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Ludwigia Natans not growing well

Beaker

Seedling
Joined
24 Aug 2020
Messages
21
Location
Colorado
My ludwigia natans is not growing well. The leaves are small and the growth is slow.

1. 20 gallon long
2. Eheim 2213
3. Planted + HCL
4. Black sand with osmocote
5. CO2 is a high as it can go without fish stressing
6.
  • 4ppm Potassium (12ppm per week)
  • 3ppm Nitrates (21ppm per week)
  • 1ppm Phosphates (7ppm per week)
  • 1ppm Magnesium (6ppm per week)
  • 0.05ppm Iron/traces every other day
I just doubled the nitrates and phosphates a couple of days ago. I increased phosphates to get rid of green spot algae and I increased nitrates to see it it would help the ludwigias. Before I increased it everything was growing well except the Ludwigia natans.

7. 70% water change once a week
8. Plant List
  • rotala rotundifolia
  • hc cuba
  • ar mini
  • hydrocotyle japan
  • whorle pennywort
  • dwarf hairgrass
9. Inhabitants- white cloud mountain minnows, cherry shrimp, juli cory

Other things:

I was dealing with black brush algae until I started dosing iron every other day. Now it is gone and not coming back

Algae -green spot but doesn't seem to be coming back since I increased phosphates

I have one algae that isn't going away. I don't know what it is but I included a picture.

The rotala rotundifolia was growing well until I increase my dosing. Now some are stunted.
 

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I forgot to add current fert levels

TDS -332
PH- 6.3 with co2 7.8 without
kh-8
gh- 10
phosphates 2ppm
Nitrates-3ppm but the test shows lower than the actual level.

Dosing with dtpa iron not plantex csm+b. I change from plantex because of an iron deficiency. After I changed, the deficiency went away and bba showed up. After I halved the iron dose, the bba went way.
 
Hi

re the algae, that looks like stag horn. V similar to what I’m dealing with at moment by pruning or pulling out. Be interested to see what the forum suggests.
 
I tried Ludwigia Natans as well and it didn’t do well. I think it’s one of the more pickier varieties. Iron should have no impact on BBA, it’s almost always CO2 and organic load. It looks like you have staghorn as well which also enjoys slow growing or unhealthy plants and low Co2. You say you have high CO2 but what are you measuring your CO2 with? How are you injecting it and distributing it around the tank?
 
It isn't staghorn because I had staghorn a month or two ago after a vacation. This one is different. It smells bad when you pull it out if that helps. I was thinking it was blanket weed but I can't find much information on it.

I am measuring co2 by how much the ph drops and my HC cuba. PH drops over 1.5 ph and if I move the needle valve even the tiniest bit, my fish start getting stressed within 30 minutes. I'm defusing co2 with a inline atomizer. I can see bubbles everywhere and the place with the lowest flow has good plant growth from my AR mini. And hc cuba starts growing up when there isn't enough CO2 and mine is growing against the substrate.

My only experience with BBA is when I changed my iron. I went from plantex to dtpa and that is when the BBA showed up. When I stopped dosing as much dtpa iron, it went away. My iron dosing was the only thing I changed from when the BBA showed up to when it when away. So I pretty sure it was the iron. (I was reading it can be iron and that is why I halved my dose)
 
Maybe it is a boron deficiency? It looks a lot like the one in this article -https://classicalaquascaping.wordpress.com/2016/09/02/ludwigia-red-boron-deficiency/

I'm not dosing boron right now.

Here is a better picture of the algae.

PXL_20201030_143257041.jpg
 
Last edited:
Hi all,
This one is different. It smells bad when you pull it out if that helps. I was thinking it was blanket weed but I can't find much information on it.
Here is a better picture of the algae.
That is a perfect photo for diagnosis. You have a <"Green Algae, Cladophora">, unfortunately it is difficult to control and your best hope is manual removal.

All the green algae belong to the <"same clade (Viridiplantae) as all the higher plants">, which is what makes them difficult to control, basically <"they are all plants">, just the "plants you want" (mosses, ferns and angiosperms) and "the plants you don't want" (Chlorophyta "green algae"). Because they share the same photosynthetic pathways, what is good for the green algae is also good for your plants.
My only experience with BBA is when I changed my iron. I went from plantex to dtpa and that is when the BBA showed up. When I stopped dosing as much dtpa iron, it went away. My iron dosing was the only thing I changed from when the BBA showed up to when it when away. So I pretty sure it was the iron. (I was reading it can be iron and that is why I halved my dose)
Iron (Fe) is quite an interesting nutrient, because it isn't mobile within the plant, so when it has been deficient it takes a while for the plant to start growing normal leaves again. It is different for the algae, it doesn't have any internal plumbing and <"can show an instant growth response"> as soon as the iron diffuses in through the cells walls.

Have a look at @jameson_uk's <"Duckweed index says....">, he is now so good at growing Frogbit he is <"giving it away">.

cheers Darrel
 
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