# Transparent leaves on E. tenellus



## banderbe (Nov 17, 2005)

Something has gone wrong in my tank. First it was the Ludwigia pantanal that started growing small, scraggly looking, yellowish-green, and just all around unhealthy. Then Ludwigia guinea has recently started looking rather pathetic as well. Gone are the intense reds and now the plant is a sad pale green color. Rotala rotundifolia also looks pretty shrimpy, pale and not nice deep green and robust as it has before. 

What has really led me to finally conclude that something is majorly wrong is what I noticed today: My Echinodorus tenellus leaves are getting transparent! 

That said, my Bacopa caroliniana, C. wendtii, glosso and Blyxa japonica are all doing just fine.

The tank is 29 gallons with 130 watts CF light, pressurized CO2.

My dosing regime is as follows:

4 ppm KNO3 - Daily
1.12 ppm KH2PO4 - Daily
2 ml Flourish Fe - Daily
3 ml Tropica Master Grow (AquaCare Plant Nutrition) - Daily

I use 100% RO water, reconstituted with 3/4 tsp Barr GH Booster and 1/2 tsp Baking soda for a GH of ~5 and a KH of ~3.

I suspect I might be low on the micros, but I am not really sure.

I do know that I have *plenty* of CO2. I put 3 bps through a glass JBJ diffuser which is sucked into a Mini 606 and blown around the tank. The water is literally hazy with ultra-tiny CO2 bubbles and the plants that are still doing good pearl heavily. So please don't suggest CO2.

The input of experienced aquarists is welcome! Thanks for your assistance ahead of time. I am learning that I still have a lot to learn.


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## banderbe (Nov 17, 2005)

Wow, thanks for all the help!


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## Edward (May 25, 2004)

It doesn't matter what you dose, what matters is what is in the water. Maybe you are pushing your plant growth too much and something is out of balance. 

What are your water column parameters?

NO3 ppm
PO4 ppm
K ppm
Ca ppm
Mg ppm

Lighting period


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

Since you say your plants were looking better, it sounds as though they ran out of something which is not being supplied in adequate amounts. Since you say they look pale, I wonder about the iron supply, even though you say you are dosing with Fluorish iron. See if you can get your hands on some iron DPTA and try dosing with that.


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## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

Logically I'd say you're dosing enough iron... if GH Booster is similar to Seachem's Equilibrium it also has some iron in it. So Seachem Fe + TMG + Booster should be providing enough iron.

However, pale can mean iron deficiency... strange. It can't hurt to add more and see if that helps. Personally instead of adding more iron I'd increase the TMG. Are there any other signs of deficiencies?

This may be stretching for a solution but; if you're using 100% RO water and suddenly your RO membrane has reached the end of its life you may be getting a big spike in GH and KH which the plants need to adjust to? Have you tested the RO water to check?


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## banderbe (Nov 17, 2005)

*Edward*:

Since I don't use test kits other than for GH and KH I have no idea what my water parameters are. I just know that I start with 100% RO and I know exactly how much of everything goes into the water, so I can make an educated guess.

I would say by weeks end the N is up between 10 and 20 ppm (probably closer to 10, possibly even less depending up N uptake), P is up between 2 to 3 ppm (or maybe less depending on uptake), K I have no idea about. Never worried about it much. I get K from the GH booster, KNO3 and KH2PO4. Again with the Ca and Mg, I get whatever is in the GH Booster product to yield a Gh of around 5. Tom Barr suggested the ratios and Greg Watson made the product. I'd have to poke around the web a bit to find the details, or ask Greg. I guess for me I don't trust test kits and I am not willing to shell out the money required for La Motte.

As for lighting I keep the lights on for 9 hours a day.

*HeyPK:

*What is DPTA? What makes it better/different than Flourish Fe?

*Laith*:

I bumped up the TMG to 6ml daily so I'll report back in a few weeks to see if it made a difference.

I see no other signs of deficiencies. Just what I described above.

As for my RO unit, I just replaced the filters a few weeks ago and the TDS meter shows 0 TDS. Good thought though!

I am also raising my N to 15 ml per day (6ppm) based on advice from another user I trust.

Will update this thread later on..

Anyone else with thoughts/advice please share!


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## johnzhou2476 (Nov 28, 2006)

Barry, did you ever figure this out? I'm digging thru old post and I had similar problem as yours. I suspect that you K was too high and low on Ca and mg. As you know Barr GH booster is mostly K, like Equilibrium. Using just GH booster would give you unportionally high K relative to ca and mg. 

These days I also use 100% RO/DI water but reconsititute my water to get 20ppm of K, 20ppm of Ca, and 2ppm of Mg. I add a pinch of mg daily since it's a mobile nutrient unlike ca, in which you set it at water change and forget it. I've experimented with the 4:1 magic ca:mg ratio and I can say that it applies for harder water, but for softer water, it's better to go low on mg and just add a bit daily - like .1ppm or something. Some plants and R. Wallacii or Nesea are very sensative to high mg level. This worked very well and no stunting.


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