Cured E. horemanii of clear spots

To: aquatic-plants at actwin_com
Subject: Cured E. horemanii of clear spots
From: Keith Rogers <krogers at canopus_sim.es.com>
Date: Wed, 11 Oct 1995 13:10:57 -0600
A few months back I mailed a requqest for help on curing a problem
with my E. horemanii plants.  The pups came off some big rhizomes
George Booth sent me in July '94 and the plants are of the red
variety. Initially the plants grew well, but after half a year or so
they started looking "chlorotic" with dark red veins and transleuscent
patches in between.  General malaise and slow decline ensued.  Here's
a followup mailing so others may learn from my mistake.

I'll skip the saga and get right to the punch line.  I use the Dupla
tablets and drops (but not the 'gan) according to their rate schedule.
I elevated the drop dosage for a while but it didn't help (only gave
me thread algae).  For reasons that are no longer clear to me, I never
elevated the tablet dose as a test.  I thought I had the "50 liter"
tablets and was dosing accordingly.  Turns out, I had the 20 liter
tablets.  Thus, I was adding at 40% of recommended dose for over a
year (the life time of this new tank and pups.)

The problem was discovered when I gave a pup to Brad Lauchnor, a local
plant guy who (mostly) lurks this list.  After defeating some BG algae
from hell in his tank, the horemanii took off: great growth, no leaf
spots.  He was the one who, when I showed him my tablets, recognized
them as the 20l kind.  Subsequently, I and another list lurker (hi
Ross) have duplicated the horemanii recovery upon addition of proper
dose levels of the Dupla tablets.  Also, I gave about half a dozen
pups back to the Booths last March and the plants perked right up when
put in their properly dosed tanks.

So, I think the final analysis was potassium defficiency.  That's what
the tablets contain most of, according to the atomic analysis posted
in the Krib, and it can yield a chlorosis like appearance in plants.
Interestingly, the only other plants which showed any affect from the
inadequate potassium were some C. wendtii, which went more green
instead of brown/olive.  The growth was also somewhat less robust (in
sofar as crypt growth can ever be labeled that).  All other plants
were unaffected.

Make sure you're supplying enough usable K in your tanks.

Keith Rogers
krogers at es_com