Plant Problems

[eprouve]

Need some help from people who are experts in plant problems...

1. Eichhornia diversifloia
They seem to be beautiful where they just sprouted and grown, but at the midsection and below, they have turned black, but upon close inspection, its more dark violet
http://jjj.image.pbase.com/u3/kingti...kStarGrass.jpg
http://jjj.image.pbase.com/u3/kingti...StarGrass2.jpg

2. Riccia / Hair Grass
There's a furry algae growing among them... anyone can ID this??
http://jjj.image.pbase.com/u3/kingti...FurryAlgae.jpg

3. Vals
Another wierd unidentified algae...
http://jjj.image.pbase.com/u3/kingti...nidedalgae.jpg


The funny thing is that these problems are plant specific and not happening in the rest of the tank. Any advise on how to eradicate them?

[SuperRaY]

the algae in the third picture is staghorn algae (do a search on the forum, note that rosy barb may eat the algae but their swimming bahavior will scare most of the shrimps to hide) i myself got problems with this algae. what i did was did a 70% water change and change 20% every 5 days. Do remove all those algae infected leaf and do a water change.

[pipsqueak]

I'm bored, so i linked it for everyone...

----------------
On 2/25/2003 9:18:39 PM

Need some help from people who are experts in plant problems...

1. Eichhornia diversifloia
They seem to be beautiful where they just sprouted and grown, but at the midsection and below, they have turned black, but upon close inspection, its more dark violet
Black Star Grass 1
Black Star Grass 2

2. Riccia / Hair Grass
There's a furry algae growing among them... anyone can ID this??
Furry Algae

3. Vals
Another wierd unidentified algae...
Vals


The funny thing is that these problems are plant specific and not happening in the rest of the tank. Any advise on how to eradicate them?
----------------

[Plantbrain]

I cannot link to these but I can guess easy enough.

E diversilfolia is one of those plants that really likes PO4 and good NO3 levels.

Same for E azurea.

They turn black etc if they are not happy.

Riccia often gets a green alga, Rhizoclonium, infesting it.

Amano shrimps are fairly effective at removing it.
You can also take the Riccia out and place it in abucket in the dark for 2 days or so.
Change the water daily.

That will beat up the algae pretty good.

Main thing is to correct for the conditions that allowed the algae to grow. So have enough NO3, PO4, K, Traces and CO2.

Regards,
Tom Barr


Regards,
Tom Barr

[loupgarou]

if the e.diversifolia is black/red, that black part = dead.

[eprouve]

Guys,

I'm so sorry about the pictures, but pbase seem to change the URL every other day... I updated it again...

Anyway, I've been doing about 20% water change every other day but they are rather persistent. I've trimmed off the val tops and sheared the e.Diversfolia.

However, the black/purplish is only on the underside and stem, the top of the leaves are still green, just darkened.


p/s: On another note, any one got a good host for pictures?? Geocities cannot be linked to... pbase simply changes so often. Sheesh...

[FC]

"but at the midsection and below, they have turned black, but upon close inspection, its more dark violet"

"violet" is a sure sign of PO4 deficiency or lacking the ability to consume it.

[eprouve]

PO as in Potassium? I dose Potassium Sulphate every week along with Magnesium and Iron.

[sherchoo]

PO4 = Phosphate
K = Pottasium

[eprouve]

Oops

[eprouve]

Does anyone dose Phosphate? In what form and where to get?

OR

How do I improve the plant's intake of Phosphate?

p/s: Isn't phosphate, generally a bad thing in tanks??

[bclee]

We do dose phosphate to maintain the right level of PO4. Plants need PO4 to growth. It is not a bad thing at all. In fact, it is a critical macro nutrients for plants.

You can dose phosphate in the form of KH2PO4. You can get this from Dr. Mallick's.

You can use Seachem Phosphate.

Improve plant intake of phosphate? ... just need to maintain all the neccessary nutrients: N, K, Ca,... the plants will just grow and consume whatever PO4 is required.

BC

[eprouve]

Ahh... ok. I must have confused it with Marine Tanks where Phosphae is generally a stimulant to green hair algae growth.