Holes in old growth (w/picture)

[jccaclimber]

75 gallon tank, 2x T5HO bulbs 2-3 inches over the tank, on 10 hours/day. Pressurized CO2 (reactor), sand, root tabs (mostly Osmocote+), ferts at the end of my post. Bunches of surface movement.

A while back I had an issue with holes in new growth on an amazon sword, and ongoing BBA issues. This was resolved by upping my CO2. Some plants are just flat out not doing well (r. wallichii and nanjenshan), although I've heard my liquid limestone tap water may have something to do with this.

For a while I've been getting pinholes (turning to eroded leaves) on my rubin sword, which also isn't growing well. My s.repens also gets pinholes, then sheds its lower leaves. It still grows and multiplies, but never has more than 2-3 nodes with leaves. This problem got worse when I upped the CO2. This leaves me to believe that I replaced my CO2 shortage with another shortage. I am leaning potassium, but that's just based on things I've read, not first hand experience. So, what is causing my problem and how can I fix it?


There are some plecos in this tank, but they are never seen on the plant (day or night), and the plant does look generally unhealthy at the moment. It also hasn't sent up much new growth recently which has me concerned.
Finally, if it's any help my bacopa colorata has been doing poorly lately as well. Something is eating it, but I only see that when it's not healthy, so I suspect the livestock is not the root problem.

Dosing:
I figure my tank "75 gallon" has 60-65 gallons of water.
50-60% WC on day 1.
Days 1/3/5: 1/4tsp epsom, 1.25 tsp K2SO4, N from fish food*, 1/4 tsp KH2PO4
Days 2/4/6: 1/4 tsp DPTA Fe, 1/4 tsp CSM+B (via Bob's Tropical Plants).

This week I've added 1/4 tsp of K2SO4 to days 2/4/6 to see if it makes any difference. My water is liquid limestone so I don't worry about adding Ca.
*My nitrates are 20-30 after a WC and 40-80 at the end of the week. This is via an API liquid test, and I have calibrated it. I made the calibrations with an analytical lab scale and RO/DI water. Yes I do feed somewhat heavily, but I don't get crud buildup or other issues.

[Ach1Ll3sH33L]

Are you trying to dose by E.I? You should be dosing KN03, and shouldn't need to dose k2s04. this is most likely part of the problem, how are you measuring c02? and what does the rest of the plant look like.

[jccaclimber]

Originally Posted by Ach1Ll3sH33L

Are you trying to dose by E.I? You should be dosing KN03, and shouldn't need to dose k2s04. this is most likely part of the problem, how are you measuring c02? and what does the rest of the plant look like.

My NO3 levels stay ok without me dosing it. When I go away for a week and have the fiance feed, I drop feeding and replace it with some KNO3, but normally I have enough food, and enough osmocote leaching KNO3 that I don't need to add any.

A couple months ago I had a problem with holes in older leaves which was cured by adding K2SO4. Also, because I don't dose KNO3 I need to replace that K with something, thus the K2SO4.

It's possible that I'm overdosing K, but it seems difficult to overdose ferts based on what I've read around here.

I'll try to take a picture of the rest of the plant today. Until I turned up the CO2 recently I had new growth slowly coming in with a nice purple color, fading to dark green as it moved to the outside. Now there isn't any new growth from the main plant (some small growth from another plant growing from the same crown behind it) and all the leaves are dark green. The oldest ones develop holes.

CO2 I'm using a drop checker (4dkh) turned on before the lights. It's green in the morning, but yellow most of the day. My fish are not stressed (I've had that before, they're fine now).

[Kathyy]

Try increasing the other macros one at a time. You are not adding a whole lot of Mg with that 1/4 tsp, only .44ppm, I would try that one first if you noticed an improvement with its addition.

[cradleoffilthfan]

This might be a dumb question, but on days 1/3/5 why are you adding 1/4 tsp epsom salt? Is it for mg? I have always been told salt was bad for the plants, isn't there another way to add magnesium? I would figure there would be some in the tap water without having to add it, maybe someone can let me know, I never heard of it before....

