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Plant deficiency?

geaves

Member
Joined
29 Jan 2012
Messages
159
Location
Braintree, Essex
Not sure if this should be in here or fert dosing....anyway couple of plant problems I've been trying to resolve.

Eustralis Stellata, this has been in the tank now for about a month, it grows, but no sooner the new leaves start to develop they start to go brown....and eventually fall off.

Pogostemon helferi, this has only been in the tank a week but I have noticed that this seems to be melting and loosing it's colour and shape. This was put in at the same time as a Crypt bullosa, which is showing new growth and no melting.

Frogbit this has been in the tank for 3 weeks, whilst new leaves grow the outer leaves yellow and die as quick the new ones appear.

Tank is aqua soil based, so no C02, lighting is the original 11w Aquael that I had with the tank (considering up grading this to perhaps Eco Aqua LED), have been dosing 2ml Aqua Nourish (similar to TNC) daily. I have also been experiencing the odd bacterial bloom, and not just after adding plants.

The rest of the plants are fine, even the twisted vallis which I bought bunched is showing new growth. There is something lacking but I just don't know what.
 
geaves said:
There is something lacking but I just don't know what.
CO2 is missing, so these plants have a difficult time. Leave turning yellow is typically a Nitrogen deficiency, especially if you are already dosing traces. That's an easy one to troubleshoot.

Cheers,
 
CO2 is not an option, where the tank is situated I just don't have the space....so the option is too review what and when I'm dosing.

TVM, Geoff
 
Well, you can always dose liquid carbon assuming you don't have any other plants or animals that respond poorly to liquid carbon. That will fix a carbon deficiency. Or you can reduce the lighting, which will reduce the demand for carbon. You cannot fix a carbon deficiency by adding more of the other nutrients. In fact, you are more likely to make the carbon problem worse.

NPK & Traces cannot fix a carbon deficiency. Just as carbon cannot fix NPK or Trace deficiency. Adding more N however will definitely fix an N deficiency, which it looks like you might have, based on the yellowing. But neither N deficiency, nor P or K or Trace deficiencies causes leaves to melt. So this means you have multiple problems. It's a mistake to think that you can just attribute all the symptoms to one single cause or that adding one thing will automatically fix multiple problems.

P. steletta appears to have a higher CO2 compensation point than some other stems so it might take some time for it to become accustomed to the low CO2 levels, or it may continue to have this issue.

Cheers,
 
Yesterday I did the usual water change and decided to do some trimming and replant some of the trimmings.

The Eustralis Stellata is one of 2 plants I'm struggling with, when I received it I removed all the rockwool and separated the stems, 6 in total. Trimmed the roots to approx. the same length and planted in 2 groups of 3.

So during the water change and trimming I pulled 3 of stems that had lost virtually all of the lower leaves, only to find that the root structure had disappeared and the stems that had been in the substrate were rotting.

Pogostemon helferi some of this is showing slow signs of recovery.

Because I am new to this I do expect some trial and error, but before I purchase I do some research as to whether a plant might be suitable and I now have a list of plants that have been successful for me and plants that have been successful for others to help with future plant choice.
 
Try floating the stelleta for a few weeks. This is a difficult plant to get established even in a CO2 injected tank, so it's double tough doing it non-CO2.

Cheers,
 
Eustralis Stellata is difficult plant it needs co2, good ferts and medium light at least.
Although there are stems you can grow without co2 under low light I am not sure Stellata is one of them, never tried it this way. But other stems do well but really you need low light and at least some ferts then, growth is painfully slow as well this way.
 
Well I've taken one of the worst stems, cut it down leaving 2 leaf nodes and the top and planted at the front, if it dies I've lost nothing, if it grows into a Triffid then I've solved the problem. :)
 
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