Zoefish
Member
Hello! I've been having a worsening issue with growth in multiple plant species in my tank that has been going on since about September. I've tried a number of things to resolve the issue and I'm basically at the end of my rope. I would be extremely grateful if anyone can offer me insight into this!
Across multiple species of plants I'm having issues that look like nutrient deficiencies, but I've tested the levels of nitrate, potassium and iron and found them all to be normal/high. I've also been dosing EI throughout this process (at first I was dosing Thrive according to package instructions, then in response to apparent deficiencies I started adding macronutrients on top of that 3x/week, then I switched to another fertilizer by NilocG that is also designed to be used with EI. This past week I haven't been dosing at all since I found the potassium levels to be at 50 ppm and nitrates around 40 after my weekly water change, so I am letting the plants use up some of those nutrients before I start dosing again. I had my light on the lowest setting without realizing and I attribute the nutrient accumulation to this). Despite high levels of nutrients the problem is just getting worse and worse.
My hygrophila pinnatifida which was previously growing great for me started getting necrotic pinholes in the lower leaves. This progressively advances up the plant and at this point almost all of it has disintegrated. My stargrass also gets holes, but not round holes, in the lower leaves. The lower leaves on my alternathera reineckii disintegrate and the whole plant looks generally pale/warped. My Brazilian pennywort grows fast but sometimes the newer leaves are chlorotic with green veins and yellow leaves. I've also seen rotting lower leaves on my Persicaria and nymphoides Taiwan. And my Amazon frogbit just started getting pinholes, which may be related to me increasing the flow in the tank recently. I could keep going on and on, I am getting fast growth but hardly any of the plants are really thriving.
The tank is a 22 gallon long with CO2 injection at about 2 bubbles/second and the drop checker is lightish yellow green. This has been at different levels throughout the time I've been having these issues. I did at one point check my CO2 with the pH change method, I don't remember the actual results of that but I had found that it was actually higher than it needed to be- I think almost 2 pH points difference between the gassed/degassed water so I decreased it. The pH is about 6.5 at the moment, kH around 80 and GH around 150. I do a 50% water change every week. One thing that did change around the time these issues started happening is that I gradually increased the kH/GH of the water from basically nothing to what it is now, since I added some Endlers to the tanks and they prefer hard water. Ammonia and nitrite readings are consistently 0. The tank has been set up since last April. The substrate is ADA Amazonia that is as old as the tank, with some UNS controsoil mixed in. There are also some Fluorish root tabs in there which I added after the deficiency symptoms started appearing. The light is a Chihiros wrgb II 90.
The first thing I tried when these issues began was increasing my fertilizers. That didn't work, so I increased the flow in the tank. I switched out for a more powerful filter (currently it is an Eheim something), and added small pumps at the corners of the tank to bounce the flow around in a large circle. I was hoping this had worked so I went ahead and added some new plants a week or so ago, and the new plants immediately (within a day or 2) started showing distress as well. I believe this has occurred too quickly for nutrient deficiencies to be the culprit. The water wisteria I planted has some sort of black/brown precipitate (?) on the lower leaves (or maybe just algae), and is also getting holes in the lower leaves. On the upper leaves the veins have turned bright yellow and the leaf remains green. The new hygrophila pinnatifida I planted has already developed the brown round spots on lower leaves that will develop into pinholes. One of the crypts I planted had totally black roots when I accidentally uprooted it. So now I am thinking that the issue is something that is present in the water, and not something that's absent. My first thought was to remove some suspicious gravel that was not necessarily aquarium safe (various types of quartz, opalite and some "aquarium rocks" I got off Amazon). However, I went through my records and found that the beginning of these issues actually predates the gravel. I do have a large piece of wood in the tank that I found on the beach. I don't know what kind of wood it is. However, this wood has been in the tank from the beginning and the hygrophila pinnatifida was previously growing very well attached to it.
The livestock includes a group of a couple Endlers and some guppies, a couple Amano shrimp and some cherry shrimp. I previously had some Mystery snails that developed holes in their shells presumably as a result of the acidic water. I've also had a couple of mysterious disappearances of Endlers since I moved them over to this tank, and I lost a couple of the cherry shrimp as well. Not sure if that is related or not.
