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Health of my plants. Problematic alternathera reinekii

Kostas

Member
Joined
10 Nov 2015
Messages
27
Hey everyone. I need some advice for my plants please. I'm posting a couple of videos, shot yesterday. All the plants are new. Especially the alternatheras. Introduced about 10 days ago. I'm worried about them especially as this is the third time I'm trying to grow them and it seems this will be a failure again.
My tank specs are.
Size
120x50x60(height)
Lighting
2x54w 840 t5
2x54w 860 t5
9hours
Ferts
EI DRY dosing for 300liters (aquarium is 360 but without rocks etc. Its actually about 300 considering all that)
K2so4
Kno3
Celated trace from co2 art that includes
Fe, Mn, Zn, B, Cu and Mo.
Fleet enema for phosphate
Seachem iron
Co2
Pressurised using a glass diffuser (gave a try today to an aqua medic 1000 online diffuser with its own 1000ltr/hour pump I hope it works better)


I know the aquarium is a bit high that's why I set light at 9 hours to compensate for that.
Most of the plants show growth
Those are
Eleocharis accicularis
Eleocharis parvula
All the green at the back
The stavrogrne repens that is in a miserable tangled condition came that way from the shop I ordered it from. I'm hoping it will grow normally so I can replant stems.
I'm not concerned about the green plants so much as they had a shock from the introduction in my aquarium but after a week in they show new growth. Leaf and root wise.

The alternatheras where super fine at the beginning but when I moved them once to relocate them on better spots with more light their leaves fell off instantly and they seem in a poor condition generally.
Any help will be greatly appreciated





 
Last edited:
Hi all,
Where do you live? If you live in the UK you are unlikely to have much magnesium (Mg) in your water (whether is hard or soft water). It is to do with aquifer formation and <"evaporite basins">.

If you live in the USA, (or around the Mediterranean Sea), and have hard water, you are likely to have a more magnesium rich supply, which was why some American EI recipes left magnesium out.

cheers Darrel
 
Hi all, Where do you live? If you live in the UK you are unlikely to have much magnesium (Mg) in your water (whether is hard or soft water). It is to do with aquifer formation and <"evaporite basins">.

If you live in the USA, (or around the Mediterranean Sea), and have hard water, you are likely to have a more magnesium rich supply, which was why some American EI recipes left magnesium out.

cheers Darrel
I live in corfu Greece and using the api gh test on the tap water I get a gh of 100. So yeah... I don't know what elements are in there but whatever it is is a lot hehe. We got the worst tap in Greece.
I am using RO water ofc

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Hi all, Where do you live? If you live in the UK you are unlikely to have much magnesium (Mg) in your water (whether is hard or soft water). It is to do with aquifer formation and <"evaporite basins">.

If you live in the USA, (or around the Mediterranean Sea), and have hard water, you are likely to have a more magnesium rich supply, which was why some American EI recipes left magnesium out.

cheers Darrel
Can u provide some advice on my plants? Do u have an idea of what might the problem be?

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Photo's are sometimes confusing, but it looks like a lot of light and to few plants.
I would reduce the light to 6 hours max , preferably introduce floaters ( which will advice you on your fertilisation regime and block some extra light), and add extra plantmass for now.
Do waterchanges twice a week at least 40-50%, combine with good maintenance.
 
Photo's are sometimes confusing, but it looks like a lot of light and to few plants.
I would reduce the light to 6 hours max , preferably introduce floaters ( which will advice you on your fertilisation regime and block some extra light), and add extra plantmass for now.
Do waterchanges twice a week at least 40-50%, combine with good maintenance.
The light is around 0.6 w/litre so it's around the medium range. I don't have any algae problems and I fertilise daily EI and 50%+water change every Sunday. Why should I reduce the light if I have no issues with algae?

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Hi all,
Can u provide some advice on my plants?........I live in corfu........using the api gh test on the tap water I get a gh of 100.........I am using RO water
The plants definitely look deficient in something, it is really difficult to diagnose deficiencies, because plants need all 14 of the essential elements for plant growth, just in vastly different amounts.

