# Ca Deficiency symptoms?



## Mnemia (Nov 23, 2004)

OK,
I've been having some algae issues (I posted about this a couple days ago) that seemed "odd" w/ comparison to my prior experience so far and measured nutrient levels.

I kept getting the feeling that I was missing something important, and I think I maybe have an idea what was going on. My plants seem to have greatly slowed their growth lately and I'm having a mild algae problem. I've been dosing my tank the same way I always have, which had worked well until recently. My tap water is fairly soft naturally (KH ~2.5 and GH ~5), and I don't add anything to increase the GH. I'm beginning to think that the contents of my tap water may have shifted (seasonally?) so that I'm getting almost no calcium from it.

Several of my plants have strange symptoms that sound to me like calcium problems. All of the new leaves on my Anubias and Echinodorus plants are coming in very white, and it seems to be getting progressively worse over time. Other plants seem to have slowed their growth considerably. My CO2 is fine, from what I can tell (heavy pearling and test kits seem to check out), and nitrates, phosphates, seem to be okay too. I'm dosing trace nutrients 2x a week (Flourish Trace/Flourish) and large doses of iron daily (Flourish iron), so I don't think there's any way it could be a lack of iron. Recently I haven't been dosing any extra potassium on top of the KNO3/phosphate since I was concerned that it could be interfering with calcium uptake.

I haven't been able to find a calcium kit yet locally that wasn't meant for saltwater. I will try to check out my levels to see what's up, but in the meantime does all of this add up? I'm getting pretty frustrated with this as the tank had been looking really good since I had largely figured out the nitrate/phosphate balance.


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## Edward (May 25, 2004)

Hi Mnemia

Calcium deficiency is the last thing you should be concern especially at 5 dGH. It is very unlikely but possible. Water seasonal changes are quite common. 
White growth can be caused by more reasons then just Ca deficiency. Pearling in my opinion doesn’t mean anything in terms of plant health. 
We use Ca kit made by Hagen Nutrafin, originally designed for SW and it does work just fine with FW as well. 

Can you tell us exact levels of
pH
NO3
PO4
GH
KH
Ca

Thank you
Edward


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## plantbrain (Jan 23, 2004)

Mnemia said:


> OK,
> I kept getting the feeling that I was missing something important, and I think I maybe have an idea what was going on. My plants seem to have greatly slowed their growth lately and I'm having a mild algae problem. I've been dosing my tank the same way I always have, which had worked well until recently. My tap water is fairly soft naturally (KH ~2.5 and GH ~5), and I don't add anything to increase the GH. I'm beginning to think that the contents of my tap water may have shifted (seasonally?) so that I'm getting almost no calcium from it.
> 
> Several of my plants have strange symptoms that sound to me like calcium problems. All of the new leaves on my Anubias and Echinodorus plants are coming in very white, and it seems to be getting progressively worse over time. Other plants seem to have slowed their growth considerably. My CO2 is fine, from what I can tell (heavy pearling and test kits seem to check out), and nitrates, phosphates, seem to be okay too. I'm dosing trace nutrients 2x a week (Flourish Trace/Flourish) and large doses of iron daily (Flourish iron), so I don't think there's any way it could be a lack of iron. Recently I haven't been dosing any extra potassium on top of the KNO3/phosphate since I was concerned that it could be interfering with calcium uptake.
> ...


Well what do you think will happen if things were going fine then you stop dosing the PO4/KNO3?

Your plants sound N starved, not Ca++ deficicent.
Add more KNO3..

The extra K+ does not block Ca++ uptake at the levels you have. 
I've had 50+ppm of K+, others have gone 100ppm K+, and low Ca and we have not had issues.

We specifically looked for Ca/K+ issues, we found none with so called sensitive plants.

If it occurs, why did we not see it?
Folks said the same about excess PO4 causing algae.
Where is it, if this is true?

I'd add more KNO3, use a general trace rather than iron only if you want to add more.

And as always, recheck the CO2 and add a tad more, just in case.
Algae is 90% CO2 related, then KNO3 related and seldom trace/PO4/GH related.

Regards, 
Tom Barr


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

It would be nice if you could get a picture of your deficient plants. Usually with calcium deficiency the leaves become badly distorted and shrunken before they get white. There may be some white streaks or white edges. The growing tips die in extreme calcium deficiency, and just before that, the growing tip may be nearly all white. At that stage, leaves are hardly produced at all. So, if you have a leaf that is all white but not badly crippled and shrunken, it probably is not calcium deficiency.


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## timdz (Mar 31, 2005)

Calcium and Magnesium are the main components of GH. A low level of magnesium would inhibit the water's ability to absorb calcium,

But with a GH of 5 it seems to be inorder, and I would advise what was reccomended above


Best Regards,
Tim


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## defdac (May 10, 2004)

*Calcium deficiency picture*

Here is an example of how a calcium deficient A. reineckii looks like:


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## Mnemia (Nov 23, 2004)

Sorry for the long lag...I've been very busy with my graduate program lately and I've had no time to get online.

Thanks for everyone's helpful replies. I think Tom's right as usual, and what I was seeing was something else. I'm still learning to diagnose these things by look. It seems to have gotten a lot better in any case as my Anubias is growing really fast (about 1 new leaf per week) and the new leaves all look healthy now.

I managed to take some pictures of it, although I'm certainly not that great a photographer. Both were taken today...as you can see the Anubias looks pretty decent now. You can still see the damage on the Echinodorus, although it has greened up significantly from how it was when it first grew that leaf. It was nearly completely white between the veins at first.


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## Andrey (Nov 5, 2004)

I hope, you, Mnemia, had good graduation work!

Coud you please share the solution you had used to solve this issue?
I hope It may help me to identify my issue in one of my tanks.

Thank you in advance,
Andrey


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