Deficiency or light?

[dewalltheway]

Can someone tell me what this deficiency is on my ludwigia repens and have some of the same on my sunset hygro or is it just not enough light getting to these leaves? I have been using the EI method of dosing and have pressurized CO2 and using RO water. I just tested for KH & PH and they were 3 & 6.4. My guess is lighting but I wanted to get a second or third or fourth opinion.

[Avalon]

It's not your lighting (it rarely will ever be your lighting). You have severe macronutrient deficiencies. You have nitrogen and potassium deficiencies. Ludwigia melts like that when it doesn't have enough nitrogen; the yellow leaves are also representative of nitrogen deficiency. Ludwigia's are nitrogen hogs; I don't think I've encountered any plant aside from swords that can suck up nitrogen like Ludwigia's can. See all of those little round holes in your leaves? That is a classic symptom of Potassium deficiency. You need KNO3 and a lot of it.

What ferts are you using?

[mrkookm]

I agree with Avalon, that has nothing to do with lighting. What is your current K ppm value for the week including that from N&P?

[dewalltheway]

Originally Posted by mrkookm

I agree with Avalon, that has nothing to do with lighting. What is your current K ppm value for the week including that from N&P?

I really need to get on the up and up on abbrv. What is the K and the N&P?

[mrkookm]

I really need to get on the up and up on abbrv. What is the K and the N&P?

I agree with Avalon, that has nothing to do with lighting. What is your current Potassium ppm value for the week including that from NO3 & PO4?

[Jeff5614]

Originally Posted by dewalltheway

I really need to get on the up and up on abbrv. What is the K and the N&P?

K = potassium
N = nitrogen
P ( PO4) = phosphorous

[dewalltheway]

Sorry that I am just getting back to this. I tested my nitrates and it shows 10ppm. Phosphates are 10 ppm.I do not have a postassium tester so I don't know what that is.
Maybe I should be dosing higher amounts then what I am currently since I have a heavily planted tank. This is what i currently dose:
(I mix all my solutions up 1tbs:250ml water)
Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday
40ml on potassium nitrate
10ml Postassium sulfate
10ml Mono Postassium Phosphate

Monday, Wednesday, Friday
5ml Iron
5ml CSM+B
5ml Flourish

Tell me what you think

[NyteBlade]

Your phosphates are quite high at 10 ppm. I'd aim for 3 ppm at the highest. I'm not too sure if the high phosphate levels would cause your symptoms, but it certainly can't be doing much good.

You mentioned you use RO water. Do you add anything back to the water in the way of calcium or magnesium?

[dewalltheway]

Originally Posted by NyteBlade

Your phosphates are quite high at 10 ppm. I'd aim for 3 ppm at the highest. I'm not too sure if the high phosphate levels would cause your symptoms, but it certainly can't be doing much good.

You mentioned you use RO water. Do you add anything back to the water in the way of calcium or magnesium?

All that gets put back is the little that is in the flourish & CSM+B. Not sure if that is enough though.

[Avalon]

The plants never lie. Test kits do. Here's what I've found:

According to your fert concentrations and dosing, you are adding:

8ppm of N every other day (4ppm per day) - this is low. Plants that are growing well can use around 5-6ppm of N per day, sometimes more. Up your dosing to 60mL of solution every other day.

1.9ppm of P every other day - this is a little high, but workable. I think over time this may build up and possibly become a problem. Shoot for 6-8mL of your solution.

6.4ppm of K every other day - this is right on target. I think the problem you're seeing with the pinholes is because your plants aren't able to take up enough K because of your lack of N. When you increase your KNO3 dosing, you'll also up the K a little, which will still be on target.

I don't use CSM for traces, so I can't help you there. Generally, if the plants are solid shades of color with no washed out/pale colors, you have enough. I would however either does Iron daily, or on off days from your traces if you're using Seachem's Iron. It doesn't stay in the water column for long. If you're having any problems bringing out the colors (reds, oranges, etc), then you could easily double the amount of iron you're dosing, but I would go to daily dosing first.

[dewalltheway]

So...the weekly dosing would look like this:

50% water change on Sunday

Nothing on Saturday

Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday
60ml on potassium nitrate
10ml Postassium sulfate
8ml Mono Postassium Phosphate

Monday, Wednesday, Friday
5ml CSM+B
5ml Flourish

Everyday (except Saturday)
5ml Iron (I use the Iron Chelate from aquariumfertilizer.com)

Does anyone see any problems with this method. I also use all RO/DI water.

Originally Posted by Avalon

The plants never lie. Test kits do. Here's what I've found:

According to your fert concentrations and dosing, you are adding:

8ppm of N every other day (4ppm per day) - this is low. Plants that are growing well can use around 5-6ppm of N per day, sometimes more. Up your dosing to 60mL of solution every other day.

1.9ppm of P every other day - this is a little high, but workable. I think over time this may build up and possibly become a problem. Shoot for 6-8mL of your solution.

6.4ppm of K every other day - this is right on target. I think the problem you're seeing with the pinholes is because your plants aren't able to take up enough K because of your lack of N. When you increase your KNO3 dosing, you'll also up the K a little, which will still be on target.

I don't use CSM for traces, so I can't help you there. Generally, if the plants are solid shades of color with no washed out/pale colors, you have enough. I would however either does Iron daily, or on off days from your traces if you're using Seachem's Iron. It doesn't stay in the water column for long. If you're having any problems bringing out the colors (reds, oranges, etc), then you could easily double the amount of iron you're dosing, but I would go to daily dosing first.

[Avalon]

Looks good for the macros. You might try to get some suggestions on the trace and Iron dosings for good measure since I'm not familiar with CSM or the Iron chelate. Using RO isn't a problem.