What's Missing? Does it look like iron or potassium deficiency?

5823 Views 12 Replies 3 Participants Last post by PandaLoach, Nov 8, 2016

PandaLoach

Discussion Starter · Nov 4, 2016

I have recently added more lighting (very strong lights) and increased 1 hour of photo period ~8 in total.

Been able to dose to a level where small amount of algae and several strings of hair algae appears at almost constant rate. (With Amanos and SAEs)

It's a 12G tank. I dose flourish and K/Iron every other day and 1/4 WC twice a week. CO2 at around 2bps.

I've lowered lighting slightly now and wondering if I should add nitrogen and/or add more potassium or iron.

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burr740

· #2 · Nov 4, 2016

What are you doing for nitrates and phosphates? Any idea what those levels are?

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PandaLoach

Discussion Starter · #3 · Nov 4, 2016

I have 7 Amano shrimps, 2 silver flying foxes, one SAE and 2 nerite snails. Not sure if that will produce enough ammonia->nitrates. But nitrate levels are usually around 20-30 with the test strips.

No idea about phosphate. Could that be it?! Does phosphate deficiency make the leave go white?

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burr740

· #4 · Nov 4, 2016

Well it's the older growth that's affected, so it's either CO2, or a mobile nutrient. Fe would affect new growth first.

You are dosing micros and K, which leaves only N and P as likely nutrients in short supply. Test strips are pretty much worthless, but it would seem you do have some nitrates present.

Could be P but it looks more like an N deficiency to me, or co2.

Any more plants in the tank, if so how do they look?

It's really hard to give an accurate opinion without more info.

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John Wong

· #5 · Nov 4, 2016

For what I know, iron deficiency can cause new leaves to become white or transparent.

But your affected part is old leaves

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PandaLoach

Discussion Starter · #6 · Nov 4, 2016 (Edited by Moderator)

John Wong said:
For what I know, iron deficiency can cause new leaves to become white or transparent.

But your affected part is old leaves

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That's right, they're old leaves. I should have left it as is when things started growing faster but the curious newbie that I am had to make things difficult.

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burr740 said:
Well it's the older growth that's affected, so it's either CO2, or a mobile nutrient. Fe would affect new growth first.

You are dosing micros and K, which leaves only N and P as likely nutrients in short supply. Test strips are pretty much worthless, but it would seem you do have some nitrates present.

Could be P but it looks more like an N deficiency to me, or co2.

Any more plants in the tank, if so how do they look?

It's really hard to give an accurate opinion without more info.

Here's a picture.

I have 5 types of plants other than the HC. On the left are a mix of rotala wallichii and some other species that looks almost the same but in complete light green with more sparse leaves along the stem (I'm all for the looks and didn't do any research early on).

In the middle a few stems of alternanthera reineckii rosanervig that are recently added and not on the picture (will post some new ones soon)

On the back right is ludwigia repens 'Rubin' and in front, hydrocotyle verticillata.

I'm only identifying them from tropica so I'm not 100% sure if I'm correct with the names.

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Looking like CO2 according to this.

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John Wong

· #7 · Nov 4, 2016

After hours of light, did your hc give out bubbles??

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burr740

· #8 · Nov 4, 2016

Wallichii looks pretty happy so things are not too bad. I'd say it's probably CO2. There's gonna be a lot less in the bottom areas than in the higher levels of the tank.

Move the diffuser down low so the bubbles stay in the tank as long as possible. Also it should be placed in a line of current if possible, again to swirl the bubbles around as long as possible so the co2 can dissolve before reaching the surface.

I would try to crank it up some as well, just do it slowly and watch the fish.

Fix the CO2 first. If that doesnt solve it look into a more complete macro nutrient routine

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PandaLoach

Discussion Starter · #9 · Nov 4, 2016

John Wong said:
After hours of light, did your hc give out bubbles??

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They barely do. Very little but they do.

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John Wong

· #10 · Nov 4, 2016

Just do what Burr740 said, up the co2, improve water circulation and see the result.
If it work the hc should give out lots of bubble at the end of photo period.

If the hc stop bubbling it means there is a problem.

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PandaLoach

Discussion Starter · #11 · Nov 4, 2016

John Wong said:
Just do what Burr740 said, up the co2, improve water circulation and see the result.
If it work the hc should give out lots of bubble at the end of photo period.

If the hc stop bubbling it means there is a problem.

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That would be a dream come true. Is that yours?

Bump:

burr740 said:
Wallichii looks pretty happy so things are not too bad. I'd say it's probably CO2. There's gonna be a lot less in the bottom areas than in the higher levels of the tank.

Move the diffuser down low so the bubbles stay in the tank as long as possible. Also it should be placed in a line of current if possible, again to swirl the bubbles around as long as possible so the co2 can dissolve before reaching the surface.

I would try to crank it up some as well, just do it slowly and watch the fish.

Fix the CO2 first. If that doesnt solve it look into a more complete macro nutrient routine

@burr740 btw, I'm look at your dreamy 75G and saw that we have the same red plant (back right), is that Rubin? (or I may have gotten the wrong name) I have a problem trying to get it grow straight up. It just grows crooked and don't stand up straight. What's the magic?

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John Wong

· #12 · Nov 4, 2016

No, that one is not mine. Currently more into dwarf hair grass. My current setup not very suitable for glosso and hc.

My current setup, just finished two weeks ago

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PandaLoach

Discussion Starter · #13 · Nov 8, 2016

So I've upped my CO2 for a few days now. It seems like the red plants have done really well in becoming more bright. The white HC leaves seem to have stopped increasing but no obvious improvement yet. Hair/thread algae continue to thrive. I started doing heavier WC twice a week. Both the Amanos and the foxes don't seem to eat the thread algae. Maybe they've just done a good job cleaning the glass and gotten full. And perhaps I should shorten the photoperiod for a week and see.

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