[mistergreen]

problem 1:
the leaves of my anubias, are curling and cupping. I read that this is a deficiency in calcium... Can I just get calcium suppliments at the pharmacy and crush it and put it in the tank?

problem 2:
small yellow bloches?sp are showing up on the leaves (anubias, lutea).. Is this a deficiency in nitrogen? my nitrate is at 20-25 ppm, phosphate @ 4 ppm... I dose a small a mount of MgSO4 just in case Mg or SO is missing.

i just did a 1/4 water change to replenish some nutrients. and just added a capful of trace.

it's a 29 gallon tank with 2.5 wpg, 9ppm CO2.

thanks.

 

[MikeNas102]

Are you dosing Potassium? The amount of Potassium in KNO3 is not always enough.

 

[mistergreen]

The amount of Potassium in KNO3 is not always enough

really?
i have KNO3 & K2PO3

i don't what to raise nitrate or phosphate.

i have a bag of plant fert, K2O of potash... should I use that?

oh and this link is helpful in determining nutrient deficiency
Nutrient Deficiency

 

[Glouglou]

Hum!

Personally I find youre concentration a kind of high. New trends around start to go with leaner tank.
something like:

Ph= around 6.4
Filtration = 3 to 5x volume by hour
Tempº — 76º / 78º
PH — around 6.4
CO2 — 10 to 20 ppm
KH — 30 / 50 ppm
GH — 40 / 120 ppm
Mg — 5 / 10 ppm
Ca — 10 à 30 ppm
NO3 — 2 / 10 ppm
P04 — .2 / 1 ppm
K — 10 / 20 ppm
Fe — .2 /1 ppm

I think that heavy dosage is bound to fail because you establish adosage that seem to work for a while but when plant is saturated with some nutrients induced deficiency start to show up.

Example of induced deficiency:
(most of them work in reverse order)

excess amoniac / amonium = potassium and iron
excess potassium = calcium, magnesium and iron deficiency
excess sulphur = molybdene deficiency
excess Iron= manganese deficiency
excess cooper = iron deficiency
excess magnesium = iron deficiency
excess nitrogen = potassium deficiency
excess phosphorus = potassium deficiency
excess magnesium, potassium or sodium may = calcium deficiency

excess boron marginal and intervenal scorch which may be confused with potassium or magnesium deficiencies

sodium and chlorine may cause marginal leaf scorch similar to potassium deficiency

excesses of chromium, cobalt, copper, manganese, nickel or zinc may induce iron deficiency

 

[MikeNas102]

Glouglou: If what you say is true then EI would not work and everybody who uses it would have the same problem. The main purpose of EI is dosing a little more than needed then re-setting the tank with a large water change.

 

[mistergreen]

well, trust me i didn't want my nitrate & phosphate to be that high..
i sort of agree with you glouglou.... i'm trying to find a balance with my tank and not do this overdosing and 50% every week...
#1... it's not practical. Who has the time?
#2... i'm keeping it somewhat low tech...

but my tank is low on potassium.. just added some K2O

 

[mistergreen]

just added a 1/4 teaspoon of CaSO4 too. I remembered I had gypsum laying around the house.. If you guys want a cheap buy, go to an asian market and look for gysum. It's used to make tofu. And plaster of Paris can be found in art stores.

 

[Just40Fun]

any update? did it work by adding more k and ca?

 

[mistergreen]

any update? did it work by adding more k and ca?

The plants look better but the tank is being attacked by staghorn and weird brown hair algae... Some of the 'symptoms' of low K, like holes in leaves turned out to be caused by my rubber lip/mouth pleco.. He was a bit zealous in his grazing on the leaves.

 

[Rex Grigg]

Tom Barr has pretty much shot the high potassium and calcium problem down. So that makes the rest of the list pretty suspect.

Can you provide links to proof of this list?