[jccaclimber]

How much Mg would you recommend? I was under the impression I was putting in more than needed based on the fact that GH booster is only added after a WC per the EI thread.
I did actually notice some GSA this moring (first time in months) which tells me I'm low on either P or CO2. I'm a bit surprised since I'm already putting in more P than the EI spec, but it sounds like I need to increase it a bit.

[happi]

Originally Posted by cradleoffilthfan

This might be a dumb question, but on days 1/3/5 why are you adding 1/4 tsp epsom salt? Is it for mg? I have always been told salt was bad for the plants, isn't there another way to add magnesium? I would figure there would be some in the tap water without having to add it, maybe someone can let me know, I never heard of it before....

almost all the ferts are salts. he might be adding Mg because he must be using RO water, Ca and Mg are important for plant growth, but they dont need to be added at crazy levels, Ca around 30ppm and Mg around 6-8ppm is enough.

[jccaclimber]

Originally Posted by cradleoffilthfan

This might be a dumb question, but on days 1/3/5 why are you adding 1/4 tsp epsom salt? Is it for mg? I have always been told salt was bad for the plants, isn't there another way to add magnesium? I would figure there would be some in the tap water without having to add it, maybe someone can let me know, I never heard of it before....

Yes, it is for the Mg. I don't think I'm adding nearly enough to cause plant problems, but I am interested in hearing what other people have to say about this.

[jccaclimber]

Originally Posted by happi

almost all the ferts are salts. he might be adding Mg because he must be using RO water, Ca and Mg are important for plant growth, but they dont need to be added at crazy levels, Ca around 30ppm and Mg around 6-8ppm is enough.

No RO water, although given how hard my water is that wouldn't be an awful idea. I'm putting in the Mg as a "just to be sure" since I don't know what my shortage is. I do know that my tap water is full of calcium (from limestone aquifiers) , so I don't add any of that.

[happi]

Originally Posted by jccaclimber

No RO water, although given how hard my water is that wouldn't be an awful idea. I'm putting in the Mg as a "just to be sure" since I don't know what my shortage is. I do know that my tap water is full of calcium (from limestone aquifiers) , so I don't add any of that.

i wouldnt dose any extra Mg if you are not sure how much Mg you have in your water, test it if you can. adding more Mg is only going to make the water more harder.

if you are dosing Traces which contain small ammount of Mg then there is no need to add any extra Mg. i use to have hard water, Ca 150ppm, Mg 0, it was tested and i never added any Mg, just from Trace dosing and plant did very well.

[Kathyy]

Ooo, try more P then.

There is something about minerals binding and a correct ratio of certain minerals but I haven't gotten that into my head yet. In animal nutrition calcium binds a number of minerals so more is not better but no idea how that applies to aquatic plants.

[jccaclimber]

I just threw in an extra 1/4 tsp scoop of KH2PO4, which ought to keep the levels up all week. I can try upping my carbon later in the week, but I'll be out of town Monday/Tuesday. I don't want to risk gassing my fish by changing it now. However, is phosphate shortage known for making plants relocate nutrients from their old growth?

[happi]

before you go any further, lets get much more info to find you the correct soultion.

i might have missed it, but can you give full detailabout your setup, from A-Z. co2, lights, filter, circulation etc.

in most cases fertilizer isnt the main problem, its mostly co2 and way of circulating the tank water.

EDIT: ok i saw your detail

[happi]

tell us more about your filters and circulation.

[jccaclimber]

Filter is an HMF filter (Poret) in the rear right corner with the outlet a couple inches from the surface and facing the long way through the tank. The pump is rated to somewhere around 500 gph at 1' head (I don't remember exactly) and based on the flow coming out of it I believe it. The outlet is pointed slightly towards the surface, and the plants sway in the majority of the tank, including the area around the plant in question. It looks like you've found everything else already.
I still wonder about CO2, but it seems to have gotten a bit worse since I upped my CO2 (although other problems went away).