Nutrients

I think my Hydrocotyle appears to be showing a nutrient deficiency. Can
anyone give a guess? http://www.ncasali.demon.co.uk/HYDROCOTYLE.JPG

I've been dosing potassium daily for a few weeks. I haven't noticed any
improvement in plant growth. Last night, I thought I'd dose a week's
worth of K and this evening the phosphate level plummeted to 0.18 mg/L
from a constant 0.50 mg/L.

Last night, I also shifted the time at which the lights come on to
coincide with sunrise. They usually come on 2 hours after sunrise and I
bet the limited light diffusing into the aquarium for that 2 hour period
aids algae growth. Strange thing is, the Cabomba never fully opened
today, even though it is pearling. I wonder why? Maybe it's circadian
cycle has been disrupted or maybe the added K has had an effect?

I'm thinking of ditching my Echinodorus x barthii and allowing my
watersprite to take over the area. The Echinodorus shades a huge amount
of the aquarium and it is outgrowing the 24" depth. The leaves are
bending over double and are as close as 2" to the fluorescent bulbs. I
think the black beard algae is loving it there. This is where most of it
originated from.


Nikki

You didn't mention iron, and that looks like an iron deficiency to me.


"Nikki Casali" wrote in message
...
I think my Hydrocotyle appears to be showing a nutrient deficiency. Can
anyone give a guess? http://www.ncasali.demon.co.uk/HYDROCOTYLE.JPG

I've been dosing potassium daily for a few weeks. I haven't noticed any
improvement in plant growth. Last night, I thought I'd dose a week's
worth of K and this evening the phosphate level plummeted to 0.18 mg/L
from a constant 0.50 mg/L.

Last night, I also shifted the time at which the lights come on to
coincide with sunrise. They usually come on 2 hours after sunrise and I
bet the limited light diffusing into the aquarium for that 2 hour period
aids algae growth. Strange thing is, the Cabomba never fully opened
today, even though it is pearling. I wonder why? Maybe it's circadian
cycle has been disrupted or maybe the added K has had an effect?

I'm thinking of ditching my Echinodorus x barthii and allowing my
watersprite to take over the area. The Echinodorus shades a huge amount
of the aquarium and it is outgrowing the 24" depth. The leaves are
bending over double and are as close as 2" to the fluorescent bulbs. I
think the black beard algae is loving it there. This is where most of it
originated from.


Nikki

No, iron has not been consciously dosed.

Big water changes have stopped. I'll do maybe a 3% a week just to vacuum
the sand. Presumably, the plants were getting a little iron from the
mains tap water. The fish are only fed once a day now. With the aid of a
pH controller, the CO2 level is maintained at 25 ppm.

I haven't seen this type of contrasting of the veins and leaf since
plants were put in 4 months ago. Interestingly, the leaves of the
Hydrocotyle have never grown so flat and delicate before. Usually the
edges would curl down quite a lot and eventually gather green spot
algae. The older leaves still gather a little black hair algae around
the edges, like someone's gone around with eyeliner.

I've just added a weekly dose of Botanica Grow and Micro for the first
time. Let's see if the leaves green up a bit....and the BBA abates.

Nikki

Allyb wrote:
You didn't mention iron, and that looks like an iron deficiency to me.


"Nikki Casali" wrote in message
...

I think my Hydrocotyle appears to be showing a nutrient deficiency. Can
anyone give a guess? http://www.ncasali.demon.co.uk/HYDROCOTYLE.JPG

I've been dosing potassium daily for a few weeks. I haven't noticed any
improvement in plant growth. Last night, I thought I'd dose a week's
worth of K and this evening the phosphate level plummeted to 0.18 mg/L
from a constant 0.50 mg/L.

Last night, I also shifted the time at which the lights come on to
coincide with sunrise. They usually come on 2 hours after sunrise and I
bet the limited light diffusing into the aquarium for that 2 hour period
aids algae growth. Strange thing is, the Cabomba never fully opened
today, even though it is pearling. I wonder why? Maybe it's circadian
cycle has been disrupted or maybe the added K has had an effect?

