[ddiomede]

Don't be mislead by pinhole info related to low K. Many deficiences look similar for a variety of reasons. If your dosing those levels with KNO3 and KH2P04 I doubt you have a K deficiency. Granted every tank is different, but I don't even dose K separately and have a ton of BUCE with no deficiency. Are the leaves on the Buce normal looking other than the pinholes?

The leaves aside from the pinholes look fine. Everything else looks fine also which is what makes me question what exactly is happening. No leaves are yellowing or showing any other sorts of deficiencies. You'd think the fastest growing plants would be the first to show but they all seem to look fine. Between this issue and the GSA, I'm kind of at a loss. The only logical thing to do is make sure I don't do anything drastic, and don't expect results very quickly. I'll switch over to dry ferts on Sunday which is the start of the dosing week and see how any new leaves look as they grow in. Temp and CO2 have both been stable so I can rule them out right away. I raised the light fixture and cut the peak cycle back one hour so it'll probably be a couple weeks before I notice anything from just doing that. I really wish they made a freshwater potassium test kit. They did at one time years ago, but I haven't been able to track one down recently.

 

[Asteroid]

The leaves aside from the pinholes look fine. Everything else looks fine also which is what makes me question what exactly is happening. No leaves are yellowing or showing any other sorts of deficiencies. You'd think the fastest growing plants would be the first to show but they all seem to look fine. Between this issue and the GSA, I'm kind of at a loss. The only logical thing to do is make sure I don't do anything drastic, and don't expect results very quickly. I'll switch over to dry ferts on Sunday which is the start of the dosing week and see how any new leaves look as they grow in. Temp and CO2 have both been stable so I can rule them out right away. I raised the light fixture and cut the peak cycle back one hour so it'll probably be a couple weeks before I notice anything from just doing that. I really wish they made a freshwater potassium test kit. They did at one time years ago, but I haven't been able to track one down recently.

I understand the need to test, especially when a tank is new, but one reason I do EI is I feel as long as change water on a regular basis and dose in the guidelines things should be good. Your using tap? What is your GH?

 

[ddiomede]

I understand the need to test, especially when a tank is new, but one reason I do EI is I feel as long as change water on a regular basis and dose in the guidelines things should be good. Your using tap? What is your GH?

Yep I'm using tap. My GH is 8 or 9 and KH is 6. Eventually I'll be moving to 50% tap and 50% RODI, but I'm at least a month away from doing that.

I loathe testing as well but whenever an issue pops up like this, I always want to get down to the root cause to solve the problem. If the problem is a nutrient deficiency, then I think when I move towards dry dosing, that may help solve the problem.

One of my concerns with making up a solution of ferts is that with some precipitating out of solution or just not dissolving, I imagine that each dose contains differing levels of nutrients.

I'll probably just go ahead and run every test I have this evening and see where everything is at rather than just nitrate and phosphates.

 

[Asteroid]

Yep I'm using tap. My GH is 8 or 9 and KH is 6. Eventually I'll be moving to 50% tap and 50% RODI, but I'm at least a month away from doing that.

I loathe testing as well but whenever an issue pops up like this, I always want to get down to the root cause to solve the problem. If the problem is a nutrient deficiency, then I think when I move towards dry dosing, that may help solve the problem.

One of my concerns with making up a solution of ferts is that with some precipitating out of solution or just not dissolving, I imagine that each dose contains differing levels of nutrients.

I'll probably just go ahead and run every test I have this evening and see where everything is at rather than just nitrate and phosphates.

GH/KH sounds good, Your numbers are close to mine. Which micromix did you buy? Your currently using Nilcog AIO right?

 

[ddiomede]

GH/KH sounds good, Your numbers are close to mine. Which micromix did you buy? Your currently using Nilcog AIO right?

I bought this kit.

 

[Asteroid]

I bought this kit.

Yep, that's the classic without the booster? Since your using tap. Does it show a breakdown by % of what's in the CSM+B. I'm assuming they're all similar just curious.

 

[ddiomede]

Yep, that's the classic without the booster? Since your using tap. Does it show a breakdown by % of what's in the CSM+B. I'm assuming they're all similar just curious.

Yep, without the booster.

