Hey guys, I need some help revamping my tank. It has been running for about a year now, and it doesn't look as good as it once did, and I do not know how to fix it.
Plants are a faded yellow color, leaves on my hygrophila corymbosa are deformed, and the water isn't as clear as I'd like it to be. My Dwarf Sag seems to be doing the best, sending out runners and growing quite well.
I have the EI dosing kit. I probably need to read more into EI dosing because I believe that is part of my problem.
Light is an aquatrader LED, 6500k Planted LED. I do not believe PAR is an issue. Substrate is black diamond blasting sand.
I am using R/O water, remineralized with Seachem Equilibrium.
My tank: 20 Long NH4: ~.25, I believe this is where some issues are, this tank is pretty old and I shouldn't have any. Oh well. After testing this I did a 25% water change. NO2: 0 ppm NO3: 5-10 ppm pH: 7.6-7.8 This is kind of high for R/O, but I buy it from my town's local water supplier. Temp: 76F
I would buy paintball co2 setup, do 100% water change and remove all detritus and add lots of plants. Ei fert and weekly water changes high gas it will fill in. Trim off leaves that are of concern this will stimulate grow back and from that leaf detail in the grow back you get feedback on your fert approach acceptability.
I guess I didn't really talk much about the actual tank. It's supposed to be low tech, shrimp tank. I'm not looking for crazy quick growth as much as I'm just looking for more green, less deformed growth. I'm not looking to make this a high tech tank.
My AP Bio teacher was talking about how plant leaves turn yellow because they lack in magnesium, the main element in chlorophyll. I'm not sure if this counts, but try adding some root tabs that have magnesium in them? This should restore the green color in them. I'm not sure about the deformed leaves, it could be something lacking in whatever aquatic plants use for support underwater...
Incorporate some Java fern and hornwort. I have personally had good luck with hornwort in low light and it seems to do a good job keeping water in good conditon. Maybe move away from having to do much fertilizing? Try just using tap with Prime and distilled to top off. Good tap water has a lot of useful minerals. Using mulberry or other clean leaves, like oak for the shrimp to chow on and feed biofilm also help keep the water in good shape. I'm just going off what has been working for me. I have an outdoor pond (50 gal)with no filtration, just a little solar pump to move the water around now and then. Its been going on its own with little maintenance for about 6 years so I try to mimic that with the tanks. Seems to work. Good luck.
I actually ordered a good amount of hornwort, because I was afraid of running into a green water problem.
I would debate on using my city's tap water, but with a pH of around 8.6, I am leery of doing that. I don't know much else about my city's water, but maybe occasionally using it would help balance minerals.
i'd go through and thoroughly prune any above substrate roots, deformed leaves, shoots, and in general cut out the over crowding and confusing area between plants. after that you should free up alot of visual space, ground cover for carpet.
I'm almost wondering if it is potassium. My only other idea would be a lack of micros, but I don't know if that is responsible for the yellowing of the plants or the deformed growth or either for that matter.
Looks to be one of the mobile nutrients since it looks like is mainly on the old leaves. Id guess either potassium or phosphate, could be nitrate but if your test is accurate you should have a sufficient amount
I just looked into deeper as well and found that you are correct! Glad you found the problem GL with fixing it!
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