosing. The return of the greyish red in A. variegated tells me that iron should be gone. I noticed that growth of these plants more or less stopped. The test may have coincided with the depletion of my O+ root tabs which I now added again. Other plants in the tank that I provided with tabs later (E. setaceum, Syn Belem, Rio Negro Giant ...) continued to grow. It seems that a large tank where you constantly have to make changes (pruning, cleaning, fertilizing etc) is not really suited to come to a good conclusion - at least in my tank.
This started after starting to follow @Pikez Kill tank journal and noticed stunning in Ammania (Nesaea) pedicellata similar to what I had seen in my tank before. I got the impression that microferts or even iron could induce the stunning based on some observations I made over time. But impressions can be wrong, so I decided to try to overdose iron and see whether I can replicate my impressions and contribute a little bit to the puzzle of stunning in the Lythraceae. Please keep in mind that this is one trial based on the conditions in my tank.
· Tank size 90 gallons – subtracting unused space and soil approximately 300l
· Relatively high light LEDs
· Little macrofert fertilization
· RO water tip off without water changes for 2 years
· Occasional siphoning of debris with pumping back of the water
· 2 year old ADA AS with Osmocote+ root tab fertilization in some plants
· Additional occasional macro- and microfertilization
· I do not have specific doses as I adjusted it to a level that seems to work for me.
Conditions before test:
Almost no macro or microferts due to having been away for three weeks prior to the test.
I added 4 times 0.33ppm Fe2+ to the tank in 48h intervals (10ml of Flourish iron, 10.000mg/l iron)
Ammania pedicellata: Before treatment – one stem after first treatment
After 4 treatments, almost all stems were affected. However, they already seem to recover and the effect was not as strong as I have seen it before.
Cuphea anagdalloidea:
Only after treatments: Affected stem - affected and unaffected stems
Less than 20% were affected. You also see Pantanal in both images. I could not see any adverse effects on this plant. I did not see the leaf deformation in Cuphea any time before. Given that it was so conspicuous, I doubt that I missed this previously.
I did not observe any adverse effects on AR mini, AR variegated Rotala “mini butterfly”, Rotala sp “red”, Rotala macrandra, Ammania gracilis.
In fact, AR variegated changed from a dull grey to a more reddish coloration. Certainly appreciated the iron.
The day before the last treatment, my CO2 ran out leading to a high CO2 concentration as a consequence of end-of-tank-dump. Almost gassed my fish and shrimp!
Subsequently, I noticed whitening of leaves in Blyxa japonica and stunting in some stems in P. erectus. Unfortunately, I added a root tab to the erectus the day before, so I cannot really tell what affected the stunting: iron, root macros, or the CO2 spike. Four days later, the affected stems had not yet recovered.
So, what is the conclusion?
Even though this was a single test and I do not have any replicates, I would tentatively say that the iron dosing affected A. pedicellata and C. anagdalloidea UNDER my tank conditions. There is the possibility that this effect is only present together with the conditions of my tank at the time and that this kind of short-term high dosing has no effect in other tanks with different conditions. Others may have made similar observations, so this might not be novel. Nevertheless, the more we see these effects, the better is the understanding of the effects leading to stunting or growth of our plants. Therefore, I hope this little test has some value for some people.
Update 3 weeks later:
Unfortunately, the results are inconclusive. The conditions of pedicellata and anagalloidea remain the same despite no further iron dosing. The return of the greyish red in A. variegated tells me that iron should be gone. I noticed that growth of these plants more or less stopped. The test may have coincided with the depletion of my O+ root tabs which I now added again. Other plants in the tank that I provided with tabs later (E. setaceum, Syn Belem, Rio Negro Giant ...) continued to grow. It seems that a large tank where you constantly have to make changes (pruning, cleaning, fertilizing etc) is not really suited to come to a good conclusion - at least in my tank.
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