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Few of plant addicts, including myself, started a conversation couple years ago about burned tops, curled leaves and stunned growth vs. deficiency. The question was - Which deficiency ?. Back in the days when I wasn't situated on such a roller coaster with 4wpg and daily fertilization and my E. stellata was growing like crazy with beautiful/healthy/purple leaves. When I crossed over to the "dark side" and many things started to slip away very quickly, I wasn't able to grow E. stellata on 3 different occasions, Neasea pedicillata on 2 occasions and Ammania gracilis on 4 occasions.
We were going back and forth with different nutrients deficiencies but Potassium was always crossing our minds. Then some people did further reading and Calcium came up in more conversations. It was no longer excess of K but rather combination of both.
I won't get into details of why and how. This was covered a lot on APD for those who want to start from scratch.
Tank:
55G w/ 220 AHsupply
CO2 - 30ppm
NO3 - 10 or more ppm
PO4 - 1-2 ppm
TMG - 60ml weekly
Fe - 25ml weekly
no Potassium
Below picture example shows Neasea pedicillata at the beginning 100% infected stages, through recovery.
I bought this plant in 100% healthy condition. All 4 stems were completely infected within 2 weeks. Typical scenario with curled/burned leaves and stunned growth.
I decided to invest in Turbo Calcium by Kent to provide extra source of Calcium. I started dosing 1/2 tsp in 55G weekly after water changes. After 1 week I was able to see the difference.
3 week after the same fertilization plant growth improved and trimming was in order.
This is how healty tips of Eusteralis stellata look like now. No more burned tops.
Next steps:
- I will try to keep this for couple more week and start adding Potassium (K2SO4) and see how far I could go without seeing adverse reaction.
We were going back and forth with different nutrients deficiencies but Potassium was always crossing our minds. Then some people did further reading and Calcium came up in more conversations. It was no longer excess of K but rather combination of both.
I won't get into details of why and how. This was covered a lot on APD for those who want to start from scratch.
Tank:
55G w/ 220 AHsupply
CO2 - 30ppm
NO3 - 10 or more ppm
PO4 - 1-2 ppm
TMG - 60ml weekly
Fe - 25ml weekly
no Potassium
Below picture example shows Neasea pedicillata at the beginning 100% infected stages, through recovery.
I bought this plant in 100% healthy condition. All 4 stems were completely infected within 2 weeks. Typical scenario with curled/burned leaves and stunned growth.

I decided to invest in Turbo Calcium by Kent to provide extra source of Calcium. I started dosing 1/2 tsp in 55G weekly after water changes. After 1 week I was able to see the difference.

3 week after the same fertilization plant growth improved and trimming was in order.

This is how healty tips of Eusteralis stellata look like now. No more burned tops.

Next steps:
- I will try to keep this for couple more week and start adding Potassium (K2SO4) and see how far I could go without seeing adverse reaction.