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Emmersed plant deficiency?????

Alastair

Member
Joined
27 Dec 2009
Messages
4,402
Location
Denton, Manchester
Hi all,
I'm at a loss as to what can be causing my emmersed E.cordifolious to be yellowing just on the edges of the leaves in my puddle tank. The substrate is very nutrient rich, ada new amazonia, and also has Tom barrs low tech dosing once a week with almost no water changes. No other plants above or below the surface are doing this. Any ideas anyone???

Here's a pic
7624446804_d76588c8a9_b.jpg


Any help would be greatly appreciated as im currently in hospital so relying on soneone else to watch over the tank for me.
 
BigTom said:
Mine did exactly the same... each oldest leaf would gradually yellow from the edges in, until the whole leaf died. I don't think it's a deficiency, I think it's just how they age when emersed, at least in this sort of environment.

Hiya mate, that could be it then as the lower leaf is the first emmersed Leaf that appeared so that would make sense, but the one above is only a week old and yellowing slightly on parts.


san-ho-zay said:
Are you adding any magnesium? I believe your water is really soft?

http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/deficiencies.htm

Yep I'm adding equilibrium every Saturday half a teaspoon. Keeps my gh around 4/5.
If it was magnesium deficiency it would be other plants affected too though surely??


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Alastair said:
If it was magnesium deficiency it would be other plants affected too though surely??
Maybe. Different plants are different though and swords are pretty voracious when they get going.

If we say your 1/2 tsp is a generous 3g, Equilibrium is 2.41% magnesium so that's 0.0723g per week, which is ~0.3mg/l magnesium per week in a 250 litre tank. JamesC's site suggests adding 5-10mg/l per week for EI so if I've added up correctly it is possible you have a shortfall. Certainly it's an easy one to add with a bit of Epsom Salts.

Just a suggestion based on my own plants in Manc water doing better with a magnesium boost really.

Love that tank by the way! :thumbup:
 
This signs are related to Iron deficiency and also as early sighs for Nitrogen deficiency. 1.5ppm of Iron weekly should fix the problem. If not then use some extra NO3 about 5ppm weekly.
 
san-ho-zay said:
Alastair said:
If it was magnesium deficiency it would be other plants affected too though surely??
Maybe. Different plants are different though and swords are pretty voracious when they get going.

If we say your 1/2 tsp is a generous 3g, Equilibrium is 2.41% magnesium so that's 0.0723g per week, which is ~0.3mg/l magnesium per week in a 250 litre tank. JamesC's site suggests adding 5-10mg/l per week for EI so if I've added up correctly it is possible you have a shortfall. Certainly it's an easy one to add with a bit of Epsom Salts.

Just a suggestion based on my own plants in Manc water doing better with a magnesium boost really.

Love that tank by the way! :thumbup:

Thanks Richard,
With it being a low tech i wouldn't have thought I'd have needed Anywhere near the ei levels for adding magnesium but do have a spare tub full of it so may add an extra half teaspoon to the tank each weekend. It gets regular daily top offs too as evaporation is a bummer in this tank so there is still some level of mg being added often....... Funny how it's only affecting that particular sword. I guess partly an old leaf dying off but also the fact the leaves aren't taking in the magnesium from the water column like the other swords as they are above the water???
Thanks for the comment on the tank. Will be good to get back to see it in the flesh.

Aquadream said:
This signs are related to Iron deficiency and also as early sighs for Nitrogen deficiency. 1.5ppm of Iron weekly should fix the problem. If not then use some extra NO3 about 5ppm weekly.
Hey aquadream, I thought similar too, however the equilibrium has fe in it anyway, plus I add some trace mix in their seperately also each week. I can but try.
I'm surprised it could be nitrogen deficiency though which I did originally think it was, but then there's enough of that in the pond soil base, plus the Ada new Amazonia, plus the fish waste/food plus the kno3 added each weekend also. Every other plant apparently is fantastic.
 
Hi all,
E.cordifolius to be yellowing just on the edges of the leaves in my puddle tank
This isn't a deficiency of anything, it is caused by low relative humidity.

Even if the plant is wet at the root, when the transpiration stream (the loss of water through the leaves stomata) is really strong (usually due to low relative humidity in the air compared to 100% saturation in the leaf mesophyll), water is lost at a rate that dries the tissue out, this effect is most marked along the leaf edges, giving you "leaf tip burn". Water is pulled through the xylem purely by evaporation from the leaves, even in a tree 100m high.

Leaf tip burn is very common on house plants in centrally heated houses in the winter, where as air is heated the relative humidity level falls. Even if the air was 100% saturated at 5oC, by the time it gets to 20oC it will have a low relative humidity, you can just think of it like condensation or dew fall in reverse.

Details here: <http://plantphys.info/plant_physiology/transpire.shtml>.

cheers Darrel
 
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