This is what they have listed on the product page for the CSM+B:

Total magnesium(water soluble chelated mg) 1.5%
Copper(chelated) 0.1%
Iron (chelated) 7.0%
Manganese(chelated) 2.0%
Molybdenum. 0.06%
Zinc(chelated) 0.40%
Boron 0.8%
EDTA – minimum content 65.4%

 

[Asteroid]

Yep, without the booster.

This is what they have listed on the product page for the CSM+B:

When EI was somewhat newer and there weren't that many vendors selling dry ferts I used to buy here:

Nutritrace CSM + Boron – Aquarium Fertilizer

aquariumfertilizer.com

Same exact specifications as what you purchased.

Just for the hell of it, when I ran out of my last batch of micro mix. I bought this one from GLA, I mainly got it because of the EDTA/DTPA chelation that prevents precipitation out of the solution at low or higher PH. Funny thing is I didn't even realize it didn't contain any magnesium, but so far so good.

 

[ddiomede]

When EI was somewhat newer and there weren't that many vendors selling dry ferts I used to buy here:

Nutritrace CSM + Boron – Aquarium Fertilizer

aquariumfertilizer.com

Same exact specifications as what you purchased.

Just for the hell of it, when I ran out of my last batch of micro mix. I bought this one from GLA, I mainly got it because of the EDTA/DTPA chelation that prevents precipitation out of the solution at low or higher PH. Funny thing is I didn't even realize it didn't contain any magnesium, but so far so good.

I took a really close look at everything in the tank and the pinholes seem to be only a problem with the buce. It's not just one type of buce either, it's all of them.

My suspicion on what's happening is that now that the plants are in full growth mode, they're sucking some nutrients out of the water column faster than I can dose it.

I'll keep dosing out of my bottles and after doing the water change on Saturday, Sunday will be the first dosing day so I'll start using dry ferts. I may try to prune the affected leaves so that each plant can focus on growing new leaves. The crazy thing is that the new growth all looks great. I just want to make sure that I'm not doing anything drastic since that never seems to turn out well, especially in a newer tank.

While it's too early to tell, I haven't seen the GSA continue to progress. The glass is completely free from GSA. The change in lighting seems to have helped.

 

[ddiomede]

Quick update...

Between the water change this weekend, and the previous one I didn't bother cleaning the glass to see if any GSA would appear. It did, but hasn't seemed to progress very much elsewhere in the tank.

On Sunday I did my first dry dosing so hopefully the added nutrients will help.

I have noticed some ill effects from reducing my dosing levels over the last 4-6 weeks. The AR Mini leaves, the new ones are growing in sort of contorted.

Many of the older leaves on the AR mini are full of holes, along with many of the buce. I think it's too early yet to tell if the reduced lighting and raising the fixture about an inch and a half has had any effect but after another full week I should notice some sort of change.

The stems I trimmed back are all beginning to put on new growth. I suspect by next week they'll probably all be near the top of the tank again. Once that happens I'll do another trimming and replant the tops to thicken up the plant mass.

Aside from that I've been pretty busy trying to knock some projects out. I've had a storage unit for a number of years that kept a lot of my hobby stuff. I think it was Thursday last week that I made my first trip there and I've gone nearly every day loading up what I can and bringing it back to my house and throwing stuff out that is either no longer good, I'll never use and can't be sold, etc. I did pull my custom acrylic tank that I've never used out and will likely use it as a reef tank. It's roughly 30-35 gallons (a cube). That'll be a build for the winter, if I have extra funds laying around again. I probably have 4-5 more trips left to do. Once I have everything here and the unit cleaned out, I'll organize everything and get it into the storage I created under my stairs earlier this year. That'll check off 3 different things from my list. Once I finish this I'll pivot to the outdoor projects I need to tackle. I'm just tired of paying $100 per month for storing stuff I rarely use and want to get this done.

Doing this project has set me back from completing my cabinet doors for the stand. Hopefully I'll be able to get back on that soon because they're so close to being done.

I'd love to try to head over to the LFS to pick up another 10 otocinclus but unless I can head over at some point during lunch this week, it'll likely need to wait until next week. I'll probably wait another 3-4 weeks after that and then go pick up a dozen panda corydoras.

