# Stunted growth



## Rickylp

Hi,

Im having a problen lately with some plants, Rotala Sp. green, nanjenshan, ludwigia cuba, etc.

The new new growth is stunted and the new leaves are small and deformed, also the grow rate is very slow.

This also happens with java ferns (narrow), the leaves are deformed and transparent.

By the other hand, plants like glosso, HC, Tenellus are growing like crazy and healthy.

All the plants including the stunted are bubling like crazy 5 minutes lights on.

Im using Flourish + KNO3 + KH2PO4 in this 30x30x30 cube tank.

light is 2x15w cf Azoo 7200k

PLease need some advice from the experts....

Regards from Argentina

Ricky.


----------



## AaronT

Ricky,

How soft is your water? Deformed stunted new growth is from a lack of a macronutrient. You are dosing nitrate and phosphate so you may want to look into adding some calcium, magnesium, and potassium and see if that doesn't help.


----------



## houseofcards

I'm having similar problems on some of my stem plants like stargrass and rotala. They were growing great, the rotala had a nice pinkish hue to it than after the last cutting they both just stopped, even the replanted leaves. I have eco as a substrate and I was dosing Flourish 3/week and stilll nothing. The plants aren't dying they are just not doing anything.


----------



## BryceM

I doubt that your problem is from NO3, K, or PO4. I experienced deformed leaves and I think I tracked it down to a severe Ca deficiency. Echinodorus leaves were coming in quite pale. Only some plants were affected while others did quite well - similar to your situation. My vals, swords, and rotala seemed to be the most sensitive while, hydrocotyle, bacopa, and others all did fine. My tapwater is GH 60-70 ppm with KH <10 ppm. I now supplement with Seachem Equilibrium 1 tsp per 20 gal @ WC and NaHCO3, 2 tsp per 20 gal @ WC. The vals took about a month for the weird leaves to die out & be replaced by healthy looking new ones.


----------



## HeyPK

I also have seen Rotala wallichii stop entirely after a trimming. There was hardly any growth, and what little there was, was white and deformed. I suspected iron deficiency. Even though the cut stumps were rooted in soil, they could not seem to get any iron, and they eventually all died. I thought that maybe iron uptake was done primarily by the leafy part of the shoot, which, unfortunately, I had taken to the local fish store. I lost the species, but, if I get it back, I will never trim so severely, or, if I do, I will plant the trimmed portions.


----------



## houseofcards

I dose right now 5ml Flourish 3/week which gives me 0.18 ppm weekly. I'm not adding other iron ferts, but I think between the eco and the flourish the stems should be getting enough iron, ca and traces.


----------



## HeyPK

0.18 ppm Fe a week is not that high. Try doubling it for a couple of weeks and see if the plants show any imporvement. It seems like the messages I see from people like Tom Barr, Carlos and Cavan is that pushing iron almost always improves growth. All the Rotala species seem to need a lot of iron.


----------



## houseofcards

_0.18 ppm Fe a week is not that high. Try doubling it for a couple of weeks and see if the plants show any imporvement. It seems like the messages I see from people like Tom Barr, Carlos and Cavan is that pushing iron almost always improves growth. All the Rotala species seem to need a lot of iron._

I guess it couldn't hurt. I don't think anything else in the Flourish would hurt if it was overdosed. What surprised me is the cut tops and lower portions that remain rooted are not growing and I always assumed between the eco complete and the flourish the stemmed plants were getting enough FE. My wisteria, hairgrass, anubias all continued to grow as usual.


----------



## HeyPK

Aquatic plants differ a lot in their ability to get iron. Anubias is very good at it. The Rotala species are rather poor at it, especially wallichii.


----------



## Rickylp

AaronT, my tap water is 8GH and 3KH. I suspected a lack of Ca, and added some coral chips into the filter, ludwigia cuba showed some new healthy grow.

but the rotala green seems petrified, is not dead but doesnt grow.

for those suspecting lack of iron, im dosing 0.5 ml of flourish every day. is that enough for a 5 gal cube?

there is some hair algae in the tank, maybe is a lack of PO4?

by the way, this was the thank four months ago http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/showthread.php?t=9390, i had to tear it down because the glosso lawn growed 10cm thick.


----------



## TWood

If the behavior is recently new, you might check that the tank temperature hasn't dipped very far. There may be ancient biological clocks at play that are 'expecting' winter now.

I've had a heck of a time with my new water supply also causing the same behavior, since July of this year!  So that rules out temperature as the single cause in my tank, but I am keeping it at the summer temps - 76-78F or so.

I *think* I may have narrowed it down to magnesium, but I need another week or so to confirm. I'm starting to doubt that 3:1 Ca:Mg ratio. At my previous location the water had a 1:1 ratio (15ppm for both Ca and Mg, GH6, KH4) and my plants did great, so I'm trying that now. At least I'm getting *some* response after a couple of days.

TW


----------



## Edward

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/showthread.php?t=3921


----------



## houseofcards

Rickylp for what it's worth, as you could see from my posts, I'm having a similar problem with my rotala rotunda. I starting dosing more flourish (5ml ever day) which give me .36ppm per week (upped it from .18ppm per week) and I didn't see any growth. Is it the tops that stopped growing or the bottoms? My bottoms are done, but some tops that I did salvage have started to grow again.


----------

