Rotala Vietnam

4369 Views 17 Replies 6 Participants Last post by kzr750r1, Oct 5, 2007

Erk

Discussion Starter · Oct 3, 2007

2

Just curious if someone could point me in the right direction with my rotala vietnam? Is it a defficiency, or is it how the plant grows?

Up until today, all the stems had rather compact tops to them, like all the other stems do...but today I came home from work to this....

That one stem has a very spread out top to it, and I know this plant grows fast:icon_eek: I can see daily growth in it....which is new for me, with any plant

I would just like to make sure Im not missing something

Thanks

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1 - 18 of 18 Posts

mrkookm

· #2 · Oct 4, 2007

It's definitely deficiency. What changes did you make to your tank lately? What are your parameters?

Give us some more details and I'm sure someone here will chime in.

Minsc

· #3 · Oct 4, 2007

The compact tops are stunted plants, the large one is healthy.
I see this all the time with my rotala wallichii and najenshan, and the most likely culprit is CO2.

These plants are very CO2 hungry and can be very challenging. Keep watching, if you can stop getting the stunted tips, and keep seeing healthy growth, your tank is doing very well.

Erk

Discussion Starter · #4 · Oct 4, 2007

Thanks very much guys

It's definitely deficiency. What changes did you make to your tank lately? What are your parameters?

Darn:icon_roll haha....I havent really made any changes to the tank lately. Last night I changed the timer on my airstone, to come on a half hour earlier, cause I was planning to bump the co2 up a tad. Drop checker is green, but not very green. I also decided to try to do my water changes once every five days in order to dose my macros a lil more often, given my new plant load

I havent calibrated my test kits, but I can do the tests if you would like me to?

The compact tops are stunted plants, the large one is healthy.
I see this all the time with my rotala wallichii and najenshan, and the most likely culprit is CO2.

These plants are very CO2 hungry and can be very challenging. Keep watching, if you can stop getting the stunted tips, and keep seeing healthy growth, your tank is doing very well.

I have wallichii in my nano right now, cause its in bad shape and Im able to really crank co2 in there, without fish, and its still not doing very well.

I will try to bump my co2 up a tad tomorrow night

Thanks again

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Erk

Discussion Starter · #5 · Oct 4, 2007

P.S.....sorry...im dosing 1/2teaspoon KNO3, 1/8 KH2PO4, 1/8 K2SO4 2x/week (just started that this week, with the WC every 5 days) and 1/8 CSM+B the other 3 days

CO2 is about 2 bps

Thanks

mistergreen

· #6 · Oct 4, 2007

Calcium & magnesium? (GH)

Erk

Discussion Starter · #7 · Oct 4, 2007

Thanks mistergreen

I was thinking that too....last time i checked my kh was 2 and gh was 3...I use about 1/2 teaspoon of kent ro right per 5gals of ro water during my water changes

Im placing an order with Rex to get some GH booster

kzr750r1

· #8 · Oct 4, 2007

Take it a step at a time, don't change too much of your routine all at once. If you just started dosing ferts you should see some improvements soon. If not then delve further into CO2...

Erk

Discussion Starter · #9 · Oct 4, 2007

Thanks kzr750r1....I have been dosing ferts for a while now...following EI (sort of) I just recently decided to do my water changes once every 5 days in order to dose the macros more often, and have them stay in the water for a loner time period.

I used to only dose macros after my water changes, which were done every wednesday and saturday.

Thanks again

Erk

Discussion Starter · #10 · Oct 5, 2007

Did my water change last night, and I normally added 1/2teaspoon kent RO right to my 5gal buckets(3) but last night I added 1/2teaspoon to 1 bucket and 3/4teaspoon to the other two buckets....so hopefully that will help my GH

The fish seemed fine...they went to spawning on the front glass right after I was done

I bumped the co2 up some...redid my drop checker and I will check things out when I get home today...im prolly about 2.5 bps now

Thanks everyone for your help and suggestions

mistergreen

· #11 · Oct 5, 2007

you can trim off the stunted growth & force the rotala to grow new shoots.

Erk

Discussion Starter · #12 · Oct 5, 2007

Thanks mistergreen

you can trim off the stunted growth & force the rotala to grow new shoots.

The plants wont fix themselves? How much do you recommend I trim off?

Thanks again very much

mistergreen

· #13 · Oct 5, 2007

no, the stunted growth wont fix itself.. The new growth might be normal though. Just trim of where the stunted growth started.

trimming is your friend in growing plants.. You trim defects. You trim necrosis. You trim plants infected with algae etc...

AaronT

· #14 · Oct 5, 2007

Rotalas love phosphates. Try dosing a little extra to see if things turn around.

Erk

Discussion Starter · #15 · Oct 5, 2007

no, the stunted growth wont fix itself.. The new growth might be normal though. Just trim of where the stunted growth started.

trimming is your friend in growing plants.. You trim defects. You trim necrosis. You trim plants infected with algae etc...

Thanks mistergreen! I try to trim where I can, when I can...I have to admit, I prolly dont trim enough

Rotalas love phosphates. Try dosing a little extra to see if things turn around.

Thanks AaronT....Im hoping to make my reference solutions for PO4 and NO3 this weekend, so hopefully I will get a better handle on whats happening in there. I dont have any GSA or GDA ATM.....but I prolly dont dose enough PO4 to make the plants happy....only 1/8teaspoon 1-2xWeek

Thanks again everyone.....I will trim off the tops of the stunted stems and see what happens

AaronT

· #16 · Oct 5, 2007

Erk said:
Thanks AaronT....Im hoping to make my reference solutions for PO4 and NO3 this weekend, so hopefully I will get a better handle on whats happening in there. I dont have any GSA or GDA ATM.....but I prolly dont dose enough PO4 to make the plants happy....only 1/8teaspoon 1-2xWeek

Yeah, that's probably a little on the lean side for Rotalas. 2 x a week would be better than 1 x.

Erk

Discussion Starter · #17 · Oct 5, 2007

Thanks AaronT...I just recently switched my water change routine up, in order to dose more macros...so from here on, the plants will get macros 2xWeek, and micros 3xWeek, with a water change every 5 days...so hopefully that will help some...if things seem fine, and the nitrates are going down, then I will extend my water changes out more, and hopefully get to follow the full EI method and get macros 3xWeek

I guess I really should get to these reference solutions for my test kits:redface:

Thanks again

kzr750r1

· #18 · Oct 5, 2007

Erk said:
P.S.....sorry...im dosing 1/2teaspoon KNO3, 1/8 KH2PO4, 1/8 K2SO4 2x/week (just started that this week, with the WC every 5 days) and 1/8 CSM+B the other 3 days

CO2 is about 2 bps

Thanks

Ahhh what your saying here is this is your new dosing regime.

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