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A Tale of Two Roma's

Thanks @Conort2 genuinely wasn't sure.
I did find a couple of tiny tangerines in the filter a couple of weeks ago and just assumed they were the original shrimp I added in October that hadn't grown.
 
Oh, dear! What can the matter be?
Dear, dear! What can the matter be?


I've been front loading and reducing the overall fert numbers for some time, it would appear I've reduced them a bit to much and now have some kind of deficiency at play.
The tank in question.
20230320_193247.jpg


Not the best pic but hopefully you can see the yellowing edges on these older cryptocoryne leaves.
20230320_182920.jpg


And the frogbit in same tank.
20230320_182716.jpg
20230320_182716.jpg

20230320_182640.jpg


Again seems to be affecting the older growth and new growth on the frogbit is non existent.

So my go to culprits in no particular order is one or more of these. 1)Nitrogen 2) Magnesium 3) Iron. @dw1305 any suggestions?

Rather than play pin the tail on the donkey I've simply raised the levels of all 3, my latest drop was to this:
No3 9.03
Po4 2.86
K 6.88
Ca 11
Mg 3.5
That's what I was targeting the water column at after accumulation, so effectively dosing half of that into the full tank volume.
Micro's were dosed for total water volume at:
Fe 0.171 from solufeed tec
Fe 0. 09 from Dtpa
Mn 0.118
N 0.4 from urea
+ Mg 0.58

We are now dosing this. Macro's still front loaded.
No3 14.7
Po4 2.5
K 10.29
Ca 16 (for @MichaelJ )
Mg 4.66
Micro's. Weekly (dosed daily)
Fe 0.22 from solufeed tec
Fe 0.12 Dtpa
Mn 0.15
  • Mg 0.6
  • N 0.51 from urea.

Other tank seems to be doing ok but will have the same ferts regime.
20230320_193236.jpg


Being a gluten for punishment I added some ammannia pedicellata to the above tank, the emersed stems I got weren't in the best condition and the smart money was on them dying. They haven't quite thrown in the towel yet and there is a bit of new growth... from small acorns 😆
20230320_193650.jpg


Think that brings us upto date. Couple of random fish/plant pics.

Panda garra chilling 😎
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2 panda garras disputing who's the top dog. Colour drains out of them when they get stressed, if they were really stressed the colour would have been almost grey.
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The busy plant cleaners.
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And some rotala.

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Enjoy your week guys and gals.
 

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Rabbit Hole : The pursuit of something (such as an answer or solution) leads to other questions, problems, or pursuits.
Life would be so dull if everything was always perfect... 🤣

New ferts mixed: please feel free to comment if you either think it will fix the problem, have no effect whatsoever or, bonus option... kill all my plants 🙄

Main changes are po4 up, fe dtpa up and mn down.

The holy grail of frogbit steroids.
All front loaded.
No3 13.49
Po4 3.84
K 10.08
Ca 15
Mg 5

Dosed daily: total per week.
Fe 0.185 from solufeed tec
Fe 0.14 Dtpa
Mn 0.11
N 0.7 from urea
Mg 0.6

Have some magnesium nitrate arriving this week... Don't ask, its another trip down the garden path.

Fts.
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Bubbles.

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Cheers.
 
I'm not sure what you call a 'rabbit hole', but I assume the damage on your Limnobium is due to some animal sucking scratching inhabitants of your tank.
 
some animal sucking scratching inhabitants of your tank.
It's a possibility, tanks got snails and an ancistrus, although I've never seen either of them on the Limnobium, it certainly shouldn't be ruled out.
 
Quick mid week update for my own notes if nothing else.

1900g of magnesium nitrate turned up today so decided to prep a new batch of ferts. Why am I adding Mg(No3) into the mix? Options...

I've always believed in trying things, don't knock it if you haven't tried it type of approach. To that end it would be remiss of me not to at least dip my toe in the K soup debate that is currently raging, to either prove or dis prove to myself if the argument holds any water. Like always I do these things slowly and don't pretend the results will offer any evidence or clues to anybody other than myself.