 

[Asteroid]

Thanks for the update. Unless you have very hard water, I've rarely seen benefits to reduced dosing. I forget did you ever measure PAR?

 

[ddiomede]

Thanks for the update. Unless you have very hard water, I've rarely seen benefits to reduced dosing. I forget did you ever measure PAR?

Unfortunately I haven't. I just haven't been able to make time to reserve the PAR meter and then go pick it up, and drop it off from wherever the person who has it lives.

Once we hit the first frost here in the midwest, a lot of time will open up for me since I won't need to split my time between outdoor projects and indoor ones. I don't have a great deal of indoor projects to do, and am finishing some of them as we speak so I'll finally have free time. I never thought I'd ever say this, but I'm glad that winter is getting close. Between work and all of the projects I have going, there are some Saturdays were I'm so burned out that I basically clear my schedule and do absolutely nothing. This past Saturday was one of those days. This coming weekend they're calling for rain so that should help me focus on knocking out this storage project. Once that's done I can mount my RODI to the wall, set up my 55 gallon rubbermaid, and then start doing 50/50 tap/RODI for water changes. One of the great things about working on this storage clean out project is I found my old Eheim return pump I used on a tank I took down about 8-9 years ago, and then promptly found the exact same pump, brand new in the box. With two working pumps, it should make water changes a whole lot easier, at least from the perspective of filling the tank back up.

 

[ddiomede]

Small update:

The one thing that has been pretty strange is that my tank has been slightly cloudy. Initially I thought that maybe the glass had a film on it, but when looking down into the tank, it's definitely cloudy.

I started looking back through this journal and my problems seemed to have all started when I added Purigen. Prior to that, the tank was perfectly clear, for the most part.

When I do the water change this weekend, I'm going to continue to leave the Purigen in the tank, and if the cloudiness doesn't subside next week, I'll remove it the following water change and see if there are any changes to any of the issues that have popped up. I'm wondering if the Purigen is sucking some needed minerals out of the water column that the plants need.

I plan on running a full battery of tests tonight just to make sure everything I can test for is within acceptable ranges.

Fish are doing great though and aside from the previously mentioned issues, everything else seems to be doing well.

 

[RLee]

Small update:

The one thing that has been pretty strange is that my tank has been slightly cloudy. Initially I thought that maybe the glass had a film on it, but when looking down into the tank, it's definitely cloudy.

I started looking back through this journal and my problems seemed to have all started when I added Purigen. Prior to that, the tank was perfectly clear, for the most part.

When I do the water change this weekend, I'm going to continue to leave the Purigen in the tank, and if the cloudiness doesn't subside next week, I'll remove it the following water change and see if there are any changes to any of the issues that have popped up. I'm wondering if the Purigen is sucking some needed minerals out of the water column that the plants need.

I plan on running a full battery of tests tonight just to make sure everything I can test for is within acceptable ranges.

Fish are doing great though and aside from the previously mentioned issues, everything else seems to be doing well.

Cloudy/ milky water is usually a bacterial bloom. Should go away on its own has nothing to do with the purigen. If you have a UV sterilizer that will clean it up fast.

 

[ddiomede]

I've been slacking on this thread but wanted to at least give an update.

Last weekend I had a tooth begin being extremely sensitive to cold. It rained on Saturday so I wasn't able to get much done aside from going and canceling my storage unit since it was already all cleaned out and entertaining guests.

On Sunday I spent about 10 hours on one section of my front lawn. Between pulling weeds, mowing, dethatching, leveling, fertilizing, seeding, adding top dressing, and watering it in, I was so burned out that after a shower I spent the next hour on the couch before heading to bed. Needless to say I didn't get a water change in.

On Monday morning the cold sensitive tooth began hurting but it would go in waves. Tuesday it was full on "I need a root canal" pain. Called my dentist but the office is closed on Tuesdays so I called him directly. He called in a script for some antibiotics and met me at the office to take an xray. He doesn't do root canals so he referred me to someone else. I had to travel to meet with a client yesterday and just returned about an hour ago and will hopefully do the water change tonight after work. I'll do another on Saturday as well for the heck of it.

