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Re:tanks gone down the drain
From what Jon Hammond described, the only nutrient deficiencies to consider
are potassium or magnesium. If it is neither of these, then it is
something toxic in the water, such as a heavy metal, zinc, copper, etc. or
some substance that leached out from plastic. I recently had some kind of
toxicity that caused all the older leaves in E. tenellus and E.
quadricostatus to die back. It also initially killed snails, but the water
got better for them, but not for the plants. The plants only recovered
when I did a 100% water change. One possibility for the toxicity I just
experienced is zinc from a rice strainer that I use to clean and rinse out
my gravel. I noticed that some of the zinc coating on the wires of the
strainer rubs off on larger stones that I use to weigh down plants. I
actually saw some silvery metalic streaking on these pebbles, which I had
rattled around in the strainer. I'll bet it also rubs off on the smaller
gravel pieces, too. That is one suspicion. the other is that rain water
that I collect in a plastic garbage container may become contaminated with
something from the plastic if it stands around for a few days. From now
on, I will only collect water right after a rain, and I will rinse and
drain my gravel without using a rice strainer, and I will see if any
similar problems show up.
Paul Krombholz, in central Mississippi,where we got about 1.5 inches of
rain yesterday and last night.