# Stunted, Algae, Deficiencies - Plant Help



## Squatchmen (Oct 31, 2013)

Well somehow I can't post any of my photos on here, but I'll list some of the problems I'm having with my plants, 
and would like to find solutions to them if possible

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Trimmed amazon sword, brown at cut and going down leaf, deteriorating as well

Algae is also growing on these leaves, algae is on all plants moderate to severe

Amazon leaves are curling, new leaves are small

Yellowing of leaves on an Anubias

Deteriorating leaves on Cryptocoryne

Small holes in Amazon Sword

Few leaves are falling off on Cryptocoryne

Twisted leaves on Cryptocoryne

Moderate to severe stunted growth in all plants

Deterioration / stunted growth of marimo moss balls

Bubbles coming up from substrate

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So if anyone has any good suggestions for me that would be fantastic, also I'm planning on getting another 
Finnex Planted+ LED fixture. For the time being, here are my tank specs:

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55 gallons

Ammonia (0ppm) Nitrites (0ppm) Nitrates (10ppm) Hardness (240) alkalinity (150) PH (8.0)

Marineland C-530 clean filter every 3 months

water change once a month (35gal) – 15% once a week x4

Flourish root tabs added once every 3 months

Stress Zyme added every 3 months

Monthly add Melafix and Pimafix

Weekly add Kent Blackwater

Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat – potassium nitrate, phosphate, sulfate (1/2tsp) (1/8tsp) (1/8tsp)

Tues, Thurs, Sun – CSM+B (1/8tsp)

Food (slight pinch) flakes, pellets, freeze dried shrimp, frozen cube

On Friday add Garlic Xtreme, Selcon (vitamins)

Substrate, mixture of both South American Cichlid Sand and Eco-Complete

Substrate has never been shuffled or “fluffed” up since tank setup (2013)

Filter – 2 trays bio filtration (MarinePure balls) 2 trays sponges, 2 polishing pads

2 Koralia Nano 240 powerheads

Finnex FugeRay Planted+ Aquarium LED Light, and Current USA LED+


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## krissy (Jun 3, 2014)

You need pressurized co2. A lot of issues stems from co2 alone, especially stunting.


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## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

If I understand correctly your GH is 14. This needs to come down, way down. I just went through 2 weeks of lowering Gh from 14.3 to 3. With no CO2 and with barely any light all of a sudden the crypts and the swords are making new leaves. Before that they were pretty much dead - 1/2" stunted remnants of plants.

But what I do is to make sure that the Ca and Mg in the water are at at least some reasonable ratio. Your 240 ppm hardness probably comes mainly from Ca or Mg. In my case it was an ungodly amount of Ca (171 ppm). I have now seen the same thing in two tanks - as soon as I lower the GH and the Ca plants take off. The tank pictures below did not look anywhere near as healthy two months ago. Swords were stunted with encrusting algae on the leaves, crypts barely made any leaves and always with holes, Camomba barely survived, even moss was not growing too fast. GH was 8, Ca was 75 - way too much Calcium. WIth GH of 4 and Ca about 25-35 the tank came to life. Algae disappeared, I don't even wipe the glass any more (no need). Shrimp came out of nowhere, the works. So I do believe that getting the basics right - Ca and Mg is a good starting point. The only changes I made were to adjust the Ca:Mg, GH and to raise the P from 0.1 to about 0.3.

When the picture opens with all the dumb tinypic.com webpage trash around it click on it to see a larger version:
http://oi59.tinypic.com/nqxt9k.jpg
http://oi60.tinypic.com/mhrk87.jpg
http://oi62.tinypic.com/35ku49y.jpg
http://oi58.tinypic.com/2zjgpj5.jpg
http://oi57.tinypic.com/332tg7r.jpg
http://oi62.tinypic.com/fk75n9.jpg

Good GH and Ca test kit:
http://www.hach.com/hardness-total-calcium-test-kit-model-ha-4p/product?id=7640219511









I have two more tanks in which the Calcium is way high. In the next few weeks I have the feeling that I will be bringing them back to life with simple GH and Ca:Mg adjustments. Will take pictures before and after.


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