If the growing tips of the plants really are as pale as they look in the video (or bleached out by the light?)? That suggests that it is a deficiency of a non-mobile element. The non-mobile elements are iron (Fe), calcium (Ca), manganese (Mn), boron (B), molybdenum (Mo), zinc (Zn), cobalt (Co) and copper (Cu). You seem to have those covered. Usually I'd suspect iron, but that is unlikely to be a problem with RO.

I'd be tempted to cut your RO with a minimal amount of tap water, probably about 5%, that should cover any calcium issues. I might also be tempted to dose some more magnesium, "Epsom Salts" (MgSO4.7H2O) ~ 10% Mg are cheap and readily available. If magnesium is already present in high enough concentrations adding some more won't do any harm.
preferably introduce floaters ( which will advice you on your fertilisation regime and block some extra light)
Floating plants are always a good idea, they have access to aerial CO2, so that takes carbon deficiency out of the equation. @Edvet is alluding to the <"Duckweed Index">, a simple technique that use the health and leaf colour of a floating plant as an indicator of nutrient status.

cheers Darrel
 
Hi all, The plants definitely look deficient in something, it is really difficult to diagnose deficiencies, because plants need all 14 of the essential elements for plant growth, just in vastly different amounts.

If the growing tips of the plants really are as pale as they look in the video (or bleached out by the light?)? That suggests that it is a deficiency of a non-mobile element. The non-mobile elements are iron (Fe), calcium (Ca), manganese (Mn), boron (B), molybdenum (Mo), zinc (Zn), cobalt (Co) and copper (Cu). You seem to have those covered. Usually I'd suspect iron, but that is unlikely to be a problem with RO.

I'd be tempted to cut your RO with a minimal amount of tap water, probably about 5%, that should cover any calcium issues. I might also be tempted to dose some more magnesium, "Epsom Salts" (MgSO4.7H2O) ~ 10% Mg are cheap and readily available. If magnesium is already present in high enough concentrations adding some more won't do any harm. Floating plants are always a good idea, they have access to aerial CO2, so that takes carbon deficiency out of the equation. @Edvet is alluding to the <"Duckweed Index">, a simple technique that use the health and leaf colour of a floating plant as an indicator of nutrient status.

cheers Darrel
Thank you so much. Currently I use 90% RO and 10% tap. So my gh is around 10. Is that ok ?

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Pretty big tank with similar dimensions to my 500l and a carpet 50cm below water that's hard too.

As Edvet says your plant biomass is pretty low and is going to take some time to fill in which will leave your tank prone to algae issues esp with the light you will need to get the carpet going.

Although you have got enough light to grow some plants IMO you may not have enough light intensity to grow some of the plants at the depth you have them. I think you may need more intensity! Can you lower the T5 tubes you have?
As Edvet says also a shorter duration 9hrs is asking for trouble
 
What are your hours setting for the co2 and do you have a drop checker?
24/7 so I have stable pH.
Yes I do have although the drop checker I use for the aqua medic has much more bubbles on the same setting than my glass diffuser

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24/7 so I have stable pH.
Yes I do have although the drop checker I use for the aqua medic has much more bubbles on the same setting than my glass diffuser

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Ignore bubbles, in your size tank it should be more of a stream!

What colour does your drop checker in the tank change to eg moss green or almost yellow?

Ps. What size is your gas bottle and roughly how long does it last?
 
Ignore bubbles, in your size tank it should be more of a stream!

What colour does your drop checker in the tank change to eg moss green or almost yellow?

Ps. What size is your gas bottle and roughly how long does it last?
Yep it's always coming out like a stream.
Towards yellow. U can see it in the video too

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I know the aquarium is a bit high that's why I set light at 9 hours to compensate for that.

I would say with 4xT5 at 24" that's getting up into medium/high lighting no?

lighting.png
 
Hi I had 4 x t5 tubes and nothing but trouble, reduced to 2 x t5 with better success. To start, I would reduce light and increase plant mass with easy fast growing plants. Twice weekly 50% water changes and observe for a couple of weeks then report back on the progress.
 
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