I'm thinking of ditching my Echinodorus x barthii and allowing my
watersprite to take over the area. The Echinodorus shades a huge amount
of the aquarium and it is outgrowing the 24" depth. The leaves are
bending over double and are as close as 2" to the fluorescent bulbs. I
think the black beard algae is loving it there. This is where most of it
originated from.


Nikki

Hi,

some answers can be found he
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_nutrient.htm

Bye
Juergen


"Nikki Casali" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
No, iron has not been consciously dosed.

Big water changes have stopped. I'll do maybe a 3% a week just to vacuum
the sand. Presumably, the plants were getting a little iron from the mains
tap water. The fish are only fed once a day now. With the aid of a pH
controller, the CO2 level is maintained at 25 ppm.

I haven't seen this type of contrasting of the veins and leaf since plants
were put in 4 months ago. Interestingly, the leaves of the Hydrocotyle
have never grown so flat and delicate before. Usually the edges would curl
down quite a lot and eventually gather green spot algae. The older leaves
still gather a little black hair algae around the edges, like someone's
gone around with eyeliner.

I've just added a weekly dose of Botanica Grow and Micro for the first
time. Let's see if the leaves green up a bit....and the BBA abates.

Nikki

Allyb wrote:
You didn't mention iron, and that looks like an iron deficiency to me.


"Nikki Casali" wrote in message
...

I think my Hydrocotyle appears to be showing a nutrient deficiency. Can
anyone give a guess? http://www.ncasali.demon.co.uk/HYDROCOTYLE.JPG

I've been dosing potassium daily for a few weeks. I haven't noticed any
improvement in plant growth. Last night, I thought I'd dose a week's
worth of K and this evening the phosphate level plummeted to 0.18 mg/L
from a constant 0.50 mg/L.

Last night, I also shifted the time at which the lights come on to
coincide with sunrise. They usually come on 2 hours after sunrise and I
bet the limited light diffusing into the aquarium for that 2 hour period
aids algae growth. Strange thing is, the Cabomba never fully opened
today, even though it is pearling. I wonder why? Maybe it's circadian
cycle has been disrupted or maybe the added K has had an effect?

I'm thinking of ditching my Echinodorus x barthii and allowing my
watersprite to take over the area. The Echinodorus shades a huge amount
of the aquarium and it is outgrowing the 24" depth. The leaves are
bending over double and are as close as 2" to the fluorescent bulbs. I
think the black beard algae is loving it there. This is where most of it
originated from.


Nikki

Interesting. Apparently, my tank is missing calcium.

I dosed enough Fe to get the tank to 0.25 mg/L. PO4 suddenly fell from
0.30 mg/L to 0.07 mg/L within 16 hours. Wow! The leaves of the
Hydrocotyle still remain pale. I have very hard water. I presume Mg is
never deficient in hard water, but I hear that an oversupply can block
Fe. The Hydrocotyle is the only plant that looks like it's struggling.

Nikki

Allyb wrote:

You didn't mention iron, and that looks like an iron deficiency to me.


"Nikki Casali" wrote in message
...

I think my Hydrocotyle appears to be showing a nutrient deficiency. Can
anyone give a guess? http://www.ncasali.demon.co.uk/HYDROCOTYLE.JPG

I've been dosing potassium daily for a few weeks. I haven't noticed any
improvement in plant growth. Last night, I thought I'd dose a week's
worth of K and this evening the phosphate level plummeted to 0.18 mg/L
from a constant 0.50 mg/L.

Last night, I also shifted the time at which the lights come on to
coincide with sunrise. They usually come on 2 hours after sunrise and I
bet the limited light diffusing into the aquarium for that 2 hour period
aids algae growth. Strange thing is, the Cabomba never fully opened
today, even though it is pearling. I wonder why? Maybe it's circadian
cycle has been disrupted or maybe the added K has had an effect?

I'm thinking of ditching my Echinodorus x barthii and allowing my
watersprite to take over the area. The Echinodorus shades a huge amount
of the aquarium and it is outgrowing the 24" depth. The leaves are
bending over double and are as close as 2" to the fluorescent bulbs. I
think the black beard algae is loving it there. This is where most of it
originated from.


Nikki