I will probably have a mental breakdown if this continues so any help is much appreciated.
Across multiple species of plants I'm having issues that look like nutrient deficiencies, but I've tested the levels of nitrate, potassium and iron and found them all to be normal/high. I've also been dosing EI throughout this process (at first I was dosing Thrive according to package instructions, then in response to apparent deficiencies I started adding macronutrients on top of that 3x/week, then I switched to another fertilizer by NilocG that is also designed to be used with EI. This past week I haven't been dosing at all since I found the potassium levels to be at 50 ppm and nitrates around 40 after my weekly water change, so I am letting the plants use up some of those nutrients before I start dosing again. I had my light on the lowest setting without realizing and I attribute the nutrient accumulation to this). Despite high levels of nutrients the problem is just getting worse and worse.
My hygrophila pinnatifida which was previously growing great for me started getting necrotic pinholes in the lower leaves. This progressively advances up the plant and at this point almost all of it has disintegrated. My stargrass also gets holes, but not round holes, in the lower leaves. The lower leaves on my alternathera reineckii disintegrate and the whole plant looks generally pale/warped. My Brazilian pennywort grows fast but sometimes the newer leaves are chlorotic with green veins and yellow leaves. I've also seen rotting lower leaves on my Persicaria and nymphoides Taiwan. And my Amazon frogbit just started getting pinholes, which may be related to me increasing the flow in the tank recently. I could keep going on and on, I am getting fast growth but hardly any of the plants are really thriving.
The tank is a 22 gallon long with CO2 injection at about 2 bubbles/second and the drop checker is lightish yellow green. This has been at different levels throughout the time I've been having these issues. I did at one point check my CO2 with the pH change method, I don't remember the actual results of that but I had found that it was actually higher than it needed to be- I think almost 2 pH points difference between the gassed/degassed water so I decreased it. The pH is about 6.5 at the moment, kH around 80 and GH around 150. I do a 50% water change every week. One thing that did change around the time these issues started happening is that I gradually increased the kH/GH of the water from basically nothing to what it is now, since I added some Endlers to the tanks and they prefer hard water. Ammonia and nitrite readings are consistently 0. The tank has been set up since last April. The substrate is ADA Amazonia that is as old as the tank, with some UNS controsoil mixed in. There are also some Fluorish root tabs in there which I added after the deficiency symptoms started appearing. The light is a Chihiros wrgb II 90.
The first thing I tried when these issues began was increasing my fertilizers. That didn't work, so I increased the flow in the tank. I switched out for a more powerful filter (currently it is an Eheim something), and added small pumps at the corners of the tank to bounce the flow around in a large circle. I was hoping this had worked so I went ahead and added some new plants a week or so ago, and the new plants immediately (within a day or 2) started showing distress as well. I believe this has occurred too quickly for nutrient deficiencies to be the culprit. The water wisteria I planted has some sort of black/brown precipitate (?) on the lower leaves (or maybe just algae), and is also getting holes in the lower leaves. On the upper leaves the veins have turned bright yellow and the leaf remains green. The new hygrophila pinnatifida I planted has already developed the brown round spots on lower leaves that will develop into pinholes. One of the crypts I planted had totally black roots when I accidentally uprooted it. So now I am thinking that the issue is something that is present in the water, and not something that's absent. My first thought was to remove some suspicious gravel that was not necessarily aquarium safe (various types of quartz, opalite and some "aquarium rocks" I got off Amazon). However, I went through my records and found that the beginning of these issues actually predates the gravel. I do have a large piece of wood in the tank that I found on the beach. I don't know what kind of wood it is. However, this wood has been in the tank from the beginning and the hygrophila pinnatifida was previously growing very well attached to it.
The livestock includes a group of a couple Endlers and some guppies, a couple Amano shrimp and some cherry shrimp. I previously had some Mystery snails that developed holes in their shells presumably as a result of the acidic water. I've also had a couple of mysterious disappearances of Endlers since I moved them over to this tank, and I lost a couple of the cherry shrimp as well. Not sure if that is related or not.
I will probably have a mental breakdown if this continues so any help is much appreciated.