[EwDeg]

I just trimmed some leaves from my amazon sword and since it's my largest plant I figured any nutrient deficiencies would be present in it. As you can see the leaves are not vibrant and healthy. I'm wondering if anyone can help out. I don't dose ferts or have co2 yet. It's in the works. My light cycle is 7 hours split up 3.5/3.5. This pic was taken just after trimming and removing.

Any help is appreciated!

 

[greaser84]

What are your water parameters? Can you take some pictures of the plant showing new leaves and old leaves?

 

[Zapins]

Old or new leaves? What light fixture are you using?

 

[EwDeg]

Those were old leaves. I have a finnex planted plus. Water parameters: pH 6.0, Ammo 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates 20. Here's the best pic I could get of the plant this morning.

 

[HybridHerp]

How long has the tank been set up? I know aqua soil is supposed to have everything but, I always wonder about micronutrients ya know?

 

[EwDeg]

It's about 4 months old. Yeah I figured it's probably micronutrient deficiency, but I'm new to this. Once I get my co2 setup, I'll be doing EI.

 

[Zapins]

Its not likely to be a micro deficiency. The old leaves being affected means it is a mobile deficiency which limits it to N, P, K, or Mg. It doesn't look right for N (though there is a small chance it might be despite the test kit results) and its not Mg deficiency.

Are your other plants showing signs of damage? Do you have any hygrophila plants? If so please inspect the old leaves for pinholes and take photos if they are there.

 

[EwDeg]

The older leaves on my other plants just aren't as vibrant green as the new growth. You can kinda see that on the bacopa to the right of the last photo. Also, my s repens looks terrible, but I feel that might be due to fish eating it. I'm not sure bc the bottom leaves are all gone. They're almost just little stems with some small new growth at the top. I can try to take pics of that in a bit.

 

[EwDeg]

Oh and I got some hygro last week, so it's still settling in. No signs of problems yet.

 

[Zapins]

More pics will help. What fish do you have?

 

[EwDeg]

I've got one large boesmani rainbow, two tiger barbs, two dwarf Gouramis, two Otos, two Nerites.

Bacopa

S repens

Blyxa

 

[Zapins]

It is possible that it is a K deficiency. I can't make out the bacopa leaves very clearly but they appear to have small holes in them which is a sign of a lack of potassium. Nerite snails also sometimes chew holes through leaves as they rasp for algae.

K is one of the nutrients that is easily washed out of nutrient rich substrates. That is part of the reason they suggest you use Brightly K (or another potassium source like K2SO4) after a few months of letting aquasoil settle in.

 

[EwDeg]

Thanks for all your help so far. I've been waiting to start dosing anything til I get co2 up and running. But you asked about my Hygro...it has started to form holes. Here's a bunch of plant pics. I know there's some algae issues as well. Methinks GSA, BBA, and maybe others...any help there would also be appreciated. I picked up a syringe to do some spot treatments of h2o2, but got home and realized I was out. Doh! Anyway, here's a bunch of pics I took.

Hygro below

 

[EwDeg]

Also, I've been doing weekly 50% water changes with the recommended two capfuls of excel for a 20 gallon with virtually no effect on any algae. And I do the daily one thread of excel in the mornings most days. Sometimes I forget if I wake up late and I'm in a hurry.

 

[Zapins]

It could be a potassium deficiency. The small holes on the Hygro do look like potassium deficiency. See Potassium Deficient Hygro. Corymbosa: http://deficiencyfinder.com/?page_id=598

You'll want to add something with potassium in it to raise the level up to about 15-30 ppm potassium. You can add it 3x a week in 10 ppm doses. I like to use K2SO4 for this purpose. Use calc.petalphile.com to calculate how much K2SO4 to dose for your tank.

The old leaves will not heal, but no more leaves will develop holes if it is potassium. You should know in a week or two if the issue was potassium after you add it.

Also, excel is usually used to spot treat algae using a syringe to apply the excel directly to the algae underwater. Adding it to the water doesn't really stop algae that much. Also, excel doesn't kill every species of algae. It has almost no affect on spot algae. It is usually used to kill black beard algae.