"When you are finished changing, you're finished."

New macro mix from Saturday, front loaded. Numbers are water column target after accumulation.
No3 13.55
Po4 3.84
K 7.38

Remin.
Ca 14
Mg 5

Also took the time to pre soak some botanicals in prep for Saturdays water change.
In the mix we have calotropis pods, dregea pods, parviflora pods, oak leaves, alder cones and catappa leaves.
Goodies in the tray before rinsing.
20230329_203527.jpg


Afterwards put in a jug, scalded and left to sit in a jug. The calotropis and dregea pods will probably need 2 days soaking before they'll sink.
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Onwards and upwards 👍
 
Oooh ooh i know this one!!!
CO2! 😃😃😃😃
The result of changing from a 1 point drop to a 0.8 drop, took about 3 days to manifest itself. Suspect co2 is similar to heroin addiction, as in they build up a tolerance 🤔
 
After reading a discussion in @Courtneybst journal with @Tim Harrison I decided to do an impromptu experiment to test drop checkers and solutions.
Will complete the test with a full 1 point drop over the weekend and edit pics in this post.

Things I learned:
My tank degassed water is 6.9, I'd assumed it was 7.1. The degassed reading was taken after being sat for 24 hrs, at 6.30 am, so no humans had been in the room for 7½ hrs, hopefully ambient co2 levels.
Dropping the co2 by 0.2 caused some stunting and crippled growth on the rotala at the back of the tank, that wasn't in the direct flow of gas.
Be careful with drop checkers, they break easily. 😆

I decided to test 2 drop checkers and 2 solutions.

First pics are of el cheapo yangfei dc filled with co2 art solution, dc front.
Back dc is co2 supermarket dc filled with co2 supermarket solution.
Tank ph 6.1. 0.8 drop.

20230401_123717.jpg


20230401_123715.jpg


Next pic.

First two drop checkers the same, and added a third yangfei at the rear, this was filled with co2 supermarket solution.
Tank water ph 6. 0.9 drop.

20230403_164704.jpg


Close up of dc furthest away.
20230403_164927.jpg


Middle dc.
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Nearest dc.
20230403_165327.jpg


To the naked eye there was very little difference between either drop checker/solution colour, other than point drop related.

Tank water ph 5.89. Full 1 point drop. Interestingly the co2 art solution (bottom dc) seems to be a little more sensitive and is almost lime green, 2nd dc almost lime green, top dc still emerald green .
20230406_181858.jpg


Final picture.
Tank water 5.78. 1.1 Drop.
Bottom dc almost yellow, middle lime green and top dc emerald green.
Verdict: various solutions and drop checkers will all give varying results.
20230411_183040.jpg
 
Last edited:
After reading a discussion in @Courtneybst journal with @Tim Harrison I decided to do an impromptu experiment to test drop checkers and solutions.
Will complete the test with a full 1 point drop over the weekend and edit pics in this post.

Things I learned:
My tank degassed water is 6.9, I'd assumed it was 7.1. The degassed reading was taken after being sat for 24 hrs, at 6.30 am, so no humans had been in the room for 7½ hrs, hopefully ambient co2 levels.
Dropping the co2 by 0.2 caused some stunting and crippled growth on the rotala at the back of the tank, that wasn't in the direct flow of gas.
Be careful with drop checkers, they break easily. 😆

I decided to test 2 drop checkers and 2 solutions.

First pics are of el cheapo yangfei dc filled with co2 art solution, dc front.
Back dc is co2 supermarket dc filled with co2 supermarket solution.
Tank ph 6.1. 0.8 drop.

View attachment 203593

View attachment 203594

Next pic.

First two drop checkers the same, and added a third yangfei at the rear, this was filled with co2 supermarket solution.
Tank water ph 6. 0.9 drop.

View attachment 203595

Close up of dc furthest away.View attachment 203596

Middle dc.
View attachment 203597

Nearest dc.
View attachment 203598

To the naked eye there was very little difference between either drop checker/solution colour, other than point drop related.

To be continued.
Love this!
 
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