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Rotalla Wallachii deficiency
We have had great success with our Rotala Wallachii up until the past
couple of weeks. They have started losing thier brilliant pink color,
growth has slowed and the ends (tops) of many of them started looking
like someone had held a match up to them and they had melted a little
and shriveled up. I've also noticed on just one H. polysperma plant,
a pair of leaves on the top of the plant have shriveled slightly and
have blackened tips.
Also some of the polysperma leaves have started to curve under slightly
instead of straight out or slightly upward.
Growth of all plants in this tank has been very good up until this point
- plants bubbling daily and needing weekly trimming of stem plants -
except the anubias nana's, whose leaves have always looked a little
yellow in places, although they flower constantly. Rotala Macranda has
been gorgeous all along, but I've noticed that its growth has actually
_increased_ during the past couple of weeks.
Tank specs:
90 gal tank - 75 gals. water
240 watts light - 12 hours daily
Sand substrate
CO2 - by pressurized tank
Temp 82F
PH 6.8
GH 3
KH 3.5
Iron .08 - .1
Phosphate 0
Nitrate 0
Fish 4 SAE's, 3 Guppies, 1 Farlowella, 2 Otto's, 10 Coryadorus Habrosus
fed daily sparingly
Sera tablets occasionally added near some plants roots
Daily addition of PMDD @ about 1ml depending on iron level in tank
Changes made in the last 3 weeks:
Addition of 3\4 tsp CACO3 with weekly water changes to provide more
calcium to our soft water (pre-dissolved with CO2 and brought to correct
PH before addition).
Started CACO3 addition because of a tidbit I read in the archives about
someone having a plant with leaves bent up like an accordion (I believe
they used lime to correct it).
I have a plant that I bought from a pet shop that has had this problem
on all older leaves since I introduced it to the tank. I have no idea
what this plant is - it has a strong central stock and long slender
leaves that are orange to vivid pink. Its growth has increased since the
CACO3 addition but it is still getting the accordion looking leaves,
although less pronounced.
Swithced from Microplex trace element mix (because of high copper
content) to CSM trace element mix with the follwing formula:
1 TBS CSM + B (10.5 TSP CSM to 1 TSP boric acid)
1 TBS epsom salts
1 TSP KNO3
2 TSP K2SO4
300 ml distilled water
Increase in KNO3 & K2SO4 dosage daily (in addition to the above PMDD
mix) gradually worked up to 2 ml per day of
1 TSP KN03
2 TSP K2SO4
300 ml distilled water
(still haven't got a reading for nitrate with either of my Hach or Tetra
test kits)
No medications of any kind have been used in this tank.
Can anyone spot something I'm doing differently that may have triggered
this problem, or maybe it's been brewing for awhile?
Any comments or insights would be appreciated.
--
Rebecca and Daniel Marsh
In currently rainy Gold Bar, Washington where the tap water
changes almost as fast as the weather :-)