Tropica Swords doing poorly - Science of Aquatic Fertilizing

thefishmanlives · 05-13-2008, 06:36 PM

I have had a couple tropica swords in my hi light/press co2 tank. They arent doing so well however, the leaves are looking dark n curled, almost dried up and a couple have pinholes in them. I have been playing around with my ferts lately and now im a little lost. I thought maybe I was light on N or P at first so, I upped all my doses and things seem to have gotten worse. I dont add any extra K as I figured I was getting enough from the kno3. I even upped my traces and extra Iron but Im starting to think it hjasnt helped. I even dropped in some MG n CA once a week now but still nothing better. Starting to think either I need to dose EXtra K, or maybe my water is hard. Any ideas? I have some GSA and the leaves are darkish so I thought maybe a phosphate Deficency but Ive been dosing .1pmm + 2-3 x a wk. figured thats enough. I have a 55x2 PC (poor reflectors tho) + 20x2 NO. Any thoughts? My blyxa j. and narrow java fern are doing great however, but my Stargrass (h.z.) is doing poor as well and even kicked out a couple clear leaves at one point. Starting to think maybe theres something toxic in my water (kearny, NJ which is a hi pollution industrial area), but wouldnt that affect all plants. Help me experts.

TortoiseBoy · 05-14-2008, 08:10 AM

Hi Fishman,
Are you doing any testing of your water? It would be really handy to know how much NO3 and PO4 are in your water column. Also, what are your kh and gh? What is your CO2 level? If you have been experimenting too long with too many different things, it maybe that you need to do some water changes and get back to a ground state with known values for your ferts. I have not had my star grass throw clear leaves from the beginning, but I have had trouble with older leaves getting dark. Addition of Ca solved that problem (same with E. tiandra). People will usually tell you that GSA is indicative of relatively low PO4. I have had some agreement with this, but I am still searching for the magic bullet.

TB

Bert H · 05-14-2008, 08:17 AM

Do you see any new growth at all? Swords are commonly grown and sold emersed and they will slowly lose these leaves as they adapt to the underwater environment.

One other thing, swords are considered heavy root feeders. You might try putting in a root tab and see if it helps any.

thefishmanlives · 05-14-2008, 08:43 PM

Im going to try the root tabs. I got them in the classifieds from a guy growing them submersed (I assumed). I was dosing via ei and starting adding more and more because I thought there was a nutrient difficiency. I read the thread about excess N causing prolems and I think this is my problem. My co2 levels are good btw. I did a 50% water change today and didnt add anything. Im going to keep my N and P down for a while then cut my N dose while keeping my micros and iron sufficient. I add a some Ca and Mg after ea water change althoguh I didnt add anything today. Def going to put a couple root tabs under. thanks guys.

jazzlvr123 · 05-14-2008, 09:50 PM

yup root tabs will help but i don't think reducing your nitrates will do anything to help most plants are heavy nitrate feeders high TE is also a plus (high iron)

cfreeman · 05-15-2008, 04:54 AM

I like Tortoise Boy's recommendations about testing. It is hard to diagnose a problem without having a clear picture of the fertilizer content in the water. As the poster had a theory that overfeeding may be the cause, feeding more won't help solve this problem. For certain the cause is less likely to be revealed without some testing to see what is actually happening in the tank. I like the idea of testing to see what is happening in the water, followed by a water change to reset the values and then feeding as appropriate, based on the test results.

thefishmanlives · 05-15-2008, 07:21 PM

I have an N test kit but ive found test kits to be very unreliable. I m not a newbie. Ive been dosing more then enough, even double all my doses at one point. I dose EI, and have been for a few years now. I def had more hten enough of everything and my tank isnt even heavily planted yet. This is why im thinking i had a monster N buildup. And itd def not overfeeding because i have no fish in the tank, so i dont add food. Remember this is a very high light, hi tech tank. over 5wpg and co2 is crankd up very high. and no its not too much light, as you can succesfully run very hi light tanks, but everything needs to be in check. for hte hell of it tho ill test my N. I reckon its off the meter. Although my 50% water change probly helped out. I wish i hada way to get the content of my tap water without too much of a hassle.

thefishmanlives · 05-15-2008, 07:26 PM

when i say i was dosing high N I was dosing 1/4 tsp 3x a week and even upped it to 1.5x that. I also have alot of GSA but its not low P as Ive been dosing a lot of P as well.

TortoiseBoy · 05-16-2008, 05:04 AM

Have you tried to get a report from the tap water folks (city or whoever manages yours?) or are you on a well?

V.PooH · 05-16-2008, 07:04 AM

For all Ehinodorus rich substrat is important, because they get most nutrient by roots. I use to try different kind of root tablets, but work for me best PondCare Aquatic Plant Food Tablets ( http://www.petmountain.com/product/p...d-tablets.html ), and also from my experience too much light is not good too. Did you really need 5W/g? If you have HC, I agree, probably you need it, but for ehos, crypt 2-3w/g is enough. Than more light you have, than harder to maintain this tank. If I'll recommend ( but who I'm to do it?) it's will be rich substrat+ moderate light+NO LIQUID Ferts.