Echinodoris Osiris

• To: Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
• Subject: Echinodoris Osiris
• From: franc at golden_golden.net
• Date: Tue, 12 Mar 1996 07:06:38 +0000
• Comments: Authenticated sender is <franc at pop_golden.net>

Hi all,
although I don't have access to the internet (yet), I have been following your discussions since May 95 through downloads provided to me by Franc. A heartfelt 'thanks' to all of you who made my first tank a spectacular experience.

Yet I do have a question to which I cannot find an answer in all the megabytes of downloads or in my books:
My Echinodorus osiris, bought as "ruffles", is a far cry from the one on the cover of Ines Scheuermann's Aquarium Plants Manual. It has six or seven leaves (2.5"x7"), reddish when immature, on 6-8" long stalks. When an additional leaf forms, the oldest l
eaf "shuts down", dying off from the tip as fast as the new leaf grows. This suggests to me a deficiency of some movable nutrient. But which?

Tank information:
100cmx50x50, effective water colum 16", 210 l (60 gal) water volume
2" silica gravel w/laterite, 2" w/out, Dennerle style UG heating 50W
30l water change every two weeks (1/3 tap, 2/3 destilled)
daily Dupla24 drops to keep iron at <.2 ppm 
potassium sulfate added when older leaves become spotty (2 ml of 1 molar KSO4/gal)
potassium nitrate added to keep NO3 at 5 ppm (fish don't poop enough)
MgS04 added w/water change, Phosphate tests minimal
pH 6.9, KH 5-6 degrees, C02 injection, temperature 75-80 dF
2 - 160 W Wonder(spot)lights (colour adjusted mercury vapour), 10 hours /day
overflow corner filter (sponge) plus sleeve on powerhead.
Fish get fed a tablespoon of flakes or less once per day, or a few pieces of brine shrimp. 

Almost everything else grows just fine: 
best: H.polysperma "green", Limnophila aquatica, Aponogeton elongatus, Ceratophyllum demersum, E. tenellus v.tenellus, E. pontederiofolia, Cryptocoryne wendtii, C.petchii, Riccia,
ok: H.polysperma "red", H. difformis, Bacopa monieri, B. carolinia, Sagittaria sp., Rotala rotundifolia, Anubias barteri nana, Lilaeopsis n.-z., Microsorum pteropus, Cryptocoryne ciliata, 
poor: E. osiris (directly under the light), Vallisneria sp. Rotala macandra (potted, directly under the light),

Algae: Since adding SAEs, brush algae is almost gone. All I get is a bit of spot algae on the glas, some "staghorn" on the java moss.

BTW, Tetra plant tabs, added near the roots of the Osiris, don't do much. Neither do threats with the compost heap.

I hope someone can help me with this. Thanks again.

Mike Eckardt
Waterloo, in the Canadian Winter Wonderland:
"Every winter I wonder what I'm doing here."

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