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Out of Shape Leaves

Daryn

Member
Joined
2 Sep 2008
Messages
54
Location
Glasgow
Hi people im just asking a question about plant deficiency. My tanks a 3 gallon with low filter flow (betta tank), 3 arcadia arcpod 9W T5pc lights on 8 hours a day, co2 added by DIY two 2L coke bottles with bubble counter showing 1BPS steady being diffused by a rhinox 2000 in 1 corner and a Tetra areosol co2 in the other corner and the drop checker is light green, ive been dosing Seachem Flourish Excel at 2ml per day and 5ml after the weekly 50% water change, the liquid fertiliser im using just now is Nutrafin Plant Gro, it says to use 2ml a week on a tank this size but ive been adding 1ml a day with no problems so far but my stem plants leaves are out of shape when they are growing in (why i was adding 1ml a day) ive been looking at pics of deficiencys and think it looks like a calcium deficiency, my tap water is very low GH and KH so do i buy a GH booster and use as the instructions say to fix the leaves, should i cut down the amount of liquid ferts going in and how does the amount of flourish excel im putting in sound, sorry for all the questions but im still a newbie.
 
A update with a pic of the leaves, does anyone think i should add the gh buffer going by the leaves, i dont want to be adding things the tank doesnt need, thanks in advance or any help.

100_0480.jpg
 
Man i wish i could help out more on this one...

The only thing i can think of is...

As it is a red plant ... it will need alot of light, i once tried out some red plants and they perished fast and that was with just over 2WPG

I used to use that Nutrafin plant gro and to be honest i dont think its any good.

You could maybe try out tropica plant nutrition plus, as lots of people use it and it alone, so it must be pretty damn good :)

Sorry i cant be of any more use to you...

Someone else more expierenced will hopefully take the time to help you out a bit.

Richie
 
Thanks for the help, i was beginning to think i was alone on here LOL.
 
Reading the Nutrafin site, it says that PlantGrow contains:

Plant Gro features essential trace elements including; chelated iron, manganese, zinc, copper molybdate and boron to meet the needs of aquatic plants. Micro-nutrients are often completely missing in tap water as well as the fact that plants aggressively deplete them under the right conditions, supplementation with Plant Gro will ensure your plants receive proper nutrition and look their best.

This to me suggests its more of a trace mix as N P and K are missing. You may want to consider replacing this with Tropica Plant Nutrition+ perhaps? Or maybe look at the EasyLife range. I believe there is one called Nitro for Nitrogen and Potassium and another called Fospho for Phosphate. You could use these alongside your current Nutrafin product.

Personally I'd opt for the Tropica TPN+ as it's a whole solution :) (I use this myself).
 
im setting up my larger aquarium for aquascaping so am going to get the dry powder fertilizer and mix it myself but coz im still finding out the basics on this stuff i find it a bit daunting so keep putting it off and buying ordinary cheap liquid ferts as this is all the local shops stock but im going to bite the bullet and buy it in this week as the other tanks getting close to be being ready, thanks for the reply.
 
Well i recieved my dry ferts and mixed my first batch of all in one solution, it was all very easy and the solution is green like it says in the article, i hope this cures the problem.
 
Cool! I'm hoping to mix my own soon. I just need Ascorbic Acid. Of course, I didn't realise this was just Vitamin C! I'm going to get some if I can from my local supermarket or chemists.
 
I must say im new to all this and was just buying whatever the local shops had for fertiliser, i used to look and try and pick the one that looked like it contained most things but dont really understand all the elements involved so it was basically counting ingredients and going that one has more so get that and as you can see from the state of the leaves it wasnt going very well, so i looked at the all in one and thought i dont understand that i wouldnt even attempt that, i cant say how easy it was, the only info i couldnt find was how to mix them together in detail so i was worried they needed to be mixed in a certain order so just to keep things simple for myself i put the water in a jug with a clean empty half litre juice bottle then poured a small amount of water from the jug into the bottle followed by the first ingredients on the list and shook it loads followed by some more water then the next ingredients on the list and another shake, i done this for all ingredients and its been keeping well so far under the tank in the cupboard but because my house is rather warm im considering switching to the fridge.
 
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