# Help diagnosing plant growth problem...



## Breadhead (Jan 6, 2005)

I have a 75 gal, 4.4 wpg VHO lighting, CO2 injection, dose regularly with Flourish, Trace, Iron, Nitrogen, plus plant tabs... This is a relatively new setup (less than a month or so with plants, tank was setup for a month or so before that) and I have been having a heck of a time getting any substantial growth out of my swords.

New growth in some of them looks like this:









I have death of old growth leaves from the edges in on others...

Any help would be appreciated. Also, if there is any other information you need, please ask!


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## Rob G (Oct 19, 2004)

Can you tell us what your NO3 and PO4 levels are? 

One thing I noticed in your post was that there was no mention of PO4 dosing. It is difficult to assess the problem based on the information you provided. Can you be more specific as to the frequency and volume of your fertilization doses?


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## paul236313 (Jul 23, 2004)

Hey Cucks it going to be hard to grow anything with that gravel in there.That should be your first change.You have good lighting and co2 injection.With 4.4wpg you should choose plants that are for high lighted tanks like any stem plants maybe try some hygro instead of swords


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## Breadhead (Jan 6, 2005)

Ok, here are my current test results, and dosing schedules
pH 6.8
Amonia 0
NO2 0.0
NO3 0.0
GH 5
KH 4

Dosing as follows:
Flourish 10ml twice a week
Flourish Trace 20 ml twice a week
Flourish Iron 7ml once per week
Flourish Nitrogen 4ml once every other week (only dosed to help with growth)
Plant Tabs X10 every other week

I don't have a PO4 test, which would you suggest?


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

The main reason you are not getting growth is N03 is at 0, you need to have N03 around 10ppm. I would slowly start dosing potassium nitrate, I use Green Light stump remover. 

For P04 I use the Seachem brand test kit. You will need to keep the P04 around 0.4ppm.


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## Jeff Kropp (Apr 25, 2004)

Sword plants take awhile to get established. That new leaf on your sword is normal looking and looks healthy. You need more patience.


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

As mentioned by the others, it seems that you aren't dosing an PO4 or NO3. Like Trena said, you can use Green Light Stump Remover for the NO3. Note that KNO3 gives you potassium along with the nitrate. You can go to any pharmacy and buy some Fleet Enema for the PO4. 

If you want to avoid green spot algae on your glass or slower growing plants like Anubias, try keeping the PO4 at 2ppm or so. It has been working for me for a couple of months now. 

In my 75g with about 3wpg I dose:

Macros
1/2 tsp of KNO3 (Stump Remover), 3ml of PO4 (Fleets Enema) 3-4x a week. 

Micros
15ml of CSM+B (trace element with iron) on days opposite the macros. Your Flourish and Flourish Trace would do fine for traces but it will get costly over time.

I also do a 50% water change weekly and add Macros after the water change.

I wouldn't worry much about the substrate for now. Give it a few weeks to a month of adding KNO3 and PO4 and see if you plants don't improve. If in a few weeks they are not, you can try adding a few root tabs beneath the swords. But I don't think you will need them.


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## Breadhead (Jan 6, 2005)

Where can I get my hands on some KNO3? (potassium nitrate right?) and what about the CSM+B? I know if I dug deep enough in the stickies I'd find what the acronym was, but what is it? and where is it availiable?

Edit: Oh wait, am I reading it correctly to say that the stump remover is Potassium nitrate... KNO3?

And just the plain ole' Fleets?
Per Dose: Monobasic Sodium Phosphate 19 g; Dibasic Sodium Phosphate 7 g; Sodium Content 4.4 g


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## New 2 Fish (Dec 31, 2004)

I'd advocate Gregwatson.com You'll get exactly what you need at a great price without having to hunt around and figure out what is in what you bought.


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

If you're in a hurry to get some KNO3 and PO4 go to Lowe's/Home Depot/Ace Hardware and get some Green Light Stump Remover or Spectracide Stump Remover (KNO3 - Potassium Nitrate). You can find Fleets Enema (PO4 - phosphate) at Wal Mart or most pharmacies. I've found Wal Mart usually has better prices and some of them carry Stump Remover also.

1/2 tsp of KNO3 should raise your NO3 levels to about 7ppm or so. 1 ml of Fleets should raise your PO4 by about 0.5ppm.

If you don't mind waiting a couple of days you can order potassium nitrate (KNO3), mono potassium phosphate (KH2PO4), and CSM+B (Trace mix). Note that you get potassium (K) from both KNO3 and KH2PO4. You could also get some potassium sulfate (K2SO4) from Greg should you need it some time down the road. It's always nice to have around just in case.

I would also recommend you purchase the measuring spoon set from Greg. You would need 1/8 tsp of KH2PO4 to get your PO4 levels around 2ppm. I base all of my dosing needs on a estimated 60 gal tank volume. Feel free to PM or e-mail me if you want to talk more about your tank.

Chuck Gadd's website (I can't seem to find the link at the moment) has a down loadable fertilizer calculator you can use to figure out how much of each ingredient you can use. You can also try the Fertilator on this site, but I'm not real sure of it's accuracy.


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## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

Or even better than the spoons, get one of those small digital scales for around $30.

Chuck's great fertilizer calculator is here:

http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_dosage_calc.htm

There's a downloadable version somewhere as well.

The only thing it doesn't have is CSM+B calculation but those can be found on the Fertilator here.


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## Breadhead (Jan 6, 2005)

Here are a few pics I took this week... Things overall looking much better in the tank, although Sat eve and Sunday (continuing today) the tank decided to get a nice algal bloom all in the water column. I am currently dosing:
MWF 15ml Flourish 15ml Flourish Trace TThSa 1/2 tsp KNO3 5/8 tsp KPO4
Doing a 20 or so gal water change on Sunday... New and root growth has been substantial.

I borrowed a friend of mine's nice digital SLR for these pics, some exposures were almost a sec to get any depth... even with 330 watts VHO!!!

P.S. I had to shrink the heck out of the photos, you should see them at 10mb full resolution tiff format.... mmmmmm


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## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

All the dosing advice given so far is tailored for a heavily planted tank. Your's is not heavily planted. I would get more plants or cut back on the nutrients a bit...


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