Any change in micros/ferts in the farm? I upped my B and Pantanal seems to like it. Of course, could be something completely different. Curious what you think yours are liking. I'll post a pic of mine in my journal.
Im up to .073 B and its been working really well for about 3 weeks. Over the past couple of months Ive slowly gone up from the .04s.
Some may recall a few months back I began raising macros from moderate levels to high. It was obvious everything loved the new higher levels, and several minor but nagging issues went away. But everything was not rosy
When I raised K from around 20 ppm per week up to 35 (in one whack), Hygrophila all breathed a sigh of relief. They'd clearly been starving for K - although interestingly enough there were never any pinhole symptoms, just small unhappy growth. But...in every tank Lud red tips puckered up almost immediately, other Ludwigias did the same to a lesser degree, a few Pogo kimberly stunted.
Lud reds have always been prone do this. Its never been a chronic issue just a common sign they arent happy for some reason. I never knew what caused it, whether it was one thing or multiple somethings. Used to especially happen to replanted tops, but they usually got right again in a few days.
Well after a couple of weeks these were only getting worse. Something was clearly off. The knee jerk reaction would've been to blame higher macros - high ferts are bad, mmkay! - but too many other species were loving it so I wasnt about to change back.
Time to put on my sleuthing cap and break out the trusty Mulder Chart of Nutrient Interactions:
What did I just raise? Macros. NO3 a few weeks before and K just recently.
What nutrients are most likely to be affected according to the chart? P, nope, raised that too. Mg was plenty and it doesnt stunt tips. This left B as the most likely suspect. And we all know low B will stunt tips.
So to sum it all up I started raising B and the situation quickly resolved.
Current recipe per dose, 4-5 x per week
Fe - .2
Mn - .05
B - .073
Zn - .05
Mo - .0015
Cu - .001 (there's a little in my tap)
Ni - .0005
Sounds like a real weekend worry
It keeps me awake at night...and Im only half joking.
Part of the reason why I set up Kill Tank B with crazy-rich substrate is from spending a few days hanging out with Dennis Wong in Singapore. Great guy. I saw his tank several times over a period of a month, so I also got a sense of the rate of growth. His farm tank that he posts pic of on Facebook has a very rich substarte. Not quite as crazy as mine, but very rich. He doses one or two ppm nitrate daily, but is generous with phosphate too. Without the extra P and the rich substrate, he wouldnt be able to grow many of the plants that he does if he strictly followed ADA's dosing plan. His tank is very bright, lean water-column, and clean. Besides less water column dosing, he has less flow than most American high tech tanks.
Anyway, really glad you're playing with Aquasoil.
Great post Vin. Looking forward to see how the new kill tanks run.
Im still dosing about 20 PO4 per week in the 50, that's down from 20-25 2-3x per week those first couple of weeks. Levels in the water are holding steady between 5 and 10 ppm. So the absorption has slowed down a good bit but its still happening
Ive been thinking a lot about rich substrates lately. Ive always discounted the benefits when it comes to fast growing stuff like Pantanal. How does nutrients at the roots help when it needs trimming every week, before roots have even had time to develop??
Makes sense right?
Over the past few weeks seeing plants grow in this aquasoil, Ive started using a lot more Osmocote+ in various other tanks. Picture gel-caps only 1/4 or 1/5 full, 2 or 3 per stem group. One of these per plants like Downoi instead of a single ball here and there like I'd been doing.
And sure enough, even the fast growing stuff clearly likes it! Why??
Then it occurred how we cut flowers from the garden and put them in a vase of water and they drink it right up. This is almost certainly an example active transport. What if cut stems in our aquariums take nutrients the same way?? Seems logical...
This might be common plant knowledge and Im just the last one to figure it out, but it's sort of been an eye opener recently
