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New leaves transparent & yellow

Bertie

Bertie

Member
Joined
18 Apr 2013
Messages
489
Hi, I have a problem with some plants with new leaves being very pale/yellow and going transparent which is very noticeable on my Amazon sword.

I have a Rio 180 with 160 litres of water and the tank has been setup for about 6 months. I have 2 x 45w T5 Tubes, and did have two reflectors but have taken them off for now due to BBA.

I only have gravel which is of a largish size 6mm - 8mm , as when I first set up I did not intend to use live plants:oops:

I dose daily with 4ml of Neutro CO2 and 8ml of TNC complete. All the plants were doing fine, although not particularly fast growing, before I started injecting CO2 and I was at that time not dosing the fert daily.

As I say it is mainly one Amazon Sword and some Wisteria, the other plants are not overly affected apart from the red plants have gone much lighter since I took the reflectors off.

Incidentally the BBA is now going red and seems to be receding now.
 
Hi davem,
No they are in different parts of the tank,there is quite a distance between them.
 
Have looked at that davem (have it in my favourites);) The nearest is lack of Iron, but as most of my plants are ok I am not sure as TNC does have iron in it.
Not sure that I would like to add any extra myself as I understand that you have to be very,very careful with Iron additives?
 
Thanks davem but am adding 3 x dosing on advice due to initial algae problems, so there should be enough really unless the overdosing is the cause?
 
Hi all,
Nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are the macro-nutrients that plants require most of, but actually they need about x10 as much nitrogen and potassium when compared to phosphorus.

Leaves are green because they are full of chlorophyll, chlorophyll is a protein, and proteins are nitrogen based. Chlorophyll synthesis is reliant on potassium levels, and the central atom of the chlorophyll molecule is a magnesium atom.

For this reason if they are deficiency symptoms, they are most likely to be deficiencies of nitrogen (N), potassium (K) or magnesium (Mg), in that order, with first 2 by far the most likely. Iron (Fe) deficiency is unlikely, although you can get problems with iron uptake in very calcium rich water.

I differ from a lot of other members of the forum in that I don't add CO2, and I aim for low growth rates. I use plant leaf colour as an indication of when my plants need feeding, via the "Duckweed index". I use a floating plant because it removes carbon (CO2) from the equation (other will tell you that all plant growth problems are CO2 related).

Have a look at these posts: <Duckweed index ferts advice | UK Aquatic Plant Society>, <Plants with Deficiency of something | UK Aquatic Plant Society> & <Low maintainence, long term sustrate | UK Aquatic Plant Society>

cheers Darrel
 
Bertie said:
Thanks davem but am adding 3 x dosing on advice due to initial algae problems, so there should be enough really unless the overdosing is the cause?
Click to expand...
Liquid carbon can also "melt" some sensitive plants. My Egeria Densa melted and hair grass didn't grow when I excess dosed with liquid carbon to control algae. Other plants "were not too happy" as well, but what I have left now all appear quite tolerant of liquid carbon.
 
Hi and Thanks all, I have been using liquid carbon for quite some time now ian, but of course, before I was using it on its own and now I use it in conjunction with injected CO2. I suppose that can make a big difference. Perhaps I should go without the liquid carbon for a week or so?
As far as Nitrogen and Potassium levels I don;t know, but was hopeful that the "complete" fert that I am using, and at 3x dose, would be sufficient.
 
Does your fertiliser state the contents? I'm not familiar with it for the list of ingredients. I use EI, and I know what salts go in, bar what's in the chelated trace. Advantage of EI is that you can adjust the nutritional balance.
 
N -1.5% P - 0.2% K - 5% Mg 0.8% Fe - 0.08% Mn - 0.118% Cu - 0.002% Zn - 0.01% B - 0.01% Mo - 0.001%
 
Just googled water wisteria apparentley they like root ferts too.
So you can probably reduce water column ferts, which should ease your budget enough to buy root tabs for these plants
I didnt find anything about either plant being sensitive to liquid co2 so you may increase that if bba reappears. I only use it to spot treat small amounts of bba when it occurs
 
Big clown said:
Amazon swords are known heavy root feeders not sure about other one though
Click to expand...
This is not really true. Root tabs are a complete ripoff and it's just as easy to increase the water column dosing. Swords will strip the water column of nutrients in no time flat.

Cheers,
 
Thanks everybody for your help. I certainly have some things to think about.
 
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