Eriocaulon Sp. Melting :: Need help

What are you doing for fertilizer?

I am following EI method. KNO3, K2SO4 and Phosphoric Acid along with Trace Mix.

What is your KH and GH? If your GH is over 5 it will be next to impossible to keep any erio or tonnina sp.

Also, it looks like you have an inert substrate. ADA AS, Eco Complete, even flourite would be beter then regular sand. If that is all you have make sure you are using substrate additives.

From the pics though it looks like all will be in vain but will deff help with your next batch if you decide to try again.

What size tank is this in, what Erio sp is that and what's your KH?

Almost always the Co2 / KH level is where everyone fails with these sp. therefore my suggestion will be to get to 4KH or lower, increase Co2 to 5bps and back off the lighting. If you're already at a low KH then increase Co2 and reduce lighting. Don't worry too much about the GH, as long as it's below 12GH you'll be fine and as far as the substrate is concerned if it doesn't raise you KH it will not hurt the Erio. While I do agree with the above recommendation of bsmith regarding the substrate, trying to switch at this point is useless.

Work on the Co2, KH & lighting and hope for a bounce back.

I will echo the other's opinions here on water hardness. These guys must have soft waters or else they won't make it.

Then the culprit is KH. I have KH over 11. Not sure about the GH though. I am running CO2 at 3BPs and Photo Period is only 6Hrs as of now.

Is there any possibility so I can take down the KH without using RO water?

BTW ... Tonina Belem is settled well in the same tank and started growing slowly.

KH over 11 :jaw: Then you know what must be done for you have any success with this sp.

But how to take the KH down?

Reverse osmosis filtration, addition of distilled water, or destruction of buffering with a strong acid will all reduce KH.

Basically there is no easy way to lower KH. It's very easy to raise KH. You have an almost zero percent chance of keeping Erio's or Tonina's alive in water with a KH of 11. Tonina sp. 'Belem' is probably the easiest of the Toninas to keep happy.

What's your substrate? crushed coral?