Suspect Nutrient deficiency

**sathyab** · 2nd Oct 2009, 19:02

Hi bros,

Off late the young leaves of my HM have started going brown. Need some help in identifying the deficiency here.

Cheers
Sathya

**StanChung** · 6th Oct 2009, 04:40

Looks like overall nutrient deficiency.
Please provide more information.

My deduction-
You crypts are doing badly. Curling inwards. The HM's are absorbing most of the nutrients in the water and there's little or nothing in the substrate for it. The water is also depleted hence the HM is also starting to suffer.

Boost the usual NPK & Traces and CO2. Add some substrate tabs near the crypts as well.

**minute_me** · 5th Nov 2009, 18:14

Anyone knows what nutirent deficiency are my plants suffering from? There are brown patches and some dark green patch on the leaves. I have been dosing flourish and also epsom salt for magnesium and sulhate. The plants are not dying or melting.

**StanChung** · 5th Nov 2009, 20:11

They don't look like they're flourishing[excuse the pun].
Overall very dusty with lots of detritus on them.
I think apart from maintenance, filter flow, you have to let us know more about your tank. CO2, lighting, temperature etc.
I fear your problem isn't just a matter of adding a few drops of this and that.

**minute_me** · 6th Nov 2009, 02:49

Actually, there are new growth (or new leaves) coming out of the nana rhizome. the new leaves look green but when they become bigger, they start to look like those in the picture. On some other plants, some of the leaves look like those in the picture while other leaves from the same root look nice and green. One of my sword looking plant grew very well and does not have leaves that look like those in the picture. I guess the color only show up in those slow growing plants like nana and java fern. Mayb removing the fast growing plant might help?

Before I use an Atman cf800 canister, there were lots of detritus. The filter has cleared up the dirt in the 2ft tank since.

actually the brown color u see is not detritus because it can't be scrubed off.

I don't use co2 . Lighting is 2 T5 lighting ( i think 2x12W). Average temp is 28 using fan to cool it down.

As for water chemistry, I never tested them.

**StanChung** · 6th Nov 2009, 06:45

Normally a healthy plant can keep itself shiny by keeping the 'dirt' off.
I can only guess that your methods like not supplying CO2 or a carbon source[SF Excel] has something to do with it.

**minute_me** · 10th Nov 2009, 00:54

Originally Posted by StanChung

They don't look like they're flourishing[excuse the pun].
Overall very dusty with lots of detritus on them.
I think apart from maintenance, filter flow, you have to let us know more about your tank. CO2, lighting, temperature etc.
I fear your problem isn't just a matter of adding a few drops of this and that.

HI,

You are right. The brown stuff are actually built up of detritus. I managed to scrubed them off the leaves of anubias.

I guess it started building up when the flow rate of the filter reduced. There is no lack of nutrients as some other plants are growning well.

**StanChung** · 10th Nov 2009, 04:27

Er... I wouldn't call what I see growing well. It's all over the place and not worshipping the 'sun'.
The colours can be better on the fern.

**minute_me** · 10th Nov 2009, 13:01

Originally Posted by StanChung

Er... I wouldn't call what I see growing well. It's all over the place and not worshipping the 'sun'.
The colours can be better on the fern.

There are new leaves coming out from the anubias so if it's not growing well, there will be no new growth at all.

As for the ferns, there are plantlets coming out from the end of the leaves. There is another sword like plant (not shown) growing 1cm a day (could be lack light that is why it's trying to reach for the light?).

The plants are not growing as well as I want them to. I have tried DIY co2 but seems like the mixture is not correct. So at the moment, I am quite happy as long as the plants are not dying or in poor condition.