The tank seems fine though. Everything looks to be growing as expected and the glass needs to be cleaned, but aside from that everything is roughly the same. I'll do an update tomorrow once the water clears after the water change. I'll be moving a few things around before the water change so I'll have some pics to share with some new plants.

Traveling to meet a client with a bad toothache is not a great experience lol. Even worse is they can't get me in until September 1st so I'll be popping antibiotics, Advil, and Tylenol for the next week.

I have one more section of lawn in front of my house to do all the work on again and it needs to be done no later than this weekend since I'm seeding bare areas and overseeding the entire lawn. If I wait any longer, there might not be enough time before the first frost of the year. Next weekend or the weekend after I'll be laying sod in the backyard. I probably need a good 10 bags of soil to amend into what's already there. Quite a bit of work left to do outside, but I'm getting closer to being done. The bigger projects will be done next year, and I'll be hiring people to do them rather than beating myself up.

 

[Asteroid]

Thanks for the update, I've had my share of root canals so I feel your pain. Funny you mentioned your lawn, because mine has taken a beating from the 90+ weather in NY for a while so I need to reseed some areas, but it's still I think too hot here.

Glad the tank is humming along. I wouldn't put off water changes too long or they'll be another lawn to redo.

 

[ddiomede]

Thanks for the update, I've had my share of root canals so I feel your pain. Funny you mentioned your lawn, because mine has taken a beating from the 90+ weather in NY for a while so I need to reseed some areas, but it's still I think too hot here.

Glad the tank is humming along. I wouldn't put off water changes too long or they'll be another lawn to redo.

For sure lol. I'm going to do one today, and then another on Saturday.

Last year when I bought my house, it was clear that the lawn was neglected for a long time because of how unlevel it was. Hopefully going through the lawn and adding top dressing into all the holes, with top dressing the entire lawn afterwards will help. In spring I'll probably use sand to finish leveling it because I'm sure I missed some areas. I probably spent about two hours carefully digging up weeds, roots included. I have clover in one area and I didn't get it all because it sends runners out and it was impossible to get them all. Hopefully a nice thick lawn will choke them out.

Even though after I finished the lawn look terrible with patches of black dirt all over, it's already starting to look better as the existing grass is peaking through the top dressing, and some blades sort of look like new seed that sprouted, which doesn't make sense since it's supposed to take Kentucky blue grass 7-10 days to germinate, and it's only been 3-ish days so far.

The summer here was pretty rough too. Lots of yellow lawns around me. My next door neighbor is a retired greenskeeper so I usually get some decent advice from him.

 

[Bootsy]

Well, you could do what our neighbors in San Diego did — cover your yard in pebbly concrete and paint it green. We were totally fooled!!

 

[ddiomede]

Well, you could do what our neighbors in San Diego did — cover your yard in pebbly concrete and paint it green. We were totally fooled!!

Unfortunately my town won't allow anything but grass on the easement between the street and sidewalk. I actually went over earlier this year and asked about turning it into a wildflower garden, or rock garden or something. They basically don't want to have to replace anything that gets torn up in the event another ATT event happens.

It's a crappy situation all around because while I don't technically own it, I'm responsible for maintaining it and since it's in front of my house, I don't want it to look like crap so I'm forced to work on it.

Wait until my building department learns about the garage I want to build next year that technically meets their code requirements, but doesn't really honor the spirit of their codes for garages lol. I want a second level in the garage for a workshop, but there are height restrictions which are set by the height of the roof. If you build a flat roof, you get a second floor lol. The funny thing is that they'll have no choice but to approve it since it technically meets the code

 

[Asteroid]

Well, you could do what our neighbors in San Diego did — cover your yard in pebbly concrete and paint it green. We were totally fooled!!

Is that happening more and more do to a water restriction requirement. San Diego seems to have the perfect weather for growing grass. Spent two weeks there a few years ago and couldn't believe the weather.

Wait until my building department learns about the garage I want to build next year that technically meets their code requirements, but doesn't really honor the spirit of their codes for garages lol. I want a second level in the garage for a workshop, but there are height restrictions which are set by the height of the roof. If you build a flat roof, you get a second floor lol. The funny thing is that they'll have no choice but to approve it since it technically meets the code

Stick it to the man!