# Holes in red tiger lotus



## tazgan (Jan 30, 2006)

Hi i'm new to this forum or any for that matter. I've had tanks and fish off and on for a long time but this is the first at getting serious about plants. It seems my red tiger lotus has holes in it. I've read alot on here and am not certian as to the real cause. Hoping someone here can help. thanks


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## Aquamoon (Feb 2, 2006)

Hi, I'm new here too.
If you give more info on your tank set up we could find out what is wrong.


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## tazgan (Jan 30, 2006)

Hi and thank you. I have a 90 gallon tank, 4-65 watt 6700k using ferts from greg


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## dukydaf (Aug 31, 2004)

Could you tell us more specs.
It could be that you have a poor substrate or you have low K levels.


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## tazgan (Jan 30, 2006)

I dose 1 tsp KNO3, 1/4 of K2SO4 AND KH2PO4 4 times per week and 15 ml te 3 times per week

pressurized c02 
tank water according to haygen test kit
fe .25
no3 10 mg/l
po4 5 mg/l
kh 150 ppm
gh 120 ppm
ph 6.8
ca 25mg/l


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

Looks like plenty of light and plenty of ferts so that only leaves CO2 as a factor. 

Are you using CO2? The plants won't use the ferts near as fast without good CO2 levels. 

Are the affected leaves old or new growth? If old, how old? Some of my oldest Red Tiger Lotus leaves get holes in them right before the melt away so it may just be an age related issue.


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## tazgan (Jan 30, 2006)

Yes co2 and ph controller
It seems to be on some new and older


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## tazgan (Jan 30, 2006)

trying to post a picture of my tank


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## tazgan (Jan 30, 2006)

Heres a close up of leaf


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## Aquamoon (Feb 2, 2006)

I don't see any thing to worry about . At this time your tiger looks very happy....What kind of fish do you have?


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## tazgan (Jan 30, 2006)

carninal tetras, simese fighting fish, guppies, platys coradorys


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## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

Even though according to the charts your CO2 is around 39mg/l, raise it some more and see if that helps (watch the fish for signs of CO2 stress). I raise it until I see fish stress then lower a bit.

I don't trust the CO2 charts anymore and I think many people using the charts are consistently underdosing CO2. There are more and more cases of people having problems with the charts due to their KH being made up of other things besides carbonates (which is what the chart bases its calculations on).

Since your fert dosing seems ok, the only thing that could be off is the CO2. Keep an eye on your NO3 because at 10mg/l it could quickly bottom out if your plants start eating up a lot more of it due to the increased CO2.

By the way I can't really see a problem (holes) on the pictures...


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## tazgan (Jan 30, 2006)

My tap water goes through a water softener and the gh is maybe 10 ppm. How can i raise it? My co2 is bubbling at a high rate. I have no pereling in this tank but my other tank does a little. If i dose more kno3 will it also raise my phosfate?


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

You have enough light so if the plants are not pearling there is a shortage of something in the tank. I would raise the CO2 levels and add more KNO3 as Laith suggested. Try to keep the NO3 levels in the 10-20 range so you don't bottom out. The KNO3 does not raise your phosphates.

If your GH is 10ppm after the softener I would try adding some Calcium and Magnesium Sulfate (available from Greg Watson) or maybe some GH booster also available from Greg. You could also use Seachem's Equilibrium in place of the above items. 

Do you use Sodium Chloride or Potassium Chloride in your softener?


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## tazgan (Jan 30, 2006)

Is calcium nitrate the same as calcium sulfate and will the fertilator tell me the amounts to add. Also we use water softener salt in the softener. And should i up kno3 to 1.5 tsp?
Thanks for the response to my questions


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## Edward (May 25, 2004)

Hi
Calcium nitrate and Calcium sulfate are not the same. Any water softener regenerated by salt is not going to work for plants. What is your water like before the softener?


Edward


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## tazgan (Jan 30, 2006)

Thank you Edward My tap water before the water softener is 

gh 6
kh 4
ph 7.7

I have up the co2 my bubble count is uncountable the ph is down to 6.4 and kh is 5. I also added another 96 watts to the tank as well. I have no algae to speak of so far. Far my last water change on sunday I bypassed the softener so only the hot went through it. I have always used tap water and the plants grew slowly, and i was using the Seachem line but with 2 90 gallons it got expensive ($17.99/ 500 ml Canadian) so i got the ferts from Greg and also added co2. So maybe its just things happen alot faster now. But since i started this post some leaves have just melted and others have gotten more holes. Hopefully with this info you can give my some idea as to what is wrong.

People on the forum say read your plants but being new to plants i guess i dont know their lingo, is there a thread here that would have this info as to what to look for and its cause. 

thanks 
Tony


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## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

tazgan said:


> Thank you Edward My tap water before the water softener is
> 
> gh 6
> kh 4
> ...


That's pretty good tap water. Why are you using a water softener?


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## tazgan (Jan 30, 2006)

Laith
We use the softener for the house as it saves alot on soaps not to mention water tank, taps etc. Besides may tanks seem to do alright with it so far. But maybe now with all the upgrades it might be a problem. here is what one tank look like.


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