[grantnielsen]

I need some help on how to save my plants. My red ruebin sword, ludwigia repens, and bacopa caroliniana are loosing leaves and dying. On the l. Repens all the bottom leaves are falling off. The leaves on the red reuben sword are turning translucent and melting away. This is the first time this has happened since the tank was set up. Over 6 months. My s repens and rotalia rotundifolia are doing ok and seem to be growing normally.
My tank is a 29 gallon with eco complete substrate capped with silica sand. 2x24w t5ho lights about 16" from substrate. Photoperiod is 9am-130pm + 230pm-7pm. Co2 injection at 4 bps runs 24/7. Dose daily with pps-pro. 1.5 ml micro and 5 ml macro. I started that a couple months ago and the plants seemed to really like it. Nitrate is 20 ppm. Nitrite is 0 ppm. Amonia is 0 ppm. I run a 245 korilia powerhead and a 5 stage 390gph canister filter. 50% water change weekly.
The only thing i can think of that might have caused this is i dosed the tank with excel two weeks ago to get rid of some staghorn algae. Please help me!!!

 

[Zapins]

I can't see the damage on the ludwigia the picture is too zoomed out.

It looks like only the old leaves are affected on the swords so the issue is probably a macro deficiency of one of the mobile nutrients like nitrate, phosphate or potassium.

Just by the picture I'd say it looks like a nitrate deficiency, but you say the nitrates are at 20. Are you dosing nitrates or is the level passively 20? If so then double check and see if you can calibrate the test kit against pure distilled water (not tap water) and see if the kit is accurate. They often read incorrectly.

If it isn't nitrates phosphates can look similar, but phosphate deficiency is pretty rare so that is less likely.

Another possibility is potassium deficiency.


What ferts, how much and how often are you adding them?

 

[grantnielsen]

Im dosing macro once daily. K2so4, kno3, kh2po4, mgso4. And micro wich was a premade powder solution that you measure out and mix with water. Thats once daily also. Heres a better picture. You can see one of the leaves decaying. But most of them just fell off even though they looked perfectly healthy

 

[Zapins]

How many grams, teaspoons or ppm are you adding per dose or per week?

 

[grantnielsen]

I mix all the macro dry ferts in one bottle of 500 ml distilled water. K2so4- 29.3 grams, kno3- 32.6 grams, kh2po4- 2.9 grams, and mgso4- 20.2 grams. And pps-pro suggest 1ml daily per 10 gallons. So i almost doubled it and do 5ml for 29 gallons. Same with micro. I mixed the dry fert with 500ml of distilled water and it recomends also daily 1ml per 10 gallons. But i only dose 2ml for 29 gallons.

Here is a picture of the dosing and ppm per 1ml

 

[Edward]

One dose should be 6 drops of micros daily, not 40.

You can check your NO3 test kit like this.
Test your tap, if it reads zero NO3 then add 5 drops of solution #1 macros to 1L and test again. It should read 10 ppm. And this is what you want in the aquarium.

Also, I have seen people mixing the solution wrong. It happens. Your plants still don’t look right. Something is holding it back.

Can you post all the details? I can’t go back and search all the posts again.

 

[grantnielsen]

What details do you want and ill list them off for you?

 

[Edward]

You have 55 gallon African cichlid aquarium?
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/9-equipment/988721-sun-sun-304b.html

And this is planted 29 gallon?
You need to get more details about tap water GH, Ca, Mg, NO3, KH, pH and possible additions. Do you add some “boosters”, Ca, Mg, soda, pH buffers? Is there whole house water filter?

Where is the 20 ppm NO3 coming from?
Can you try continuous eight hour light cycle?
What is in your canister filter?
Aquarium GH, KH?
Did you check the NO3 kit with test solution?